Colin Robinson, former Publisher, Verso Press and The New Press, and Scribner senior editor; John Oakes, former Grove Press Editor and founder of 4 Walls, 8 Windows
ORBooks
The Model
Sell books directly to the customer, or through independent bookstores, in either print-on-demand format or as e-books. No returns, so selling and buying on a “measured basis” is essential. Promote the books heavily before and after publication, with a marketing budget of $25,000 to $100,000 per title. If a book is successful post-publication, sell the paperback rights to a traditional publisher.
The Books
Both fiction and nonfiction, with a “distinctive progressive edge, reflecting the new era of the Obama presidency and the economic and environmental challenges it faces.” Up to two books published per month, beginning in September.
How It Happened
“It wasn’t entirely a surprise to me that if they were making layoffs at Simon & Schuster I was going to be one of the first,” says Robinson, who wrote about the experience in the London Review of Books in February. “I thought, ‘If I do get laid off, I’m going to try to start something on my own.’ I’m very excited. I wonder why I didn’t do this before.” To fund their venture, Oakes and Robinson put in money of their own as well as finding investors.
“[Book publishing] is in a state of turmoil, and it’s not due to the economy,” Oakes says. “It’s a fundamental sickness in book publishing, and it’s not because people aren’t reading, and it’s not because there aren’t fantastic writers with incredible ideas out there. It’s because the actual physical system doesn’t work. For years now, the book publishing industry has been overproducing titles. We’ve been paying a ton of money for a few books. We’ve been swamping reviewers and, for that matter, readers and bookstores with books. It’s not because publishers are stupid, but because we’re frantic. What’s amazing to me is that big companies aren’t redoing the whole goddamn thing. But they’re just too deeply tied up with the system the way it is. The people who are making money are the exception rather than the rule. It’s a fundamentally unhealthy business . . . We are absolutely willing to work with anyone—it’s very difficult to ignore Amazon, Ingram, and Baker & Taylor—but we will not lease a warehouse. You can’t return them books.”
Still, the company will rise or fall on the quality of its titles. “You can be as creative as you possibly can be about the technical side of the business,” says Robinson, “but in the end, publishing can only work if the books are books that people want to read. I don’t think you can get round having a good list by publishing it in a clever way.”
