All Blue · World
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Vision and responsibility

Our
commitments

A publishing group is not judged on its catalogue alone. It is judged on how it treats its authors, how it makes its books, and on what it gives back to what surrounds it. Here is what we hold ourselves to.

01

Our values

Six principles govern our decisions, from the choice of a text to the way it is made, distributed and shared.

Passing on

Publishing means putting knowledge, stories and experience into circulation. We publish in order to pass things on, and we hold ourselves to speaking plainly: about what a book contains, about what we know, and about what we still do not.

Supporting

An author, a startup, a bookseller do not need a service desk but a team beside them. We follow a first novel the way we follow a company project: all the way, with the resources of the group.

Staying independent

No shareholder outside the group decides what we publish. That independence governs the rest: the texts we choose, the authors we defend, the time we give them.

Opening books to everyone

Financially accessible, with prices held steady and a second life for every copy. Technically accessible too: our digital titles are produced as accessible EPUB, readable by screen readers and braille displays, with no lock beyond digital watermarking.

Giving back

A share of revenue, the climate contribution, the books given to charities and schools. Part of what the world brings us, we give back, and we publish what that amounts to.

Always searching

Every title is the subject of dedicated innovation work: augmented reality, holographic content, audio, interactive formats. Innovation serves the text and the reader, never the technical demonstration.

02

What we commit to

  1. Answering every author Every application receives a reasoned answer within six weeks. Silence is the most widespread practice in the industry, and the most contemptuous.
  2. Showing everything to our authors Every author has a space where they follow the making of their book step by step, then their sales and their royalties, updated continuously. Transparency is not promised, it is shown.
  3. Readable contracts We publish at the publisher’s expense. The contract is written in plain language, digital and audiovisual rights are negotiated separately, and royalty statements are annual and detailed.
  4. Working with booksellers Our own networks are not built against independents. We apply the same terms to everyone, and our authors sign books in shops other than ours.
  5. Opening the list Our collections welcome voices that mainstream publishing rarely meets: first novels, diaspora authors, texts from countries without a structured publishing industry.
  6. Accessible books Our digital titles are produced as accessible EPUB, readable by screen readers and braille displays. We do not lock our files beyond digital watermarking.
03

Climate contribution

Fruit trees

We fund the planting of fruit trees in arid areas with

Choosing fruit trees is not incidental. A tree planted for carbon storage alone interests nobody locally and is often abandoned. An orchard produces income. The families who tend it have a reason to keep it alive, and the programme creates work where there is little.

Each year we will report the number of trees funded, the areas covered, the number of households involved and the methodology used for assessment.

We speak of a climate contribution, not of carbon neutrality or offsetting. Funding plantations does not remove the emissions linked to making our books: it funds a separate, measurable action whose results we publish. Our main effort is on reduction, described below.

What we will publish

Trees funded Areas planted Households involved Trees still alive after three years Assessment methodology Partners and budgets
04

How we print

In publishing, the first avoidable waste is the printed book that ends up destroyed. We print at volume in order to be everywhere, so we built a strategy to make sure no copy is ever pulped.

No pulping

An unsold book is never destroyed. It goes to other sales channels at a discount, or it is given to charities, schools, libraries and reading programmes. Every printed copy must end up in a reader’s hands.

An organised second life

That second life is not improvised at the end of a season. Clearance channels and charity partners are identified when a title is launched, with volumes and deadlines.

Printing close to our markets

Printing in Europe for the European lists, in North America for the American list. Shipping a book across an ocean weighs more than making it.

Certified paper

FSC or PEFC paper from sustainably managed forests, and recycled fibre whenever the finish of the book allows it.

Recyclable manufacturing

Vegetable inks, PUR perfect binding, no plastic lamination on covers. A book must be able to enter the paper stream without being sorted by hand.

Formats without offcuts

Our formats are set to printers’ standard web widths, which removes several per cent of wasted paper on every print run.

Measuring title by title

Every book carries its estimated footprint, paper, printing and transport included. Without measurement, a commitment is only a statement.

05

What we support

Three organisations we support over time, with funding as well as skills.

  1. EDN — Entrepreneurship & Diversity Network A non-profit incubator that puts entrepreneurs on the road to success. It backs our projects and we back its own: our legal, marketing and editorial teams work alongside the entrepreneurs it mentors.
  2. #IStandByYou A partner in our planting programme, the association works with disadvantaged communities by creating lasting economic activity rather than distributing one-off aid.
  3. Wallah We Can The association runs projects on access to education and local development. We contribute through donations of children’s books and by funding reading projects.
06

Education

With Limitless Education, Eight and MIT

Passing on knowledge is a publisher’s first job. The group takes it seriously: producing books with those who teach, and putting books into the hands of those who have none.

  1. Knowledge partnerships We build collections with academic institutions and teachers, who bring the scientific content while we bring the editorial craft, the production and the distribution.
  2. Books for specific courses Textbooks, reference works and materials designed for one school or one programme, with its teachers, rather than generic books adapted afterwards.
  3. Book donations Our unsold copies and dedicated print runs go to schools, libraries and reading programmes, in Africa first. It is the main outlet of our no-pulping policy.
  4. Four regions The United States, Europe, Africa and the Middle East. The first programmes start shortly, with the group partners.
A question about our commitments? Press, charity partners, suppliers: write to us and we will answer within a few working days.
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