Oratia Media marks 25 years with launch of Five Oceans imprint

 

Oratia Media is celebrating its 25^th birthday, having been founded on 31 August 2000 by Peter Dowling and Alessandra Zecchini in Oratia, West Auckland. 

 

Initially a publishing services business for clients in New Zealand, Japan and Europe, Oratia Media later broadened its scope, while Peter maintained a full-time role at Reed Publishing (NZ).

Alessandra Zecchini

Business included cooking classes, food writing and styling, managing charity Te Potiki National Trust, business and travel journalism, teaching, translation and contract publishing. 

Hard work over those early years laid the foundation for the company’s own publishing under the Oratia Books brand. Since 2008 it has published more than 220 own and commissioned books. 

Peter Dowling

‘Sincere thanks to our team and all the authors, illustrators, clients, photographers, editors, designers, distributors, printers, booksellers, librarians, teachers, students, reviewers and readers who have been with us on this journey,’ the founders said today. 

 

Oratia Books’ philosophy is to publish and keep in print new and classic works, marketing across New Zealand with active distribution and rights deal worldwide. 

The Treaty of Waitangi, Margaret Mahy Book of the Year 2025 

That international approach led in 2021 to the BOP Bologna Prize for Best Children’s Publisher in Oceania. A further accolade came this month with Ross Calman’s The Treaty of Waitangi named Margaret Mahy Book of the Year in the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. 

 

To mark its 25^th anniversary, Oratia Books is launching a new international imprint, Five Oceans. This new list will bring literary non-fiction and children’s books to Oceania from cultures whose works are under-represented in English, let alone in Polynesian languages. 

 

First comes The Ant Rebellion, a bestselling junior novel from Turkey, in October, then Finnish picture book Thank you, Forest in November. Books from India and Norway are next up in 2026. 

‘We look forward to extending Oratia’s activities to all five oceans of our planet,’ said Peter, who is developing the imprint with Rome-based Maria Leonardi, international rights manager.

 

‘With Five Oceans, we aim to bring outstanding writing and illustration into our languages, while encouraging cultural exchange to and from Aotearoa.’

Taking pride in our publishing services

While it is Oratia's successful trade publishing programme that has built the company's profile and reputation in recent years, custom publishing and communications services have always been at the core of its business. 

Peter Dowling and Alessandra Zecchini founded Oratia Media in August 2000 to help organisations and individuals create the best possible books and communications. 

From a small base of clients in Japan, Europe and New Zealand, the company has expanded over almost 20 years to provide companies and authors around the world with a wide range of services. 

Recent book projects undertaken for public policy advocate Owen Gill and Archetype Book Agents 

Book projects have spanned full-colour, hardback company histories to short-run, black & white paperbacks for self-publishing authors.

Books for individuals, charitable societies, clubs and companies

We now advise widely on best options for production and marketing domestically and internationally, drawing on our decades of collective experience in the book business. 

That includes representing books from other publishers and authors at international book fairs, brokering the best print or digital options, and advising on rights and distribution. 

Our own and clients' books at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2019

Annual reports, magazine supplements and articles, special editions and media planning form a further arm of the Oratia Media portfolio.

Having a multicultural staff and network of contributors enables work across cultures in a range of languages, with particular demand for Māori, Italian and Spanish work.

An English-Spanish supplement produced by Oratia in 2016

As a small team we work closely and collaboratively to create the optimal outcome for our partners, making the often complex business of publishing easy to manage. 

So while it is the Oratia Books list that is more visible these days, it is services work that underpins our business. 

Oratia provided all editorial services for The Tindall Foundation's Annual Report in recent year, including 2018/19 (pictured above)

Indeed, we are just as proud of products finished to the requirements of clients as we are of our own books. 

Please get in touch with Peter (peter@oratia.co.nz, 027 614 8993) to find out how we can help you achieve your publishing and communication goals.

Here's what Owen Gill, author of Turning Point Auckland (published February 2019) had to say about working with us:

"Peter Dowling and the team at Oratia made what could have been a dry policy book into a creative tour de force, mostly by bringing outstanding design and editing to the book. The book was published on-budget and on-time, and to a good reception in the media, which was also arranged by Oratia. I strongly recommend Peter and Oratia for private publishing projects like mine."

Oratia Media - helping authors and organisations to publish

Oratia Media, which publishes Libro International books, is primarily a publishing services business that works with individuals and groups to produce a range of publications and text.

Booksellers New Zealand has just profiled Oratia Media in an interesting article on how major changes in the world of books over recent years have led to more self-publishing and contract services:

http://www.booksellers.co.nz/members/services-membership/shades-self-publishing-no-longer-diy-challenge