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The situation doesn't look good in today's publishing industry — venture capitalists and the likes of Rupert Murdoch are taking over venerable old publishing houses, whose focus is shifting more to bigger profits based on formulaic titles such as sensational memoirs. Digital novelties like Amazon's Kindle e-reader may threaten the paper-and-ink industry, but certainly not more so than Americans' diminishing habit of reading.

It doesn't seem like the best time to launch a publishing company - much less a small, regional press that has no existing model on which to base itself.

George Stranahan would beg to differ.

This week marks the public launch of the first title by People's Press LLC, the brainchild of Stranahan, the Woody Creek entrepreneur and philanthropist who is the father of multiple locally born nonprofits and businesses.

Entitled "Visions of the Blue Valley," the dual-language Mongolian/English children's book is the story of a Mongolian valley as told in the oral tradition by children and illustrated by their drawings.

Not a guaranteed million-copy bestseller, by most estimations, but that's exactly the point. "Visions of the Blue Valley" has an initial press run of 1,000 copies, and will be sold for $20 during this week's series of festivities surrounding the visit of the Dalai Lama.

"This is great," said Stranahan during a recent interview while turning the finely produced pages of a test copy of the book, clearly showing his enthusiasm for the project. "If we print and sell 1,000 of them, I think we can break even."

A model for changing times

The concept behind People's Press is to publish the works of regional authors, photographers and poets in small press runs and distribute them throughout the region that would more likely have an interest in those regional voices.

To do that and not lose money, Stranahan has come up with a business model that involves an invested editorial board, an intact distribution network, and a flexible, unique cost- and profit-sharing model.

"There seems to be a division between the big publishing houses, which are based primarily in New York, and self-publishing, and there's no in-between," said Carrie Click, a longtime local journalist who sits on the People's Press editorial board. "Your options [as a writer] are to get incredibly lucky and go with the huge houses which are incredibly competitive and you have to have a hit with 'Why He Doesn't Love You' or something with mass market appeal like that, or you self-publish and do it all yourself.

"The concept of People's Press is that it's a regional company, kind of like buying local produce. You use the resources that are here (writers, photographers, people that have stories to tell) ...  and you print and distribute locally."

People's Press will probably publish six to 10 titles per year, said Stranahan, who, as an heir to the Champion spark plugs fortune, fronted the money to start the company.

The editorial board chooses which titles to publish based on what they feel will appeal to a regional - mostly western Colorado - customer base. The next two titles to be published include a book celebrating fishing through photos of old gear and various quotes and texts, and a biography of Stuart and Isabel Mace, whose sled-dog operation near Ashcroft and local preservation efforts provide enough fodder for a 500-page book. The latter book was commissioned by the Maces' daughter, Lynne, who runs Toklat Gallery, now located in Basalt.

"If you make it available, a lot of people are going to be able to make a book," said Stranahan, citing advances in digital technology and information sharing that are continuously removing barriers to publishing.

Current editorial board members include a variety of assembled talents. Besides Stranahan, who has some experience self-publishing and is both the idea man and the money man, there's Click, who has put in 12-plus years of writing and editing at various local publications; Mirte Mallory, an Aspen local with a creative eye who manages the photographic portfolio of her grandfather, Ferenc Berko, and works at the Aspen Institute; Aspen Writers' Foundation board member David Shaw; and Nikki Strait, a screenplay author and novelist with an MBA from Yale. The board also has two managers of Town Center Booksellers in Basalt as consultants.

The board has met weekly since March and for each title it chooses to publish, one of the board members assumes the project management of that title. They all get paid for their time, and divide up the editing, production and design work based on their talents. So it kind of functions like a co-op, with each board member getting a sense of ownership in the venture.

In terms of paying for the production and publishing costs, the editorial board will decide on a case-by-case basis whether People's Press will front the money or the person bringing the idea forward will have to pay for it. After the book starts selling, Stranahan explained, 80 percent of the money will go to the entity which provided the capital, and the remaining 20 percent to the other partner. Once that capital is paid back, the formula switches. So for example, if People's Press fronts the money for a title, it gets 80 percent of the sales revenues it's entitled to as the publisher until its cost are covered, then 20 percent after that.

And each book has its own business model, budget and distribution network, Click explained, so that it can be tailored to the interests of the regional marketplace. Which is another thing that differentiates People's Press from the mass-marketed titles of the major publishing houses.

Distribution is the one thing about People's Press that's tried and true. Stranahan bought the distribution arm of valley-based WHO Press, which has 100 outlets mostly in the Roaring Fork Valley and some in other parts of western Colorado. Not all of those outlets are book shops - there are fly-fishing shops and other sports stores, card shops, gift shops and other specialty stores. One People's Press employee's sole job is to make the rounds and make one-on-one contact with retailers.

Warren Ohlrich of Carbondale has run WHO Press for more than 20 years, and has published some 25-30 books, including several guidebooks.

"I was looking to scale back and didn't want to keep distributing, and [Stranahan] was looking to start a publishing business but he had no distribution network, so we just talked at the right time. It worked out very well," said Ohlrich, who is also looking to eventually turn over the publishing side of his company and retire.

Ohlrich said People's Press is similar to what he's been doing through WHO Press - catering to the local population - but on an expanded model.

"We need something like that in the valley, distributing books by local authors and publishing things about the valley," he said, adding that the eventual new owners of WHO Press are already talking to Stranahan about how to cooperate, not compete, between the two entities.

With smaller press runs and a niche market, People's Press fully expects its costs to be higher than average, and therefore its books to be more expensive. The Mongolia book, for example, would normally sell for not more than $17 on the mass market, but is being sold for $20, which People's Press hopes locals will see the value in and be willing to pay.

Local author Catherine O'Connell, whose bestselling book "Well Bred and Dead" has enjoyed multiple printings by HarperCollins, is optimistic about People's Press.

Noting that the publishing industry is in "huge turmoil" and readership is generally flat, "What [Stranahan] is doing right now is bright, because he has the distribution network established. Ultimately it comes down to distribution."

O'Connell, who keeps close tabs on the publishing industry and has a marketing and sales background, noted that only a fraction of the 174,000 titles or so published in the U.S. sell more than 100,000 copies, and only 10 sold more than one million. And self-publishing outlets are structured so that the author comes away with very little of the proceeds, she said. So there's an illusion out there of publishing a book and making a lot of money, plus "we [writers] are fighting for readers and fighting against computers; young people are not reading." However, avid readers are loyal readers and are likely to buy personally appealing books within their distribution areas.

"I think it sounds smart," she said. "It's a very good idea in a troubled industry."

'The idea man'

Stranahan said he got the idea for People's Press about a year ago, when he became aware of online self-publishing outlets like Blurb and Lulu. Technology is advancing such that digital publishing is almost as good as the old-fashioned offset presses, and that's bringing the price of publishing down - and while it's not as cheap as mass overseas printing, it's close. On the other hand, distribution close to home can be more easily controlled, and there's more chance that the publisher - People's Press - will be intimately familiar with its market.

"We're inventing the model," he said with a smile.

Stranahan and his crew also strongly believe that, "We read what we write," as he puts it. "This is us writing for ourselves, and we publish in quantities that we can market on the Western Slope."

Those who don't know Stranahan might be skeptical of his philosophical approach to this venture, but in decades of doing business, "I've had more winners than losers," he said.

Stranahan founded Flying Dog beers, which started as a brewpub in Aspen and is now a national, bestselling beer label. He also has Stranahan Whiskey and Flying Dog Arts, a studio for reprinting photography, and was the money behind the Mountain Gazette. On the nonprofit side, he started the Aspen Center for Physics, the Aspen and Carbondale community schools, the Wyly Arts Center and most recently, the Manaus Fund, a nonprofit that starts up and invests in worthwhile local projects and "is run like a business," said Stranahan.

"I do start things; I'm entrepreneurial," said Stranahan, adding that while nearing his 77th birthday he is nowhere near retiring. "If it works, I find something else to do."

"There is no question that he is the idea man," said Click, who has worked with Stranahan on multiple projects over the years. "From physics to whiskey, he has these concepts. And once he does that he gets people that can make them happen. He's got resources, there's absolutely no question, but he uses them for things that can contribute to the planet."

Stranahan nurtures ideas like one would a child, Click said, and when it's ready to take off on its own he lets it go.

Mallory, who was born and raised in Aspen, said there are many regional voices, stories, images and narratives, and the mission of People's Press is to create and nurture that regional identity.

Some of the titles might be destined for bigger markets, so People's Press can in some cases be a launching pad.

"Aspen is where a lot of trends begin, where a lot of concepts are born," said Click, who also grew up in the valley. "This is kind of an energy center, and getting a book out in Aspen it can get into the hands of people on a larger level."

lutz@aspendailynews.com