Comma Press
Bringing the independent publisher experience to the masses
Comma Press are a not-for-profit publishing house with a reputation for championing world class short fiction – publishing marginalised and cutting edge voices. Their award-winning publications include short stories and anthologies from new and established writers in science fiction, horror, and interdisciplinary commissions that pair researchers and authors to explore science and history.
Comma Press came to Field with a two part challenge: to rebrand the business to reflect their international reputation, and to update their website in line with the rebrand. Established in 2007 by Ra Page and Sarah Eyre, the brand was feeling tired and didn’t communicate their breadth of works, or position them as the go-to publishers for short stories. Their website needed to act as a hub for all their activity, including a blog, events, news and resources, and the website’s user experience and e-commerce journey needed clarity.
Field brought minimalism and breathing space to Comma Press’s identity and website which in turn let their lead offer of short stories come to the forefront. The ‘comma’ which had become a synonymous logo marque for them was freed from the container box it once lived in. Contrary to the cautionary phrase, the book cover became the hero through the use of the realistic, and updatable mock-up templates. These easily updatable website templates let Comma Press display their forever expanding library and champion selected titles in all their glory throughout the site. The colour palette uses pastel tones with a few bolder colours, drawing the eye to the titles, books, events and resources, all selected by Comma Press to help address the inherent biases in the publishing industry.
Behind the scenes, their web platform was rebuilt with modern eCommerce sensibilities in mind. Tried and tested features such as cross-selling and recommended purchases based on cart contents were some obvious starting points, but Comma Press had larger ambitions. Previously, limited shipping options made non-standard product items prohibitively complicated and costly. To address this, Field developed a shipping module that gave Comma Press custom rules for different products, allowing them to fine tune the international shipping options for awkward shaped packages. In addition, this has also allowed new revenue streams for Comma Press in the form of subscription packages and multi-book bundles - both offerings have since taken off to great commercial success.
Andy Marshall, Head of Digital, FieldIn a world where large-scale online shopping has eaten into the smaller independent book shops, especially post-Covid, it was important for us to bring some of that physicality and personality into Comma Press’ new website. From the moment you arrive at the website, we wanted it to feel like you were in an independent book shop, browsing for a new book to take home. To this end, we placed the book covers front and centre, using subtle motion and shadows to elevate them from the page, to remind the user they were holding a book, made of real paper that you could almost smell, taking it to the till, where other books might catch their eye, to be added to their purchase. Ultimately, we wanted the user to regain that joy of buying a tangible product in a world that had lost some of that physical contact, to feel invested in their purchase, and by extension, invested in the success of the author and publisher.
Basma Ghalayini, Operations Officer, Comma PressThere has been a huge increase in the bundles and subscriptions sales. The website has definitely had a big impact on our exposure.Besides the huge impact on exposure within the industry and for customers, our new website has also helped us grow as a business. We used to get a lot of complaints about the postage flat rate, not to mention that we were losing money on postage costs. The postage module that Field built for us has meant that we could go ahead with bundles and subscriptions, leading to a 100% increase in sales of these two offerings.
Working with Field has been a seamless process from theory to implementation, they took the time to understand what Comma is about in order for this to be reflected on our website. Their team was very responsive, professional, and clear with its instructions throughout, which is a testament to their knowledge and professionalism. Once the website was live, they were prompt and on point with addressing any queries we had. Not to mention how genuinely warm and friendly they were which made it all easier.
