In this Useful Books meetup, weâre joined by Emma Barnes.
Emma has spent 18 years at the helm of Snowbooks, the award-winning, innovative independent trade publisher.
Now sheâs using her deep understanding of the realities of modern publishing in Consonance, the FutureBook and IPG award-winning all-in-one publishing solution. As if she isnât busy enough, she also helps schoolchildren become published authors through Make Our Book. Highly Commended as a Futurebook Digital Leader, and a Futurebook 40 member.
Watch our conversation with the lovely Emma.
A FEW TAKEAWAYS
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HOW DID YOU GET INTO WHAT YOUâRE DOING RIGHT NOW?
I worked at a big UK consulting firm. One day I was working on some trivial project and just had a wake-up call and thought, âWhat am I doing with my life?!â
I dove into publishing out of frustration with the current process and was fortunate enough that some of my consulting skills gave me huge advantage. âWeâve been incredibly lucky for the past 20 years.â
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WHAT DO YOU WISH MORE AUTHORS KNEW?
I wish there were more resources for authors⊠The publishing process is screwed up. Donât think theyâre always right or even that theyâll always do the right thing for you!
Weâve been trying to counter this by sending out as much info as we can.
No publisher can promise you anything. Itâs not fair to promise you your book is going to work.
In fact, we lay out why people shouldnât trust our opinion. Weâre in the âcan I flip this for money gameâ. It doesnât say anything about how good/bad your book is.
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WHAT CAUSES BAD DEALS?
The reason for the bad deals is because of publisherâs lack of tech literacy. They do stuff with interns that should be done by software.
The nuance is there are going to be many books that need to be published in order to find a few that will do really well. The author is an individual but itâs a big group where a few outliers will pay for everyone else.
Because itâs so hard to sell books, publishers are efficient. Theyâre passionate and badly paid. The ability to use tools and data would result in a better life for publisher. Or even higher rates of pay.
Youâd get a win-win. More money for them and content creators.
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OTHER NOTEWORTHY REMARKS
- [Talking about her Make Our Book project] You can do a lot of talks about tech literacy. But this is the embodiment of it. This is what a single person can do on weekends if they know programming. The kids write something, draw something, and then it comes back to them as a published book. It elevates it. That kicks of this cycle of writing, creating, inspiring them. It looks important. Itâs an artifact. Itâs magical.
- [Why do adults lose the creativity they have as kids?] Because of grading. Creative work can be wrong. I think itâs a symptom of the creative process.
- [Advice she gave to her son] Be really careful with what you do with your life and maybe donât make it the thing you love. That can be dangerous because itâs love + money. You love the writing of the book but it also needs to pay the bills.
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KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Write the book 5 times
- Dont put too much of your soul into it. Take the emotion out of it as much as possible. Thatâll help you structure it in a more sensible. And also, if it fails, your entire identify wasnât in it.
- Itâs a means of making money.
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MORE INFO
Please visit Make Our Book, Snowbooks, and Consonance.