

Arkane Publishing: A New Chapter in the Story of Creative Independence
The publishing landscape has significantly changed over the past decade. The world that once revolved around a few large corporations has expanded into a constellation of smaller, agile studios led by authors, designers, and visionaries. Arkane Publishing was founded to exist in that space of possibility. Today, stories can travel across borders in hours, and creative independence becomes a powerful choice.
As an imprint of Tobassa Ltd, Arkane represents a new model of literary craftsmanship—where art, intellect, and integrity meet. We bring together the creative freedom of the independent author with the professionalism of a publishing house. In doing so, we restore what publishing was always meant to be: a bridge between the storyteller and the world.

The Changing Face of Publishing
Every book begins with an idea—but how that idea reaches readers depends on the ecosystem it travels through. Traditionally, publishing was dominated by the Big Five: global houses whose prestige and marketing reach shaped literary culture. Their impact remains enormous, yet their scale can limit the kinds of voices and subjects they can carry.
Alongside them, an equally important movement has flourished—the rise of small and medium independent publishers. These presses are often genre-specialists or artistic collectives that care deeply about design, author partnership, and editorial quality. They are nimble, personal, and open to work that sits outside conventional boundaries.
Over the past twenty years, digital innovation has completely reshaped the way books are made and shared. Print-on-demand platforms, eBooks, and direct-to-reader models have allowed thousands of writers to bypass the barriers that once defined the literary world. This democratisation has created new challenges—oversaturation, inconsistent quality, and visibility struggles—yet it has also inspired a wave of creativity and experimentation. Within this evolving landscape, studio imprints have emerged as a balanced response: combining the autonomy of independent authorship with the rigour of editorial curation and design craftsmanship.
A studio imprint acts as a creative atelier: a space where editorial precision, visual design, and narrative artistry converge. This is the category Arkane Publishing inhabits.

What Arkane Publishing Studio Does
A publishing studio operates with both heart and craft. It designs and produces books end-to-end—from concept to cover—while maintaining the author’s full creative sovereignty. It blends strategic publishing knowledge with design sensibility and long-form editorial care.
For readers, this means books that feel different. They carry a distinct visual signature, a thoughtful interior layout, and a sense of cohesion that mirrors the integrity of their content. For authors, it offers professional guidance without surrendering ownership or intent.
Arkane Publishing works within this model as the creative imprint of Tobassa Ltd—a company with roots in writing, design, and transformation consulting. This foundation allows Arkane to integrate disciplines: anthropology, psychology, literature, and visual communication. Each project is treated as both a narrative and a cultural artefact.
In practical terms, Arkane performs every function of a publishing house—editorial development, art direction, production, distribution, and rights management—while retaining the soul of an artist’s studio.
A recent example is The Shaman’s Curse, the first release under the Sacred Songs from Silence series. Its path from manuscript to finished book reflected Arkane’s studio philosophy: intensive developmental editing shaped the narrative arc; design principles from visual arts informed the typography and layout; and cultural sensitivity reviews ensured ethical accuracy in representing place and tradition. Each layer of work reinforced the others, resulting in a cohesive artistic statement rather than a commodity. This integrative process defines what we mean by publishing as studio practice.

Why Independence Doesn't Mean Alone
Independence in publishing is not isolation; it is collaboration guided by purpose. A modern small press thrives through networks—of editors, proofreaders, cover artists, formatters, printers, and distributors. Technology has enabled creative specialists across continents to work as a single, integrated team.
At Arkane, every collaboration begins with a clear intent. The story’s essence defines its design, its pacing, and even the texture of its typography. We view publishing as a living ecosystem, one where every contributor brings depth to the whole.
Around the world, a quiet renaissance of small publishers is underway. From literary collectives in Africa and Southeast Asia to art-book ateliers in Europe, creative communities are building new networks of exchange. These presses collaborate rather than compete, sharing translators, designers, and distribution platforms. Arkane participates in this movement through dialogue, partnership, and mutual support. Independence, in this sense, is not separation—it is belonging to a larger creative ecosystem that values integrity and exchange over scale.
Being independent allows us to respond quickly, tailor decisions to each author, and hold an uncompromising standard for quality. It also allows our authors to be active participants in shaping their creative destiny. Independence, in this sense, becomes a shared act of authorship.

The Arkane Approach: Craft, Authenticity, and Purpose
Arkane Publishing is guided by three founding principles—craft, authenticity, and purpose.
Craft is our foundation. Every stage of production is treated as an art form—from manuscript development to print finish. We use design as language, typography as rhythm, and structure as storytelling. Each book is a work of aesthetic and narrative coherence.
Authenticity shapes our curation. We publish work that carries emotional truth, psychological depth, and artistic integrity. Our flagship series, Sacred Songs from Silence, embodies this commitment. The series merges romance and thriller with mystical realism—a mode that treats divine and suprasensory dimensions as living aspects of reality, approached with respect and seriousness.
Purpose defines our horizon. Arkane is not built on volume or trend. We measure success by connection: the reader’s experience, the resonance of ideas, and the timelessness of craft. Our work invites reflection, empathy, and transformation—both personal and cultural.
In this way, Arkane stands not as an intermediary between author and reader, but as a creative companion that ensures every story meets the world with clarity and beauty.

Arkane Publishing: A Studio With a Larger Vision
Arkane Publishing began as the publishing wing of Vivienne Tobassa’s own literary work, but it was never intended to remain solitary. Its broader vision is to become a staging stable for aligned authors—those whose voices bring consciousness, courage, and originality to contemporary storytelling.
Looking ahead, Arkane intends to mentor new authors who carry similar values of consciousness and craft. Future collaborations may include short-form essays, multimedia storytelling, or even adaptations that bridge book, screen, and sound. The goal is not simply to publish more titles, but to cultivate a living network of creators—each exploring the sacred dialogue between imagination and reality in their own distinctive way.
We believe small presses are the heartbeat of the literary world. They sustain experimentation, protect diversity, and nurture voices that major houses overlook. Arkane’s long-term goal is to build a collective of such voices—a constellation of independent creators working with shared values of truth, artistry, and evolution.
Every story we publish contributes to that ecosystem. It becomes part of a dialogue between cultures, disciplines, and imaginations—a meeting point between sacred and contemporary worlds.

The Reader's Experience
Publishing is not complete when the book is printed—it continues in the moment a reader touches the page, hears the words, or feels the rhythm of the language. At Arkane, design begins with that encounter. We ask: What emotion should this sentence leave behind? How should the page breathe?
Every layout is composed to honour pause and flow. Margins give space for reflection; chapter openings act as gateways into mood and meaning. Colour, type, and texture are selected not to impress but to invite intimacy. In the digital edition, typography mirrors the tempo of the print version, maintaining aesthetic coherence across formats.
A book, to us, is not a product but an environment. Its atmosphere is built through tone, pacing, and silence as much as through words. Our readers often describe Arkane titles as immersive because they carry an invisible architecture—one that welcomes the reader into a dialogue rather than a broadcast. In an era of speed and distraction, this contemplative design philosophy reconnects reading with mindfulness.

Technology As a Craft Partner
Arkane embraces technology not as a replacement for creativity, but as an extension of it. The modern publishing studio lives at the intersection of human intuition and digital precision. Artificial intelligence, for example, can assist with structural editing, quality control, and metadata optimisation—but only under human guidance.
We see these tools as part of the craft ecosystem. They allow us to streamline production while deepening attention to artistry. Digital design suites, colour calibration tools, and on-demand printing technologies expand what is possible without diminishing the human hand behind the work.
The key lies in intention. Technology amplifies whatever values drive it. At Arkane, that value is consciousness—awareness of meaning, ethics, and impact. We use technology to elevate storytelling, not to homogenise it. This approach ensures that innovation enhances authenticity, turning machines into collaborators in the creative process rather than its competitors.

Global Roots Local Reach
Every story has a landscape, and every landscape carries memory. Although Arkane distributes internationally, our creative compass remains attuned to place—its languages, symbols, and living traditions. The imprint was born in Aotearoa New Zealand, a land of layered mythologies and luminous nature. This grounding shapes how we approach all cross-cultural work: with reverence for origin and curiosity for connection.
We collaborate with illustrators, translators, and cultural consultants across continents, ensuring that representation is both accurate and artful. Our goal is not to universalise but to honour the particular—to let each culture speak in its own cadence while contributing to a shared human conversation.
Through these relationships, Arkane functions as both local artisan and global bridge. We believe that literature’s strength lies in diversity, and that the independent studio is the ideal vessel for carrying that richness into the world.

Looking Ahead
The future of publishing is multidimensional. It belongs to creators who understand both the art and the architecture of communication. Arkane Publishing embraces this reality by weaving design thinking, narrative psychology, and cultural awareness into every project.
As technology reshapes how stories travel, we continue to honour what makes them eternal: their power to move the human spirit. Our role is to ensure those stories are carried with beauty, precision, and purpose.
Arkane exists to champion living literature—works that challenge, uplift, and endure.
We invite readers, writers, and creative professionals to follow our journey, explore our series, and join the growing conversation about what it means to publish consciously in the twenty-first century.

Arkane Publishing Creative Roadmap
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Continuing the Sacred Songs from Silence series, tracing mythic arcs through love, loss, and awakening
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Expanding into non-fiction, exploring consciousness, transformation, and creative philosophy
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Developing multimedia storytelling, including cinematic audio editions and “Behind the Aria” features
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Forming collaborations with authors, artists, and innovators aligned with Arkane’s ethos
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Building global reach, offering translations in French, Spanish, and beyond
Collaboration and Community
Arkane Publishing House is more than a brand — it is a movement of creative awareness.
It exists to remind us that story is sacred, art is intelligent, and consciousness itself is the author of all beauty.
—Vivienne Tobassa
Vivienne Tobassa is a leader in business change, culture, and communications who has recently transitioned into professional publishing of fiction and non-fiction works, founding the Arkane entrepreneurial creator studio. Also an anthropologist and author, her current release, “The Shaman’s Curse”, is a dark romantic thriller set in Bali, Indonesia. Get it on Amazon here.

Issue 1, October 2025
Legends are made in the telling…
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