Protean Press offers authors and publishing professionals a new model that combines the high standards of traditional publishing with cutting-edge financial, production, and marketing solutions. By sharing the risks and putting the lion's share of profits where they rightfully belong - with the author and the creative team behind each publication - we are redefining the traditional role of publisher.

Inspired by Proteus, the mythical sea god who changes shape at will, the Press published its first book in 1990, and continues today, putting together its large network of trusted publishing professionals and vendor companies with authors whose potential exceeds that offered by traditional publishing companies. Versatile and quick to market, Protean Press customizes each book's publishing strategy and marketing plan. Whether it appears in print or electronic form - or both! - each publication undergoes rigorous editorial and production processes.

Our parent company, Open Book Systems, Inc., has focused on computer-aided production and Internet publishing platforms since 1982. OBS has produced and marketed hundreds of books, periodicals, and web solutions for the world's leading publishing companies. It has served as a literary agency, book packager, and software company, designing and engineering Internet-based publishing solutions for multinational publishers and universities. Laura Fillmore, founder and president of both OBS and Protean Press, has taught online publishing courses and led seminars at major universities, libraries, and conferences around the world.

During these years, we have discovered our greatest asset of all - a global network of highly accomplished authors and publishing and technology experts. The business structure of Protean Press enables them to work productively together in the new publishing terrain.

Protean Press represents a fundamentally new and powerful model for publishing:

• Our innovative risk-sharing business arrangements mean that publishing team partners share in the success of a project based on their relative contributions of time, creativity, or financial resources. Everyone involved has a vested interest in a book's success. This mutual commitment affects the entire process.
  
  
• Whereas traditional publishers have been slow to respond to rapidly evolving e-publishing opportunities, we're in our element in the Internet "ocean" and know how to publish successfully online.
  
  
• Using transparent production methods, the author and the team work together in an environment of shared responsibility and accountability.
  
  
• One size doesn't fit all! Unlike large publishing houses with high overheads and many salaried employees specializing in a particular market sector, Protean Press has a small core staff and access to many hundreds of seasoned publishing professionals experienced in a variety of disciplines, who both practice the rigors of traditional publishing and "get it" when it comes to Internet publishing.
  
  
• We are not a vanity press. Our risk-sharing approach means that every team member contributes something meaningful to the project, anticipating more return than a work-for-hire paycheck. Not funded by venture capitalists or outside companies, Protean Press publications need to succeed in the market, for the benefit of the Press and each member of the publication team. Profits are shared according to formulae agreed on at the outset of each project.
  
  

We invite authors who have fiction or nonfiction work that needs to take shape and find its audience to submit their work. Protean Press may provide the right custom solution - in print, online, or both. We only take on books whose promise we and our virtual team of editorial and production people believe in enough to invest in.

To initiate review of your project, please send your manuscript, along with a cover letter and CV, to Laura Fillmore, Protean Press, 37-J Whistlestop Mall, Rockport, MA 01966 USA. Do not include original photographs or artwork of any kind. If you would like your work returned, please include a self-addressed envelope with adequate postage. You may send brief inquiries to laura@obs.com, but we do not accept manuscripts by e-mail.

We also invite publishing professionals seeking to apply their know-how in a creative environment that yields residuals for successful work to contact us. Please submit your CV by e-mail and we will respond.