Publisher's Pride, Installment 2: OR Books's John Oakes

PUBLISHER'S PRIDE collects insights and perspectives for the book trade. 

The time for new print publishing models is upon us. Here at Atelier26, we aim to do things in somewhat unconventional ways, and one other small press whose nonconformity we greatly admire is OR Books, brainchild of publishing veterans John Oakes and Colin Robinson. Here's Mr. Oakes, eloquent opponent of the unsustainable "guesswork" endemic to mainstream publishing:

"All [publishing] companies, large and small, shared the horrific experience of the sales conference, of justifying in a few minutes why the little world represented by a particular book was to enter the publishing universe. The motivation of the sales force was not the issue: whether glassy-eyed, stunned into somnolence by the hundreds of titles they’d have to represent that season, or energetic, well-intentioned, well-read, and open-minded representatives — a few days or weeks later, all sales reps were obligated to present the title in question in a flash, if at all, to similarly overwhelmed store buyers.

In this pitiful exercise, guesswork piles on guesswork piles on guesswork. Finally, assuming the editors convince the sales reps who convince the store buyers to stock the book in question, the consumer has the final word, and the returns will soon stream in. The result? All lose. The author: it will be that much harder for her to place her next book. The store: its valuable shelf space is taken up by product that doesn’t move. The publisher: it reimburses the store for the cost of those books, and must nonetheless pay the printer. The printer loses because it’s operating in an environment populated by increasingly unhealthy clients. And the reader loses, as in their desperation the publishers and stores push more and more “product” into the world with less and less regard for its quality. …

People call OR a “radical alternative” or an “experiment,” but in many ways we’re a throwback: we advocate a process wherein the publisher focuses on developing ideas into workable manuscripts, carefully editing them, and, above all, devoting substantial resources to marketing the finished product. These tasks were once the exclusive province of publishers. …

The people quickest to understand our model [at OR Books] have been agents and authors. Among them, we have found that the greater their exposure to traditional publishing, the more they’re veterans of the industry, the more they’re receptive to what we’re doing."

(courtesy of http://book.pressbooks.com/chapter/or-books-john-oakes)

See also: PUBLISHER'S PRIDE, Installment 1: Melville House's Dennis Johnson