POULSBO — The list of authors from Kitsap County is a long one, and includes Carol Cassella, Jonathan Evison, Kristin Hannah, Sarah Jio, Debbie Macomber and Gregg Olsen.

The list is about to get considerably larger.

Armed with a vision, the technology of Konica Minolta and a business plan only an MBA could write, the owners of Kitsap Printing in Poulsbo have launched a separate company, Kitsap Publishing.

Their goal: To become a publisher of quality softcover books serving a national and international market.

The company’s off to a good start. Since its launch last year, the company catalog has grown to 18 books — with more to come — in six genres: biography, business, children, family, fiction and science fiction.

Among the authors: a retired Central Kitsap school teacher, a missionary, a retired screenwriter, a parent-partner for Kitsap Mental Health, a recent graduate of Northwest College of Art and Design and a university professor.

Sample titles: “The Winning of Africa / The Life and Times of Eliudi Issangya,” by Daniel Simmering; “Trapped Behind the Iron Curtain / My Life in East Berlin,” by Marita Patos; “Building Your Booming Business: The Five Foundations Every Organization Needs to Succeed,” by David Bryant Mitchell; “Unleashed Leadership / Maximizing Talent & Performance by Opening the Gates of Opportunity,” by Dan Weedin; “Motivations,” by Peter Stockwell; and the “Confessions of Sherlock Holmes,” by Thomas Mengert.

There are some impressive upcoming additions to the stable of authors. Kitsap Publishing will soon republish “Highways and Dancehalls,” a 1995 roman à clef by Canadian-turned-Bainbridge Islander Diana Atkinson. The book was translated into several languages, but is now out of print.

Another upcoming book: “The Bible in 365 Days,” by a local pastor.

To hear owners Ingemar and Barbara Anderson tell the story, the rise of Kitsap Publishing sounds simple. Simple, that is, until Ingemar — who earned an MBA at California Lutheran — breaks out a slideshow presentation that should be worth college credit to the viewer. Whew. Let’s skip that part.

Here’s the abbreviated version:

The Andersons bought Kitsap Printing, a commercial printer on Jensen Way, in 2013. Shortly after, Mengert — a constitutional lawyer and Arthur Conan Doyle-ite — presented them with a printed-and-stapled copy of his published novel based on Sherlock Holmes. Would they consider republishing it?

The Andersons’ interest was piqued. They did some research and found that printing-on-demand technology has made it easy to make a bound book (one manufacturer says its technology can produce a quality book in the time it takes to make a cup of espresso). They already had the in-house design talent and an editor’s eye. The Andersons made the leap into micropublishing.

This is no vanity press. The Andersons consider book proposals and, if accepted, will pay royalties starting at 10 percent; in some cases, they pay an advance. “We don’t make money on the authors. We want to make money on the books,” Ingemar Anderson said.

Kitsap Publishing does the text formatting, book and cover design, printing, book distribution and promotion. It will put up to 500 copies of a book on the market (sorry, unless you’re on the New York Times bestseller list, your book will sell at most about 5,000 copies, according to industry stats) and will reprint and replenish the market as book sales demand; no unsold books taking up storage space.

An editor may be hired to assist with a manuscript needing special attention; the company also contracts for special cover design, audio-book recording, and book distribution. Authors share responsibility for marketing, and are required to make appearances and author signings.

Their first release, Mengert’s “Confessions of Sherlock Holmes,” is stocked by a New York City bookstore during the international Sherlock Convention; “Confessions” has proved to be a big hit.

Mengert believes micropublishing will ease the book-publishing process for authors as much as it does publishers. Under the major-publishing-house system, “You write a proposal and a synopsis of your book and send it in with your manuscript and hope someone sees the thing,” he said. “If you happen to get a rejection letter, there’s no guidance. Here, you walk in and talk to someone and, if your, manuscript needs some work, you get a chance to improve it.”

Kitsap Publishing prides itself on the quality of its design and printing, and the relative ease of doing what it does. “Unleashed Leadership” author Weedin agrees.

Weedin is a professional leadership coach and trainer, a blogger on the subject, and a former president of the North Kitsap School Board. “Unleashed Leadership” is his third book. One of his books was self-published. Another was published by a publishing house in the United Kingdom. He said Kitsap Publishing has been his best experience.

“It’s all good,” Weedin said. “I’m thrilled with the Ingemar’s responsiveness and his project management style. In fact, we spent an hour today walking through the marketing part of it.”

“Unleashed Leadership” will be released in October.

Anderson admits that Kitsap Publishing is currently not as selective as it may be in the future. But that doesn’t mean it’s not selective at all.

“We want to have big titles out there,” Anderson said.

Their equipment enables them to print some copies of a book for an author whose work isn’t going to make it on the market. Some manuscripts that show potential might run through an editing gauntlet before being ready for bookshelves.

Take “Free Range Protocol / Tales of the Tschaaa Infestation,” by Marshall Miller, about a species of squid-like aliens that invade Earth.

Storyline: “They came to Earth to eat us. Homo sapiens became the Tschaaa Alien’s main meat source. Some humans fought, some tried to hide, others just died … Adam Lloyd arose with a plan to save some at the expense of others.”

Mengert, contracted to edit the hefty tome, believed the book was a compelling read but needed to be pared down to make it palatable for the average reader.

“He had written “the ‘War and Peace’ of alien squid novels,” Mengert quipped.

Editor and author worked together and finished with a volume of 13 dark short stories that serve as the prelude for a novel to be published in early 2016.

Kitsap Publishing also publishes e-books, but the staff believes in the enduring value of the printed book –- that holding and reading a book is an experience, that there’s value in a book that has been through an editing and formatting and design process that only a publishing company can offer.

Barbara Anderson is an avid reader of e-books and printed books. She prefers print.

“It’s an experience from start to finish,” she said. “You can take it with you. You can keep it on a shelf. I’m inclined to buy a book on Kindle, but if I really like a book, I want it in print.”

Mengert added, “A book is an artifact and a work of art. You can annotate it, it’s easy to review what you’ve read. It’s not just information, it’s an experience. And the book store is a social experience you won’t get reading a book on a tablet.”

ONLINE: www.kitsappublishing.com