"Information technology ended with lawyers."

That's how Ted Nace describes his first volume bargain, a "decease of a chiliad cuts" that culminated when his publisher, Microsoft Press, decided to alter his book'south championship, "The Software Author's Handbook," to "Programming for Profit" at the last minute. Nace fought back past pulling the plug; his volume never went to press. David Korten's story isn't much better. McGraw-Hill removed his first book, Bureaucracy and the Poor, from shelves subsequently merely vi months. "They'd promised they'd promote the book worldwide and keep it in impress," Korten recalls. "Even things that were clearly printed in the contract they ignored." (Both publishers declined to annotate.)

Such is life in the traditional publishing industry, where authors accept little, if any, say in how their piece of work is edited, printed, distributed, and marketed. In part, that's because nigh big houses such as Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, or Penguin Putnam pay authors a greenbacks advance, often taking ownership of the product earlier folio one has fifty-fifty been written. Only even that'south no guarantee of success. A book by the average author–that is, the boilerplate author who manages to detect an agent and land a bargain–sells simply eleven,800 copies, co-ordinate to the Book Industry Written report Group, a nonprofit research arrangement, and RR Bowker, a provider of bibliographic data. More often than not, the book heralded equally the adjacent Good to Great or Harry Potter becomes just another example of pulped fiction. "What's to say almost publishing today?" laments Adrian Zackheim, publisher at Portfolio, Penguin's business imprint. "The tale of woe is more woeful. There are horror stories everywhere."

Zackheim is talking nearly an industry where $28.half-dozen billion in 2004 revenues was split among 195,000 books. That'south but $146,667 per book. Factor in the price of acquiring, editing, manufacturing, marketing, and shipping each championship, and publishing begins to look like the inverse of Vegas: a place where the business firm usually loses.

And and so there'south Berrett-Koehler, a modest 13-year-old San Francisco-based publisher with a radically different approach. By turning the feel into a collaborative model that brings together the author, the editor, outside reviewers, and fifty-fifty readers, Berrett-Koehler has established itself as a house authors phone call habitation. "A lot of publishers treat authors similar nuisances," says Steve Piersanti, BK'southward founder and president. "We treat them like partners." That'southward the case with Nace and Korten, both of whom somewhen found success–and creative satisfaction–with Berrett-Koehler. "It'due south similar having your own professional person in-house support staff," Korten says.

The results–smarter books and better sales–speak for themselves. Last year, BK'due south revenue grew 25%, to $7 one thousand thousand, and is projected to grow another fifty% in 2005. The average BK author sells some fifteen,000 copies, 27% more than the industry boilerplate. "BK epitomizes what . . . smaller, focused publishers of the present and futurity tin and should exist doing," says Michael Cader, founder and editor of "Publishers Dejeuner," a daily newsletter that covers the publishing industry.

Although Berrett-Koehler is still a modest company, with a catalog of just xxx titles and 250 authors, information technology has attracted such big-name writers as Ken Blanchard, the prolific consultant behind the One Minute Manager series, and direction don Henry Mintzberg. "The big houses . . . basically give a book a half-dozen-week wait, and then they motion on," says Blanchard, who has published five books with BK. "Steve is always asking what we tin do to go along information technology going. Information technology'southward win-win."

Boilerplate acquirement per volume [publishing industry]: $146,667

Average revenue per book [Berrett-Koehler]: $220,000

Much of BK's approach is a reaction to Piersanti's personal experiences. He started his career in 1977 as a copy editor for Jossey-Bass, an imprint of John Wiley & Sons, and became president 13 years later on. What he saw on the fashion upwardly upset him. Across the manufacture, he says, authors, suppliers, and employees "were treated like they didn't affair." Ordered to lay off 8 staff members in 1992 despite the fact that sales and profits were up 22% and 42%, respectively, Piersanti refused. He was given less than an hour to leave the building.

Within days of Piersanti's firing, suppliers, investors, and printers were offering lines of credit and encouraging him to start his own publishing house. Established authors stepped frontwards with book projects fifty-fifty though Piersanti had no staff or press. He took them upward on it, and Berrett-Koehler, named to audio bookish but actually a mix of random family names, was built-in.

Piersanti didn't desire his company to be like other publishing houses. For starters, he hoped to share the wealth: Although Piersanti owns 54% of BK, more than 100 authors, customers, employees, and suppliers own the remaining 46% of the visitor. He aimed to create a "nerve center," empowering employees, investors, suppliers, and authors to make key decisions about their creative works together. For Nace, this meant the freedom to publish Gangs of America online for free, despite business concern that such a motion might hurt hard-copy sales. (He says it actually helped them.) For Korten, author of When Corporations Rule the World, it meant having his pick of three different re-create editors.

Once the contract is signed, one of the starting time differences authors notice at BK is the lack of upfront cash. Dissimilar near publishers, the company doesn't offer advances, then authors will earn money but with royalties if the book sells, a hardship for those who demand to pay the hire while writing their masterpieces. Yet if they aren't happy, they're free to exit. BK limits its contracts to one book at a time, uncommon in an industry where multibook contracts are typical, and allows authors to pause their contracts at will. Piersanti once released Blanchard and his coauthors from a tentative agreement after they were offered a $500,000 advance for their volume past a competitor. Since 1992, only one author has officially cleaved his contract, saying he felt more comfy with a traditional publisher.

Side by side comes the manuscript-review process. While most houses utilize a scattering of total-time editors, BK commissions the assistance of some 200 freelance reviewers–from college professors to politicians. BK's senior managing editor, Jeevan Sivasubramaniam, who oversees the broad network of volunteers, likens the procedure to matchmaking. Upon receiving a manuscript, he'll squad the author with a reviewer whom he believes volition like the book, one who is bound to be skeptical, and a couple of others, including at least i "wild card" with no specific background in the subject. The reviews–often 15 to 20 pages from complete strangers–tin be hard to swallow, especially afterwards months or years of solitary wordsmithing. "Authors are typically horrified," says Piersanti. "For the first three or four days they can't fifty-fifty run across straight."

Average number of copies sold [industry]: xi,800

Average number of copies sold [Berrett-Koehler]: 15,000

The ends justify the means, says Sivasubramaniam, who derives a mischievous pleasure from his role as matchmaker and intellectual alchemist. "When four reviewers who've never met one another come to the same conclusions, the author pretty much has to cease and listen," he says. That was certainly the case with Margaret Wheatley'south latest book on resilient organizations, Finding Our Manner. Originally slated as a collection of older, previously published essays, the book was fleshed out and updated with new, more-relevant insights after reviewers encouraged her to do so. And considering BK includes names and contact info with each manuscript review, many authors have gone on to forge shut friendships or working relationships with their reviewers.

Authors are as well invited to spend a day presenting their books at BK'southward offices, where staff and company friends discuss everything from affiliate titles to which bookstores might host a reading. At Korten's most recent "author mean solar day," i attendee, a twentysomething bookstore clerk, opined to the sixtysomething best-selling author nearly "social change during the past century." A young BK staffer chimed in, alluding to the "burden of history." Korten listened patiently. Asked whether or not his adjacent book could possibly benefit from a podcast or wiki, Korten hesitated, sweat beading his forehead. "Is that like a hickey?" he asked.

At a traditional house, once a volume is edited and set for printing, authors often have little to do with the significant marketing decisions surrounding it, such as the title, cover blueprint, book jacket, and promotional fabric. While a blood-red comprehend may brand sense to the average marketing exec, information technology may not be what the author had in mind. BK addresses this trouble past giving authors and designers a chance to piece of work cooperatively through an interactive web log. For each new book, editors and designers will come up with several titles and cover options, posting them online. Authors love the issue–a buffet of distinct type fonts, rejiggered subtitles, and contrasting colour schemes that evolve as new comments are posted.

To help inform authors' marketing decisions, everyone at BK–from the senior editors to sales managers to, literally, Kathy in bookkeeping–is invited to share his or her suggestions on the blog and elsewhere. Distributors, sales reps, and others from exterior the company are invited to mail comments as well. Dianne Platner, the production managing director, sees the blog as a dramatic improvement over the traditional model. "Because we've seen the proposal, because nosotros've met the writer, because nosotros've been there every footstep of the way, we know how the author wants the book to be positioned," she says.

Collecting all this feedback does take its drawbacks. Deliberations can drag on, and some authors can be difficult. "A lot of things that would normally take 2-thirds to half the fourth dimension go complicated," says Michael Crowley, BK'due south senior direct sales managing director. Recently, one of BK's best-selling authors went through more than 30 comprehend designs before signing off on the final version. The exasperated graphic designer, in a playful allusion to the author's dominatrix-like demands, drew up a mock pattern featuring a blackness leather stiletto. Months later on the book'south publication, the stiletto motion picture is still floating effectually the office. So, of form, in that location'south the problem of gustation. Afterward falling in love with the aquamarine and yellow label of a water bottle, the coauthors of one book demanded that their volume'south cover carry the same clashing hues. BK ultimately deferred to their judgment–and the volume was a flop.

However Piersanti figures that a few screwups are worth it if he can create a stable of happy, loyal authors who are motivated to help BK succeed. Last year, a tertiary of BK's new writers were referred by existing authors. "Our sometime authors are our brain trust," says Sivasubramaniam. "They're like our agents–they see changes in their industry and they spot new authors." Author retreats, where dozens of writers come up together to share ideas, propose speaking opportunities, and offering advice and contacts for book tours, have resulted in projects Piersanti never anticipated, cartoon publicity and building ties throughout the industry. Some author-inspired events have included a writer-organized conference, which resulted in the publication of a book of essays, and a marketing workshop, where some threescore authors and fundamental outsiders, such as booksellers, shared experiences.

While business books like Blanchard's and Mintzberg'due south are BK's bread and butter, it will aggrandize its new titles from 30 to 45 in 2006 and is putting out its own nonfiction list with socially progressive themes. 1 of these was John Perkins's Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, which has sold some 180,000 copies and was a New York Times best-seller.

In spite of BK's double-digit growth, Piersanti isn't worried about other houses trying to replicate his model: Bringing outsiders into the determination-making process is hard piece of work, and incorporating authors' suggestions can be risky. "They do information technology their mode, and their way is very distinctive," says Portfolio's Zackheim. "It wouldn't piece of work for everybody." Still, the industry seems to be paying attention. The editor-in-principal of Random House, Jonathan Karp, stepped down in June to starting time an banner that will devote much more fourth dimension to its authors and publish only 12 books a year–i per calendar month. Looks similar someone's reading between the lines.

Lucas Conley (lconley@fastcompany.com) is a Fast Visitor staff writer.