Oficinas TK, the story so far - micro publishing

This whole idea began forming many years ago, and it took some more or less organized forms over time until all vectors and stars were aligned to become OTK.

One of OTK's most important ventures is translating and publishing texts that I find interesting, and that are not easily available (or at all) in the portuguese language, and it all started out with the idea of making a better translation of the (very (in)famous) 'The Book of the Law' by british occultist Aleister Crowley; a better one than the one I had, made by a a very interesting portuguese publishing house called Hugin (now gone), that nonetheless had made a very poor translation available back in 1998. Noteworthy was the inclusion of a fac-simile version of the original manuscript.

O Livro das To-sin

---

Well, when you set out to translate one of the fundamental texts of Thelema, and one considered an important part of the core of their religious system, you do it with a sense of quest, or at least, so I did.
I am not a Thelemite, but I am very familiar with that tradition and so I felt confident that I could present an upgraded version in the portuguese language - which I truly believe I did.

When I finished the translation, to which I also added a fac-simile of the manuscript and a rendering of another poem that was relevant, I started thinking on how would this object look. I had invested emotionally a lot on it and I wanted it to show it; books look like books but this wasn't just a book.

O Livro da Lei

---

All of OTK's books are made 'in house', meaning that I not only translate them but I also do the editing, composition, cover design and printing as well as the binding. In order to tackle all the necessary steps I rely on some of my past experiences both in DTP and translation but, most of all, on a very important 'no budget' strategy that I developed through the years.
If I wanted to make accessible books (average price is 10eur) I had to save on production which led me to buy a cheap laser printer to print the pages, making the covers in linocut and manually bind them with a 4 stitch stab technique. Although I make runs of 93 copies of each title, I only print them on demand, which allows me to control both stock and budget as I go.

Taking control of the whole production process not only allowed me to make them exactly as I wanted them (which is nice if you're an independent publisher) but also, paradoxically, turned them into very unique items that don't just look like books.

Sete Sermões aos Mortos

---

Since that first one, publish in the Fall Equinox of 2015, I have translated and published 5 more: The Seven Sermon to the Dead by Carl Jung, The Soul of the Indian by Charles Eastman, Tabula Smaragdina by Hermes, the Book of To Sin by Al Halaj and CAOS by Hakim Bey.
On a local scale I've been selling these at urban markets, independent publishers fairs and three book stores :) globally, I've been reaching out to readers (portuguese but not only), through my online store and also with the free digital versions (when I find the time I make a PDF version without comments and footnotes) I publish at my webpage (progressively being moved to archive.org).

CAOS

---

So far I have sold 249 physical copies of all titles (Seven Sermons being sold out) and 212 online readers have downloaded a free PDF copy. I have spotted copies of some of my books being sold at specialty occultist bookstores, and a copy of my rendition of The Book of the Law now resides in the O.T.O. archives. My readers span across Europe, the Americas, Africa, and a bit of Asia which exceeds by far the expectations I've might have had about this publishing project.

And I did all by myself while developing my other work in print, engraving, historical photography and digital art so, reflecting on these past three years, I must say that I am very proud of myself :)