OR Books from OR Books on Vimeo.

As Rupert Murdoch tries to ban the Internet in a fruitless effort to save traditional printed newspapers, others are looking to the web to offer innovative, new modes of publishing to help keep the industry afloat. Although some people still refer to self-publishing through channels like Lulu as ‘guerrilla’, more and more people from traditional mainstream publishing backgrounds are catching on to the possibilities inherent in exploiting current technologies to invigorate a dying industry.

Take John Oakes and Colin Robinson. Between them they have institutional credentials like the Associated Press, New York Times, the Guardian, CNN … and they have jumped ship from the traditional publishing industry to start their own press called OR Books. They are founded on the principal of ‘Platform Agnostic Publishing’, meaning they are willing to use whatever platform and means necessary to sell their books. The term ‘Agnostic’ usually references someone who is skeptical about faith – it’s the “I don’t know” answer to the question “Do you believe in God.” Although the origins of the word as applied to publishing are hard to source, it seems to refer to a skepticism about choosing just one channel (i.e. print) and the willingness to experiment with multiple ‘answers’ to the distribution problem.

If a consumer wants a hard copy, OR Books will print it and ship it off (but not until the order has come in – no pre-buy runs, no waste). If you want an e-book at a reduced price, they’ll do that too. The only thing they won’t do is sell to you through an intermediary – they want to interact directly with their clients. Oh, and they also use every tool known to the Internet to market their products, including movie trailers for books. Although they don’t offer the range of innovative options Cory Doctorow does in the distribution of his latest book, they are kicking the crap out of Murdoch who is probably closer to their age demographic and background.

One of the best things about OR Books is that because they don’t have a huge bureaucracy, their “system allows a rapid publishing turnaround so relevant books can intervene quickly in issues of the day.” A few weeks ago Sarah Palin released her book Going Rogue and within days, OR Books released their response called Going Rouge, an impressive to-the-moment book about America’s obsession with Palin, written by some leading cultural critics. Yours for $16 in paperback, $10 for the book or $20 for both.