Ian Wishart - Publishing Operations

Publishing Operations

In 1995, Wishart established his own publishing company, Howling At The Moon, reportedly after other publishing companies had been threatened into backing out of their plans to publish his first book, The Paradise Conspiracy.

Although it began as a self-publishing venture, ultimately publishing 15 of Wishart's books, more than half of all the books released under the Howling At The Moon imprint have been by other authors. They include:

• Thirty Pieces of Silver by Tony Molloy QC
• Dogfight: The Kiwi Airlines Story by Ewan Wilson
• Presumed Guilty by Miriyana Alexander
• Confessions From The Front Line by Murray J Forbes
• Ruthless by Susan Rogers-Allan
• Last Words by Christopher Lewis

Five of Wishart's books—The Paradise Conspiracy, Lawyers, Guns & Money, The Paradise Conspiracy II, Absolute Power and Air Con—have achieved number one bestseller status on the NZ Booksellers national "Bestsellers" list, while several more-Daylight Robbery, The Vintage Winebox Guide, Ben & Olivia, Eve's Bite and Arthur Allan Thomas-reached No.2 on the list. Air Con in 2009 became Amazon.com's No.1 bestselling climate change book in the US and UK simultaneously.

The Divinity Code, published in 2007, was a pro-creationist response to the atheist arguments of Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens.

In November 2011, Wishart published the book The Hunt, co-authored with George London, chronicling the search for two children kidnapped off a London street in 1981 and never seen again. The day the book was published, one of the children made contact with their mother for the first time in 30 years. The book became major international news, appearing in The Evening Standard, The Daily Mail, The Sunday Times, Israel's Channel 10, New Zealand's TV3, the BBC and news outlets around the world.

A 2012 book, The Great Divide: New Zealand & Its Treaty, was commended by the head of the Ngapuhi iwi, David Rankin, who said the book provided "clear evidence" that some of New Zealand's earliest residents might have arrived before the Polynesians. Rankin called for an investigation into the status of Maori as the country's indigenous people. He accused academics of conspiring to rewrite New Zealand history. But the book was criticised by historians Vincent O'Malley and Paul Moon. O'Malley said Wishart's book was not considered to be scholarly or credible, while Moon said it was one of several books promoting the "soft-core" denial of the role of Maori in New Zealand and written by "self-published authors with an agenda to discredit tangata whenua status". Moon said The Great Divide disregarded recorded and oral history and the heavily research-based background to Waitangi Tribunal claims. He said implications that academics had somehow misrepresented New Zealand's history were preposterous.

Howling At The Moon has published mostly general non-fiction/current affairs titles, with only one venture into fiction, 1997's The Source: Earth Voyage by British author Martin Rackham. The book jacket specifies it is the first of a trilogy, but Howling At The Moon has published no further titles in the series.

In 1999 the publishing company established a subsidiary company to publish the monthly Investigate magazine.