"It ended with lawyers."

That's how Ted Nace describes his first book bargain, a "death of a m cuts" that culminated when his publisher, Microsoft Press, decided to modify his book's title, "The Software Author's Handbook," to "Programming for Turn a profit" at the last infinitesimal. Nace fought dorsum by pulling the plug; his book never went to press. David Korten'due south story isn't much better. McGraw-Hill removed his first book, Bureaucracy and the Poor, from shelves after just vi months. "They'd promised they'd promote the book worldwide and go along it in print," Korten recalls. "Even things that were clearly printed in the contract they ignored." (Both publishers declined to comment.)

Such is life in the traditional publishing industry, where authors have little, if whatever, say in how their work is edited, printed, distributed, and marketed. In part, that's considering most big houses such as Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, or Penguin Putnam pay authors a cash advance, often taking ownership of the product before page 1 has even been written. Just fifty-fifty that's no guarantee of success. A book past the average writer–that is, the average author who manages to find an agent and state a deal–sells just xi,800 copies, co-ordinate to the Volume Industry Report Group, a nonprofit research organization, and RR Bowker, a provider of bibliographic information. More than oft than not, the book heralded as the side by side Good to Cracking or Harry Potter becomes merely some other case of pulped fiction. "What's to say virtually publishing today?" laments Adrian Zackheim, publisher at Portfolio, Penguin's business organization imprint. "The tale of woe is more woeful. There are horror stories everywhere."

Zackheim is talking about an manufacture where $28.6 billion in 2004 revenues was carve up among 195,000 books. That'southward merely $146,667 per book. Factor in the toll of acquiring, editing, manufacturing, marketing, and aircraft each title, and publishing begins to look like the inverse of Vegas: a identify where the house usually loses.

And so in that location's Berrett-Koehler, a small 13-year-sometime San Francisco-based publisher with a radically dissimilar approach. By turning the experience into a collaborative model that brings together the author, the editor, outside reviewers, and even readers, Berrett-Koehler has established itself every bit a business firm authors call home. "A lot of publishers treat authors similar nuisances," says Steve Piersanti, BK'due south founder and president. "We treat them like partners." That's the case with Nace and Korten, both of whom eventually found success–and creative satisfaction–with Berrett-Koehler. "It's like having your ain professional person in-business firm back up 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 abound another 50% in 2005. The average BK author sells some 15,000 copies, 27% more than than the industry boilerplate. "BK epitomizes what . . . smaller, focused publishers of the present and future can and should be doing," says Michael Cader, founder and editor of "Publishers Lunch," a daily newsletter that covers the publishing industry.

Although Berrett-Koehler is yet a small visitor, with a catalog of simply 30 titles and 250 authors, it has attracted such big-name writers as Ken Blanchard, the prolific consultant behind the One Infinitesimal Managing director series, and management don Henry Mintzberg. "The big houses . . . basically give a volume a six-calendar week await, and so they movement on," says Blanchard, who has published five books with BK. "Steve is always asking what nosotros tin can do to keep information technology going. It's win-win."

Average revenue per book [publishing manufacture]: $146,667

Boilerplate revenue per volume [Berrett-Koehler]: $220,000

Much of BK's approach is a reaction to Piersanti'south personal experiences. He started his career in 1977 as a re-create editor for Jossey-Bass, an banner of John Wiley & Sons, and became president 13 years later. What he saw on the fashion upward upset him. Across the manufacture, he says, authors, suppliers, and employees "were treated similar they didn't matter." Ordered to lay off viii 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 edifice.

Within days of Piersanti'southward firing, suppliers, investors, and printers were offer lines of credit and encouraging him to start his own publishing house. Established authors stepped forward with book projects even though Piersanti had no staff or press. He took them up on it, and Berrett-Koehler, named to sound bookish but really a mix of random family names, was born.

Piersanti didn't want 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 company. He aimed to create a "nerve center," empowering employees, investors, suppliers, and authors to brand key decisions virtually their artistic works together. For Nace, this meant the freedom to publish Gangs of America online for gratuitous, despite concern that such a movement might injure hard-copy sales. (He says it actually helped them.) For Korten, writer of When Corporations Rule the Globe, it meant having his choice of three different copy editors.

Once the contract is signed, one of the start differences authors notice at BK is the lack of upfront cash. Unlike nigh publishers, the company doesn't offer advances, so authors will earn money merely with royalties if the book sells, a hardship for those who need to pay the rent while writing their masterpieces. Yet if they aren't happy, they're gratis to leave. BK limits its contracts to one volume at a fourth dimension, uncommon in an industry where multibook contracts are typical, and allows authors to break their contracts at will. Piersanti once released Blanchard and his coauthors from a tentative understanding after they were offered a $500,000 advance for their book by a competitor. Since 1992, only one writer has officially broken his contract, saying he felt more comfortable with a traditional publisher.

Next comes the manuscript-review process. While most houses employ a scattering of full-fourth dimension editors, BK commissions the help 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 process to matchmaking. Upon receiving a manuscript, he'll team the author with a reviewer whom he believes will like the book, one who is bound to be skeptical, and a couple of others, including at least one "wild menu" with no specific background in the subject. The reviews–frequently 15 to 20 pages from complete strangers–can be hard to swallow, especially subsequently months or years of solitary wordsmithing. "Authors are typically horrified," says Piersanti. "For the starting time three or four days they can't even see straight."

Boilerplate number of copies sold [industry]: eleven,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 every bit matchmaker and intellectual alchemist. "When four reviewers who've never met one another come to the same conclusions, the author pretty much has to terminate and listen," he says. That was certainly the case with Margaret Wheatley'southward latest book on resilient organizations, Finding Our Way. Originally slated as a collection of older, previously published essays, the book was fleshed out and updated with new, more than-relevant insights after reviewers encouraged her to practice then. And because BK includes names and contact info with each manuscript review, many authors have gone on to forge close friendships or working relationships with their reviewers.

Authors are also invited to spend a day presenting their books at BK's offices, where staff and company friends discuss everything from chapter titles to which bookstores might host a reading. At Korten's nigh recent "author solar day," one attendee, a twentysomething bookstore clerk, opined to the sixtysomething best-selling author near "social alter during the past century." A young BK staffer chimed in, alluding to the "burden of history." Korten listened patiently. Asked whether or not his next volume could perhaps benefit from a podcast or wiki, Korten hesitated, sweat beading his forehead. "Is that similar a hickey?" he asked.

At a traditional house, in one case a book is edited and ready for press, authors often have little to do with the meaning marketing decisions surrounding it, such every bit the title, encompass design, book jacket, and promotional material. While a blood-ruby-red cover may make sense to the boilerplate marketing exec, information technology may not be what the writer had in mind. BK addresses this trouble by giving authors and designers a chance to work cooperatively through an interactive blog. For each new book, editors and designers will come up with several titles and encompass options, posting them online. Authors honey the result–a buffet of distinct blazon fonts, rejiggered subtitles, and contrasting color schemes that evolve every bit new comments are posted.

To help inform authors' marketing decisions, everyone at BK–from the senior editors to sales managers to, literally, Kathy in accounting–is invited to share his or her suggestions on the web log and elsewhere. Distributors, sales reps, and others from exterior the company are invited to post comments as well. Dianne Platner, the product manager, sees the web log as a dramatic improvement over the traditional model. "Because we've seen the proposal, because nosotros've met the author, considering nosotros've been there every step 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 tin can drag on, and some authors tin exist difficult. "A lot of things that would normally take ii-thirds to half the time get complicated," says Michael Crowley, BK'southward senior direct sales manager. Recently, i of BK'southward best-selling authors went through more than 30 cover designs before signing off on the final version. The exasperated graphic designer, in a playful allusion to the author'due south dominatrix-like demands, drew up a mock design featuring a black leather stiletto. Months afterward the book's publication, the stiletto moving-picture show is even so floating around the office. Then, of grade, there's the trouble of taste. After falling in love with the aquamarine and yellow label of a water bottle, the coauthors of one book demanded that their book's encompass carry the same clashing hues. BK ultimately deferred to their judgment–and the book was a flop.

Yet Piersanti figures that a few screwups are worth it if he tin create a stable of happy, loyal authors who are motivated to assist BK succeed. Terminal year, a third of BK'south new writers were referred by existing authors. "Our old 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, advise speaking opportunities, and offer communication and contacts for book tours, have resulted in projects Piersanti never anticipated, cartoon publicity and building ties throughout the manufacture. Some author-inspired events have included a writer-organized briefing, which resulted in the publication of a book of essays, and a marketing workshop, where some 60 authors and fundamental outsiders, such as booksellers, shared experiences.

While concern books like Blanchard'due south and Mintzberg's are BK's bread and butter, it will expand its new titles from 30 to 45 in 2006 and is putting out its ain nonfiction listing with socially progressive themes. One of these was John Perkins's Confessions of an Economic Hit Human, 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 controlling process is hard piece of work, and incorporating authors' suggestions can be risky. "They exercise it their style, and their way is very distinctive," says Portfolio's Zackheim. "It wouldn't piece of work for everybody." However, the industry seems to be paying attention. The editor-in-chief of Random Firm, Jonathan Karp, stepped downwards in June to start an imprint that will devote much more time to its authors and publish but 12 books a year–1 per month. Looks similar someone's reading betwixt the lines.

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