Patricia No and Antonia Pinter are bringing the books on demand publication studio to the Williams College Museum of Art.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Among the hundreds of titles available on the Publication Studio website is a tounge-in-cheek non-fiction offering titled "How to shoplift books."

 

Among the tips offered by author David Horvitz: "Put the book in your friend's bag when they are not looking."

 

You can find this out by reading the book — in its entirety — through the publicationstudios.biz website. But even though most of the Portland, Ore.-based, business' titles are available online, free of charge, Publication Studio's founder does not think that availability is cutting into its ability to sell books.

 

"Book sales have increased over the last five years," Patricia No said in an telephone interview last week. "I don't think it's hindered by the fact that you can see all of our books online for free."

 

There is no way to track how many people read books online and then end up buying them, but there are no shortage of people who are buying, No said.

 

"I know we've made a lot of books," she said. "Today, we're finishing out 300 books. That's just orders we've had this week. We do about that per week — sometimes more, sometimes less."

 

Publication Studio, whose mantra is "Books made fresh daily," will bring its print-on-demand business model to the Berkshires at the Williams College Museum of Art starting on Thursday.

 

No and co-owner Antonia Pinter will hold a one-week residency in the museum's rotunda through Oct. 2, and leave behind the infrastracture for the custom printing and binding of "pop-up Publication Studio bookshop" through Dec. 19.

 

"Publication Studio is an innovative and exciting new way for the museum to collaborate with faculty, artists, and the public," WCMA Director Christina Olsen said in a news release announcing No and Pinter's residence. "It blurs the lines between what we've traditionally understood to be an exhibition, a program, and an artist's residency. And it makes transparent and accessible a process — publishing books — that is usually out of reach and sight of the public."

 

No has been making publishing more accessible since 2009, when she founded Publication Studio in a Portland hotel's event space.

 

Since those humble beginnings, the publishing house has established its own storefront and 11 "sibling studios" from San Francisco to Hudson, N.Y., to Malmo, Sweden, where entrepreneurs can work with authors and print "single run" books for its growing customer base, what No refers to as the "public out of publication."

 

Publication Studio's online library, hosted by the site a.nnotate.com is an example of how the publisher engages its public. As its name implies, a.nnotate.com allows readers to annotate publications, making it a sort of virtual book club for readers all over the globe.

 

"There have been a few books used in classes that have a lot of notes," No said. "That was always part of our model to make our books as widely read as possible. ... Our first book was an e-book. Digital technology is something we embrace.

 

"We started out at a time when there wa a huge crisis among publishers. People were asking, 'What's the future of books?' We said we can do both. If we do one [book] at a time, we can sustain an economy around the physical production of books.

 

"Our physical relationship to a pdf is different than to an actual book."

 

And traditional books are very much a part of the Publication Studio ethos, even though the house has a highly untraditional production method.

 

The print-on-demand, single-copy model allows Publication Studio to take a chance on books and authors that might not be published by conventional houses that have to invest in large initial runs.

 

"Working with writers at the beginning, it was tricky to explain how our model works," No said. "There's not a big run of books, no advance, no free books they can give out. Still, today, people will ask us, 'What's your run?' "

 

All of the books produced by any of the 11 "siblings" or the home office in the Pacific Northwest can be printed at any of the others, purchased online and sold through one of more than 60 affiliated book stores in 10 countries.

 

Because each book is printed "fresh" for the reader, the author has the option to make updates or corrections as needed — not that books don't go through a traditional editing process before the first copy is printed.

 

"Our [editing] philosophy is really to trust the writer," No said. "But the process changes depending on what kind of book it is. If it's fiction or poetry, we try to do as little as possible in terms of writing style but a lot of work in proofreading.

 

"If it's critical writing or essays, we tend to be a little more hands-on editorially."

 

This week's residency at WCMA is not the first artist residency for No, who held a similar program at Yale in 2011.

 

She said she would like to see this residency generate a permanent presence in Williamstown, but there are no specific plans for that to happen — yet.

 

"I would love this one to continue for sure because it's tied to WCMA, which is such an incredible place," No said. "The work coming out of it would be really diverse and exciting.

 

"I think it's in a place for different classes and workshops to use it. One or two people would have to step up and say, 'I want to take over this.' "

 

If that happened, local authors would have access to an independent publisher with a worldwide distribution network.

 

"Our studios work autonomously in what they publish," No said. "We want to stand back and not take so much control. It creates a diverse catalog, and we want to trust everyone starting their own studio.

 

"It's exciting to look at the website and see a new title appear from one of the other studios."

 

Patricia No and Antonia Pinter of Publication Studio Portland will be in residence in the WCMA rotunda from Sept. 25 to Oct. 2. Drop by to catch Patricia and Antonia trimming books, talking shop with classes, or giving pointers on how to achieve the perfect bind. The museum is open Thursday-Monday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. More information at wcma.org.