Category — Entrepreneurs

“Farmer Hoggett knew little ideas that tickled and nagged and refused to go away, should never be ignored; for in them lie the seeds of destiny.”
Babe.

I used to write a blog called “Idea Girl.” I moved a lot of the posts over here when I started this blog, and although the name “Idea Girl” is a little bit childish (for I am certainly no “girl” – at least, not any more), it is really apt. I am a person who is FULL of ideas. Ideas that don’t get acted on very often, for I am no fool, but many ideas nonetheless.

I used to think everyone experienced this, but now I know differently. I like to think of myself as creative, but others might just think I’m flaky. Or over-opinionated. It’s possibly a symptom of a pathology, or at least a character trait that puts me in one of the lesser-known Meyers Briggs personality categories.

Anyway, Farmer Hoggett and me – we have something in common.

Earlier today I found myselfclicking on a link to an article on Oprah.com about Cathie Black, the president of Hearst magazines. Now, I have mixed feelings about old Oprah and even if I didn’t have to be at my Day Job when her show was on I probably wouldn’t watch it, mostly because I’m not interested in most of her topics. But if there’s one thing I lurve about old Oprah is her guests that promote empowerment of women.

Right on, sister!

I also love reading success stories about women in business. In my Day Job I am not a woman in business. I work in the field of education, which has its own set of rules about success…namely, there is no top to rise to, there is no reward, financial or otherwise, for working hard, and conformity is valued way more than new ideas.

If you know me, then you know I don’t fit in here.

Anyhoo, Cathie Black has a new book coming out and so the interview on the website (and the guest appearance on old Oprah’s show) is promoting it. The interview itself is okay – it’s about ways you can succeed in business, etc. etc. I am willing to bet the book will be an enjoyable read (note to self: get it from the library). But the best part of the interview, for me, was its little preamble about taking risk. Here’s what she says:

Taking a risk is scary when you focus on what can go wrong and exciting when you consider the benefits if all goes well. The trick is to think about risk in the right way and use it to your advantage. Most people see taking risks as opening themselves up to unnecessary, even dangerous, chance. But the truth is, avoiding risk won’t keep you safe, nor will it guarantee a smooth ride.

In fact, the opposite is often true. It’s like the monkey parable: A monkey sees a nut in a hole and reaches in to grab it. Once he’s closed his fist around it, he can’t get his hand back out of the narrow opening. He can’t free himself unless he lets go of the nut, but because he’s afraid to lose it, he won’t let go.

Trying to avoid risk is like clinging to that nut. You may think you’re playing it safe by holding on to what you have, but in reality you’re just hindering your own progress.

I love this. I love how she says that not taking the risk can actually hold you back. In a way, not taking a risk is more risky than taking it, when you think of all you have to lose by playing it safe.

I getting excited for some risky business of my own.

This is the third interview in a series of discussions I’ll be having with owners of small, start-up presses who specialize in books for children. It’s my hope that by interviewing these folks we’ll all get a better sense of the trials and successes of D.I.Y. publishing. Some of the people I’m interviewing started as self-publishers, and some of them started publishing other people.

If you would like to be considered for an interview, please contact me at adrienne@drtpress.com.

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Ryan Jacobson is the author of the Santa Claus Super Spy series, Joe Lee and the Boo, Lost in the Wild, Dracula, and Doubloon. He published the Santa Claus Super Spy books through his small press, Lake7Creative, and Joe Lee and the Boo is the first for his next venture, an imprint called Getchu Books. His websites are http://www.lake7creative.com and http://www.ryanjacobsononline.com

I’ve read that your small press had an interesting beginning. Why did you decide to create your own company?

I’m probably a model for how NOT to start a publishing company. I rushed into it, made rash decisions and didn’t know what I didn’t know. But at least I can blame it on necessity. I launched Lake 7 Creative in 2005 because my wife and I desperately wanted to adopt a child—to start a family after years of infertility. We had $3,000, but we needed to turn it into $16,000 in order to afford the adoption expenses. I used what money we had to self-publish Santa Claus: Super Spy: The Case of the Florida Freeze. Needless to say, it worked. We have a beautiful two-and-a-half-year-old boy, Jonah, and I’ve since been able to publish two more books in the series, as well as a picture book.

And your self-publishing experience had another unexpected benefit?

Yes, two years ago I landed a job at Adventure Publications, a more traditional publisher. I’ve also written a choose-your-path book for them.

How are you able to balance both jobs and a family?

It’s not easy. In truth, I think my publishing company would be a lot more successful if I dared to make it my full-time job. But I’m not that brave. Not yet, anyway. So I work my day job, spend time with my family and steal a moment here and there to take care of the business. Usually it’s during my lunch break, after Jonah has gone to bed and on weekends. For now, I’m doing well enough selling my books at school visits and author appearances. But it would be nice to one day tackle distribution and store sales.

How have you gotten the word out about your books? Do you have any tips or tricks in terms of marketing?

Marketing has been the secret of my success. For everything I’ve done wrong in the bookmaking process and business side of things, marketing is what saved me. I got a lot of coverage in Minnesota during National Adoption Month (November) with a press release about how my books were adoption fundraisers. That definitely helped. But where I’ve really excelled has been marketing myself to schools. I’ve invested a lot of time and financial resources into creating an “author appearance” package that would interest elementary schools. And that’s how I sell eighty to ninety percent of my books each year: visiting as many elementary schools as possible.

What’s next for your publishing ventures? Where do you see yourself in 2 years? In 5? In 10?

Right now, my primary goal is to get into the distribution channels, one way or another. And I recently decided to focus my business on “safe scary books for kids.” To that end, I’ve created an imprint called Getchu Books, and I’ve already done the picture book Joe Lee and the Boo (reminiscent of Where the Wild Things Are) under that imprint. This fall, I’ll be adding a YA novel about Dracula, which will come complete with its own website—www.DraculasBookofSouls.com—filled with everything cool I can dream up. The site will feature a web comic and video game, for starters. Following that, I’m going to focus on a few series of monster-themed chapter books.

As for the distant future, in five years, I hope to be running this business full-time. In ten years, I hope someone else is running it for me, so I can just write.

Is there anything else you’d like readers to know?

My wife and I recently began the adoption process for a second child, so we’re in fundraising mode again. I’m doing more than ten school visits in February in hopes of raising enough for the initial payment—the one that gets us into the “adoption book.” But we’

ll still need to raise $5,000 to $10,000 more. Anyone who wants to support our efforts can purchase a book or two at www.RyanJacobsonOnline.com.

This is the second interview in a series of discussions I’ll be having with owners of small, start-up presses who specialize in books for children. It’s my hope that by interviewing these folks we’ll all get a better sense of the trials and successes of D.I.Y. publishing. Some of the people I’m interviewing started as self publishers, and some of them started publishing other people.

If you would like to be considered for an interview, please contact me at adrienne@drtpress.com. My goal is to do at least an interview per week.

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Ellen Feld, owner of Willow Bend Publishing, a small press devoted to publishing books about horses for young adults, shares what she’s learned over the past seven years operating her own small press. With upwards of 50,000 copies of her books sold, she obviously has tapped into the keys to marketing: persistence, a good product, and above all, knowing how to reach her market.

Q: Ellen, on the Willow Bend Publishing website there’s a lot about how you started writing about horses. When and why did you make the leap from writing about horses to publishing your own books about them?

A: I’ve been writing for horse magazines for about 25 years as a freelancer. These magazines are both regional and national in scope and the assignments kept me fairly busy. But at one point, I was between assignments, and as any writer can relate, felt the need to write. So I wrote a short story. A few friends read it and said it was quite good and that I should expand it into a book. I took their advice and wrote the book. Thinking it would be easy to get my book published as I’d been published countless times in magazines, I was in for a rude awakening when I submitted my manuscript to various publishers and received form letters back from each one saying ‘no thanks.’ Not one to give up, I decided to self-publisher. That was back in 2001. Now, with over 50,000 books sold, I’d be hard-pressed to go with a traditional publisher.

I never really thought about running my own publishing company, it just happened. As I sold more and more of my first book, I was getting asked when the sequel was coming out. Now, seven years later, I’ve got a regular following of horse enthusiasts, a full-time career with my publishing company (although I also have a “regular” full-time job), and when I took a year off from writing to concentrate on promoting, I had a lot of “oh drat,” reactions for fans at book signings who thought I’d have a new book this year. It’s been a ton of work but also a ton of fun!

Q: The key to small press success in a big press world is creative marketing. Can you share some of the more creative things you’ve done to market your books?

A: Creative marketing is definitely the key. I spend almost no time marketing to book stores. It simply isn’t worth the small sales and big headaches that I get from them. About 70% of my sales are through events such as craft fairs, big state fairs, horse shows, etc. These are direct sales which translates into sales at full retail price and there are no returns. I also sell to shops dealing specifically with the horse world. These “tack shops”tend to be small and although they may only order 10 or 20 books at a time, they tend to be very loyal, and again, they never return books.

Q: What has been the most successful way you’ve marketed your horse books? What has been the least?

A: Most successful: Remember all those magazines that I mentioned above? Well, I used my connections at those horse magazines to get FREE publicity. Having great relationships with the editors, I found that each one was enthusiastic about giving my books press. They’d write reviews, run any press release I sent them, include full-color pictures of the covers, and even include the books in their annual gift giving guides. One of those magazines, although focused on horses, was focused primarily on model horse collecting. They’d reviewed all my books and when they were looking for a book to package with one of their model horses, they came to me. They purchased the first book in my series, created a model to look like the horse in the book, and sold it nationally and internationally. In essence, they were marketing for me, plus they bought thousands of my books. It was a win-win. Since all the other books in my series are listed in each book, those buying the book/model set were all now aware of all my other books.

- Least successful: Signings in the big book stores such as Barnes&Noble. They never drew a crowd. However, some of the local, small, independents draw 10 times as many people. They’ve got a much more loyal following and I’ve found customers in those stores eager to support local authors. I’ve also had little luck advertising on the big, horse specific websites. These sites get up to a million hits a month, but are expensive to advertise with, and produce few results.

Q: Do you have any words of wisdom for people starting out in this business, particularly those who are interested in publishing for children?

A: Keep plugging away. The horse model/book sale didn’t happen overnight. I wrote for the company’s magazine for several years and had an excellent working relationship with them, and still do. Also, use your connections. If you’re written for a magazine, don’t be shy – ask them to run a press release about your new book. The children’s market is really tough and competitive so you must work at it every day. Think of new angles to market. Is your book about a dog? What kind? Approach the breed organization to see if they’d like to sell your books. There are also loads of local clubs for every breed of every animal. They all need to raise funds so ask them about using your books as fundraisers. Whatever your book is about, there’s probably a club somewhere promoting that topic. Tell them, then show them, how perfect your book is for them.