One Book Press

I’m taking a break this week, from talking about Rome (don’t worry – the Minchilli guide to Monti will start posting next week – promise) to write about my new baby, One Book Press. As many of you know, my sister and I just launched this new company and are barely talking about anything else. To be expected, since we are so excited about it!
 
But I wanted to use this blog to talk about exactly why we decided to start One Book Press. As many of you know I’ve been writing and producing beautiful coffee-table-style books for the last fifteen years. I’ve also been writing about design, lifestyle, travel and food to almost all the top magazines. At the same time my sister, Robin Helman, has been designing for all the same magazines and publishing houses. The dire financial situation of the past year means that the big publishing houses are finding it difficult to produce gorgeous, image-driven books. And magazines, with next to no ads, are unable to commission image-driven stories like they used to.
 
So, what’s a girl to do? I love my work: finding gorgeous homes, gardens, collections, hotels and restaurants and then writing about them in books and magazines. While many were crying gloom and doom in the past year, I instead saw this as an exciting opportunity for change. Taking advantage of new advances in printing, distribution and communications my sister and I decided to create a new type of publishing company: One Book Press.

You see, I believe that there are still beautiful stories out there to be told, through word and image. Homes, gardens, food, art collections…you know, the stuff that fills the pages of those gorgeous coffee-table books we love so much. But maybe the audience has changed? At least that’s what I think. I believe that the people who are behind these projects – architects, designers, home owners, collectors – would very much like to see their passions captured in the pages of a book. And that’s where we come in.
 
One Book Press will take any topic, and turn it into a professionally- produced book. We will send a photographer and stylist to capture the objects and spaces at their best. We will then research and conduct interviews as the basis for a compelling text which we will write. A designer will pull it all together. The result will be a beautiful, image-driven book that frames any subject you have in mind.
 
While there have always been book packagers who did this type of work producing content, the final result was always a traditionally-published book, printed and distributed by big publishing houses. With minimal print runs in the thousands, this was – and remains – a prohibitively expensive undertaking. What makes a new approach possible today is the advent of digital printing-on-demand. Once we have designed a book, we are able to provide you with as many – or as few – copies as you’d like. (Hence the name: One Book Press!) At a surprisingly affordable price.


What makes our books different from books you make yourself on sites like Blurb or Lulu or with a Mac? Well, unless you are a professional book producer working with professional designers, writers and photographers, these books always look like what they are: photo albums. Which is great if you want a photo album. But if what you have in mind is a book, which weaves together word and image in a compelling way, then we’re your girls. We don’t do albums. We produce professionally-designed books that capture your story. In other words: content.


We are already working on several projects and you can see one of our recent books, Pergolaccio: A Home Restored, here. This book features our own home, which my husband, Italian architect Domenico Minchilli, restored. Titles we are about to be publish include a monograph on an Italian architect (mmm…I wonder who that could be?), portraits by a Rome-based artist, still lifes by an artist in New York and a look at a New York-based interior design firm. We are also talking with several clients about cookbook projects.
 
I’d love to hear what everyone thinks. So far, response has been enthusiastic. The most exciting part about this venture is that the subjects are limitless. So, if you have an idea, we’d love to hear it.