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ONCE UPON A TIME, (twenty years ago) two writers and an editor of a regional magazine had an idea. What if they could take just a small bit of their voluminous research found over their collective literary experience (50 years) and shape it into something enlightening, entertaining, beautiful, and, even useful?
LO AND BEHOLD, they did. It became what is known as a book. It was easy to hold, (4 inches x 8 inches), reasonably priced ($9.95), and so enlightening and entertaining that many, many people wanted it. They had to reprint it four times.
THEY WERE HAPPY. But then they had to think, "What next?" Fueled with enthusiasm and never short on ideas, they decided to make another book. This time they made a really big book. It was hardcover, almost 300 pages, had over 300 photographs and illustrations, and took, collectively, 10,000 hours to make. Everyone was very, very tired. But it was a gorgeous book, sold very well, and was reviewed in national papers and magazines. They were very proud.
OVER TIME, the little company grew. It learned how to use time wisely, budget money, learn about computers, selling, marketing, distribution, and customer service, all the while collecting the talents of writers, photographers, illustrators, designers, and, always and most importantly, proofreaders.
THEY PUBLISHED BOOKS about the state they knew so well. They made its state's only information almanac and got a Pulitzer prize-winning cartoonist to illustrate it. They published history and commentary, nature, sports, and travel. They did a catalogue to all of their state's 52 colleges, and a book about their state's hundreds of web sites. These books were (and still are) sold to bookstores, schools, libraries, and specialty stores. And when you see them, you always know they were made by people who never take shortcuts.
AND SO...it grows.
Some businesses package information. Others package goods. But for over eighteen years, we've been sorting through the past, and making history into the kind of product that's palatable, entertaining, and beautiful.
When a company or corporation comes to us with the idea of wanting a history about their business, or even their businesses' town, we mobilize. We assign an experienced writer to the task. He or she researches, interviews, writes, and, in the end, becomes the company's history guru. Working with our editors, the story is honed and fine-tuned. We look for photographs, illustrations, and memorabilia. Our designers create "the look," and then we go to work again creating the pages. History in the making.
We use the best writers, photographers, illustrators, artists, and designers. Because that's what it takes to make beautiful books. Businesses we've worked with have given their books as gifts, used their books as sales and marketing tools, and sold their books in company stores.
We're not afraid to admit it. We're small. In our business, that's a good thing. Every book is unique and we take the business of packaging history seriously. It's your roots, your life, your work. It's our reputation.
So look us over and see if it's time to let others know the story of how you began, where you've been, and why people like you have been working nights and weekends for years on end. Your family, and the rest of us, just might like to know.
Article from the Cincinnati Enquirer, Sunday June 18, 2000
Publishers Putting Ohio Into Print
Entrepreneurs Turn Buckeye Fever Into Book Business
By Jenny Callison
Marcy Hawley and John Baskin hear Ohio calling, and their calling is Ohio.
The two became Ohiophiles while working at Ohio Magazine in the 1980s. During their tenure on the magazine's staff, they documented the state's physical, historical and cultural landscape, seeking out everything buckeye.
"We were voracious collectors of Ohio information," said Ms. Hawley. "We had 48 file drawers--this was before we had computers--and said, 'There's no way Ohio Magazine can use all this information.'"
What to do? The answer seemed clear: Write a book.
Thus began Orange Frazer Press, a publishing house that revels in contradiction. Since its founding in 1987, it has become Ohio's largest small regional book publisher. In an age of increasing cybersavvy, the partners relish the low-key, personal approach they take in developing and marketing their products.
And while the company has its ear to the ground for anything happening in Ohio, its headquarters remain in an unmarked building accessible through an obscure Wilmington alley.
So it's fitting that Ms. Hawley and Mr. Baskin chose to name their publishing company after a man of contradictions.
Orange Frazer and his brother, John, ran a grocery store in Wilmington for 50 years. When he wasn't selling flour and apples to local residents, Orange Frazer traveled the world, a nonswimmer who canoed down the Nile and the St. Lawrence rivers. He was a self-educated man who clerked for the Ohio Supreme Court and amassed an extensive library.
The contents of Ms. Hawley and Mr. Baskin's file drawers emerged as Ohio Matters of Fact, the company's first book. For the new partners, the process proved to be a crash course in publishing.
"We didn't know who book printers were. We didn't know anything about marketing," Ms. Hawley recalled.
They secured seed money from Ohio Magazine and marketing expertise from Books & Co. bookstore in Kettering. When the volume was published, the two entrepreneurs marketed it in the only way they knew.
"We hauled books around in the trunks of our cars. From one bookstore to the next, we peddled our wares," Ms. Hawley said. Ultimately, the book went through four printings.
Buoyed by success, the fledgling company next took on a challenge. They published Lonnie Wheeler's The Cincinnati Game, a book that Ms. Hawley terms "The consummate book on the Cincinnati Reds." It's design was sophisticated and used illustrations and vintage photos. She estimated the project took 10,000 hours of her and Mr. Baskin's time.
All 5,000 copies of the book sold.
"The price was $29.95. Now if you can find one, you could pay up to $250," she said.
At this point, the pair were still asking themselves if they should be in publishing. But as they mastered their craft, honed their marketing skills and developed a pool of writers and visual artists, it became evident to them that there was a market for Ohiocentric nonfiction.
The authors who have worked with Orange Frazer say the firm has created that market by producing consistently excellent books. That quality is attained, they contend, through Ms. Hawley and Mr. Baskin's organic approach to book projects, attention to every detail, and support of writers' and designers' artistic vision.
"John is a rare editor because he's been there," said Mr. Wheeler, whose latest book, Blue Yonder, documents the culture of Kentucky basketball. "He approaches things from a writer's perspective. There's a level of care with John that you don't often get from others."
Mr. Wheeler, said that Orange Frazer involved him at every step in producing both Cincinnati Game and Blue Yonder.
"That involvement you just don't get at a New York publishing house," he said. "Obviously, they can't operate with New York budgets, but that doesn't inhibit their quality."
Ms. Hawley proudly states that Orange Frazer has never lost money on a book. But the company can lavish attention on its less-profitable trade books because of revenue from publication of private volumes. These special projects include corporate histories as well as histories of corporate hometowns. Ms. Hawley said the company pours the same caliber of effort into these works as those for general sale, but it doesn't have to deal with the headaches of marketing and wholesaling.
"It's revenue you can count on," she said.
With the combined revenue from trade and private publications, Orange Frazer has grown to a firm with five full-time employees and a cadre of specialists: writers, designers, illustrators, photographers, indexers and proofreaders.
"We're still a pretty traditional company that's figuring out its place in the dot-com world," said Ms. Hawley.
That "tradition" means that Orange Frazer measures the worth of its products not only by the quality of the text and images. The publishers are concerned also with the shape and heft of the volume, the sheen of the paper, the feel of the cover.
Ms. Hawley said, "We put a lot more into our books, because we want to create something beautiful."
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