Publisher bio
Jason Swiney
Founder and Publishing Director
Fontaine Publishing Group
More than 35 years in publishing and book production.
Jason is an Australian publisher and book-production specialist based in East Fremantle, Western Australia. He founded Fontaine Publishing Group in 2005 and remains directly involved in the editorial, design, production and commercial decisions that shape the books produced through the group.
Publishing from both sides of the desk.
Jason’s experience spans traditional trade publishing, independent publishing, custom and institutional publishing, specialist book production and print manufacturing. Through Fontaine Press, he has worked as a traditional publisher — assessing and acquiring titles, developing manuscripts, investing in publication, managing production and taking books to market.
Alongside Fontaine Press, Vivid Publishing developed as a professional pathway for independent authors, organisations and businesses. Together, these different models have given Jason an unusually broad view of what happens before, during and after a book is made.
Book production as a specialist discipline.
A large part of Jason’s work has involved helping clients navigate the hundreds of practical choices that can sit behind a finished book: format, extent, typography, image preparation, paper, binding, colour reproduction, specialty finishes, print quantities, manufacturing, freight and distribution.
His particular focus is on projects where the physical object matters — coffee-table books, photographic works, institutional histories, commemorative books, collector editions and other publications where materials and construction form part of the reading experience.
Fontaine also works across conventional publishing requirements, including editing and design, print-on-demand, eBook publishing, distribution and specialist print production in Australia and internationally.
Selected publishing and production work.
Projects overseen through Fontaine and its publishing imprints have ranged from straightforward paperbacks to complex boxed editions and large-format photographic books. Selected examples include The (Almost) Complete Works of E. W. Cole, The Nature of the Jarrah Forest, Making Marks: Australia and Afghanistan, MLC’s 125-year commemorative publication, The Cars of Mighty Car Mods and the limited-edition Horikashi.
Across the group, Fontaine has worked on more than 1,500 publishing projects and produced tens of millions of printed pages. The aim is not simply to manufacture books, but to determine the most appropriate, elegant and viable way to turn content into a finished physical object.
Approach.
Jason’s approach is deliberately practical and collaborative. Clients are usually experts in their own subject matter; Fontaine’s role is to provide equivalent expertise in publishing and book production. That means simplifying decisions, identifying where quality matters, avoiding unnecessary complexity and matching the production method to the actual purpose of the book.
He remains personally involved in assessing new Fontaine projects and in the decisions that materially affect the finished publication — helping shape books that are not only well made, but well judged.