Our Story

JaCol is an independent company, founded in 2012. In 2017, we went through an ideological shift and currently publish between 2 to 3 books a month. We have published 30 titles and are committed to our authors to continue pushing their titles through advertising and cooperative projects. Our books are both fiction and non fiction. They include genres from children’s titles to biographies.

Our financial support comes from the editing service of RAES editing, which funds our publishing ambitions. RAES is the genesis of the JaCol, and all titles come through that services before being published with the JaCol label. Our focus is on material that reads well, is tightly constructed, and has well conceived plot lines. We want to entertain, but we delight in transcendent works. We also have created a family of writers at JaCol, and our purpose isn’t to just publish and push our writers out the door. We are family with those we work with and stick with our authors. We are based on the west coast of the United States (Los Angeles and Seattle) but we have clients all over the world.

JaCol’s History

The genesis for JaCol began with a 40 year friendship between two Pacific Northwest friends. Colleen Ries and Randall Andrews had gone their separate ways, Colleen managing a large company in the Pacific Northwest, and Randall becoming a writer/editor in Los Angeles. Over the years, Randall had penned several manuscripts, but his writing for studios kept his work in boxes and desktop screens. In 2012, they reconnected due to social media, and Colleen began to digest many of Randall’s stories. She had an idea to form a publishing company for Randall’s work. She funded the operation, and Randall set about editing some of his older pieces. By October of that year, they’d put together three of his books on essays and one of his novels. Due to medical issues by both parties, JaCol only managed nine titles over the next five years. (Five of those were Randall’s; the other four came from authors hired through RAES.) In 2017, Colleen decided to take less of a role, and Andrew stepped in. Randall had been running a boot camp for writers, and many of those went on to edit their work through RAES and from there needed a publisher. Randall made the decision to offer publishing contracts with those authors. Prior to 2017, the operation required authors buy 100 copies at cost, (JaCol asserted that authors could sell those 100 at full profit and make the profit necessary to make the writing journey worthwhile.) However, outside voices argued that was a form of Vanity Publishing, and JaCol contends then, as well as now, that they aren’t a Vanity. “We are a cooperative, collaborative publisher. We have never forced an author to buy copies, but we have strongly encouraged them to—for their own gain.” Randall Andrews. However, pressed by this accusation, as well as acquiring a non-domestic author, Randall was forced to use a global printing company rather than the previous BookMasters they’d used for all their previous titles. The strengths of the global printer were their ties to Amazon and their ability to publish on demand. Randall has continued to encourage authors to buy their own books at cost, but now if they choose to, they can do so in much lower totals. A huge fan of other artistic mediums, Randall has hired painters and artists over the last couple of years to do cover art for many of their titles. “I don’t want clip art. I want our covers to be something readers can find interesting.” Randall Andrews. JaCol still works on shoestring budgets, but their writers are their biggest fans and help support JaCol with wonderful recommendations. JaCol is alive and thriving and hope to see 40 titles published per year. “These authors are very near and dear to me. I work with them through the editing process, through the publishing process, and through the rest of the book’s life. I want JaCol to be around long after I’m gone, and I want it to be a place of quality and substance.” Randall Andrews.