The story
Founded by Benjamin Bess in 1979.1
The company was created after the 1978 Constitutional Convention which mandated all schools to teach the history of Hawaii, creating an instant nationwide demand for history books.
Bess bought the rights to two out-of-print textbooks on Hawaiian language, Hawaii: The Aloha State and Hawaii: Our Island State that local schools asked about when he was a sales representative for mainland publishers. He reprinted both volumes for $15,000, and pre-sold the copies, thus making a profit.
The publishing house has been an Amazon first-party vendor since the 1990s. In the late 2000s, Bess Press lost 20% of its distribution network when Borders went under.
Bess Press has 5 publishing divisions and a store in Kaimuki. In 2011, it acquired the local publishing company Editions Limited. David DeLuca was named director of publishing in 2012.
From Wikipedia’s article on Bess Press, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3