A different kind of publishing
One can buy, amongst many others, books by Political Scientist Norman Finkelstein on OR Books.
OR Books offers environmentally friendly and great books.
Article: Eman Bare – News Writer
[dropcaps round=”no”]I[/dropcaps]n recent years, in an effort to minimize ecological footprints, many businesses have taken to offering “green” alternatives, such as grocery stores offering reusable bags and focusing on locally grown produce. One publishing agency is taking the “green” approach one step further and minimizing waste by changing the conventional business operations of a publication company.
OR Books is a unique publishing company that works towards reducing waste by publishing books as they are ordered. Unlike other publications, OR Books does not have large quantities of books published with the expectation of people ordering them. By printing on demand, this allows the company to rule out having excess copies of books and overall waste. Additionally, although based online, this company also creates more of a personalized effect with both the authors it features and their clientele.
The company began in 2009 and was founded by John Oakes and Colin Robinson. Both gentlemen had numerous years of experience in the publishing industry and chose to open up their own publishing company with a more ecofriendly approach. By selling directly to the individual, OR Books excludes having a third party involved, such as a major bookstore. This then limits excessive transportation costs and packaging by sending books directly to the buyer.
Natasha Lewis, the publicity manager at OR Books, states that since the company started, business has been steadily increasing.
She says that, “most business comes from people who know about OR Books.” In addition, she states that, “each new author brings a new crowd of people interested in their work.”
This frame of networking allows the company to cater books to a like-minded audience. OR Books focuses on publishing and promoting books that are politically and culturally progressive.
Lewis says, “We have a direct relationship with customers—we sell books directly from our site, and we tell our readers about new books through emails and social media. This direct relationship allows the agency to minimize waste by not advertising through the conventional ways. There are no flyers, ads or paper mail sent out in general by OR Books, outside of the online world.
So how many books a month does OR Books publish, exactly? According to their website, the company only publishes about one or two books a month. This allows them to focus on the author, and to give attention to a book that perhaps would not have been as successful at a large chain bookstore. OR Books makes books more personal to readers because of the amount of effort put into advertising for the books that are featured that month.
Lewis says that OR Books future goals are “to publish books that might not otherwise see light of day and do so in moral and economically rewarding way.”
As businesses are beginning to change the way their operations are run, this is one company that is choosing to recreate the traditional method of printing books all together.
[button style=”e.g. solid, border” size=”e.g. small, medium, big” link=”” target=””]Image: Michael Chmielewski [/button]
