Talking through my hat

This year has shown once again how technology is vital to the making of books - and that our needs can change in a heartbeat, but also that people are always at the heart of what we do. Join our panel to discuss questions like: does tech ever change what we're trying to do, or just how we do it? how do we balance the development of skilled publishing teams with the use of new technologies? where do these two aims align, and where do they not? how do we equip our teams to make best use of their skills? The panel discussion was streamed on YouTube, followed by a live Q&A on Twitter under the event hashtag #TalkingThroughMyHat. The panel Anna Faherty Anna (she/her) runs StrategicContent, a writing, training and strategy consultancy, where she collaborates with a diverse range of clients to scope, develop and deliver print, digital and in-gallery experiences. Formerly course leader for the Kingston University MA Publishing, Anna now teaches at City University, London and the University of the Arts London. Chandi Perera Chandi is CEO at publishing automation business Typefi, and has over two decades of publishing and media technology experience. He has acted as a technology consultant to corporations and government agencies around the world, and is a frequent conference speaker in the areas of content management, publishing, media, XML, structured content and digital rights management. He is a board member of a number of industry bodies and has degrees in Engineering and Computer Science. With Australia's second wave or lock down due to end towards the end of October, this is the longest Chandi has spent in once place without travel since the mid 90s! Nick Coveney Nick (he/him) is Publisher Relations and Content Lead for UK and NZ at Kobo and, before that, was Digital Innovation Director at HarperCollins. He is an experienced Digital & Marketing leader for products, digital transformation and marketing campaigns within the media industry, trade publishing and information services. John Pettigrew (host) John (he/him) is a recovering editor and Founder and CEO at We Are Futureproofs, a cloud platform that enables book teams to proofread on-screen effectively for the first time. Futureproofs arose from his frustration with the tools and workflows that were available to his team, a frustration that led to innovation! John wears a hat and spends time on Twitter as @John_Pettigrew. This session is one of a series of three during this year's virtual Frankfurt Book Fair. 

This year has shown once again how important our teams and business relationships are - and that our needs can change in a heartbeat. Join our panel to discuss questions like: is there such a thing as a career these days, and how do you build one if so? what changes are happening in our workplaces, and how do we make the most of them? how do we address the fact that the publishing business doesn't properly represent our country, communities or readers? what do you do when the unexpected happens? how do you build an effective publishing team, whether you're a member of the team or its manager? The panel discussion was streamed on YouTube, followed by a live Q&A on Twitter under the event hashtag #TalkingThroughMyHat. The panel Nancy Roberts Nancy is the founder of Umbrella, who use data and technology to overcome corporate bias and provide equality of opportunity at work. She also leads the Technology and Content team at Maverick, providing strategic and operational consultancy to publishers. Suzanne Collier Suzanne is THE person to see if you want to get ahead in book publishing. The founder of BookCareers.com, she is fully qualified in Career Development and Guidance, a Registered Careers Professional and helps people every day of the year no matter what the career challenge. She provides redundancy support and consultancy for a number of publishers and hosts a weekly bookcareers podcast as well as a job club to support unemployed publishers. Suzanne is a past winner of the Pandora Award and has been shortlisted twice by the Independent Publishers Guild for services to publishing and by the CDI for her work on the bookcareers Salary Survey. Her book How to Job Search in Book Publishing will be published later in the year. She describes her passions as careers, diversity, flowers and Dagenham and Redbridge FC. John Pettigrew (host) John Pettigrew (he/him) is a recovering editor and Founder and CEO at We Are Futureproofs, a cloud platform that enables book teams to proofread on-screen effectively for the first time. Futureproofs arose from John's frustration with the tools and workflows that were available to his team, a frustration that led to a business that aims to make all editors' lives better! John wears a hat and spends time on Twitter as @John_Pettigrew. This session is one of a series of three during this year's virtual Frankfurt Book Fair. 

This year has proved, more than ever, that it's impossible to predict the future. But given change is inevitable, how do we manage and prepare for change? Our panel discusses questions like: how do we identify where change is needed in our business? how do we get our teams on board with the idea of change? how do we pick our battles and make sure the most important changes happen? how do we know things are heading in the right direction? The panel discussion was streamed live on YouTube, followed by a live Q&A on Twitter under the event hashtag #TalkingThroughMyHat. The panel Bec Evans Bec Evans is a writer, speaker and business founder. While working in publishing she turned her side hustle Prolifiko - a writing productivity coach - into a startup. As a consultant she helps businesses innovate and coaches people to build the skills and confidence to make their ideas happen. Her first book, How to Have a Happy Hustle: The Complete Guide to Making Your Ideas Happen won the Startup Inspiration category at the 2020 Business Book Awards. Emmanuel Kolade Emmanuel Kolade is the Founder of Shulph, a book technology company focussed on multi-format reading experiences. He comes from technology industry where he has spent the last 17 years specialising in human-centred design to build digital products. Prior to founding Shulph, Emmanuel was a senior management consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), where he led the firm's digital experience practice to deliver digital transformation programmes for some of the UK and world's leading brands. Sam Missingham Sam Missingham is an award-winning book marketer and publishing commentator. She is the founder of The Empowered Author, a book marketing membership service for authors. Before this she worked at HarperCollins UK as head of audience development and, before that, worked The Bookseller and was co-founder of FutureBook. She has won several book marketing awards, been shortlisted for the Digital Book World commentator of the year, and was runner-up for the Pandora award for sustained contribution to publishing. She speaks regularly about book marketing and publishing strategies around the world, and loves speaking to students and mentoring people entering publishing. Tim Williams Tim Williams is the Managing Director of Edward Elgar Publishing.  Tim joined Elgar 11 years ago and runs the business with his brother-in-law. However, Tim's career began in retail and consumer goods, with a spell in management consulting, before joining the industry with LexisNexis. Edward Elgar is an independent family-owned publisher, with offices in the UK and  USA. The company publishes 450 book titles a year across the social sciences and law and has won numerous awards for its digital platform and author focused publishing service. John Pettigrew (host) John Pettigrew (he/him) is a recovering editor and Founder and CEO at We Are Futureproofs, a cloud platform that enables book teams to proofread on-screen effectively for the first time. Futureproofs arose from John's frustration with the tools and workflows that were available to his team, a frustration that led to innovation! John wears a hat and spends time on Twitter as @John_Pettigrew. This session is one of a series of three during this year's virtual Frankfurt Book Fair.

For episode 50, I've looked back at the past year of interviews and put together a compilation of some of the best bits - or, at least, some memorable ones for me! In this episode, I look back at why people set up a publishing business, whether it's a small publisher, a tech business or something else. Reasons range from being made redundant, through frustration with how the industry works, to a simple passion for doing something else. This episode features extracts from interviews with Emma Barnes (episode 3), Alison Jones (episode 7), Ken Jones (episode 8), Bec Evans (episode 17), Justo Hidalgo (episode 18), Nancy Roberts (episode 20), Kate Wilson (episode 22), John Bond (episode 28) and Dominique Raccah (episode 29).

Hugh McGuire is co-founder and Executive Director of the Rebus Foundation, the founder of Librivox, and the founder of Pressbooks, which helps publishers and authors easily create professionally designed print and ebook editions of their books. Before that, he worked in the world of electric power and alternative energy, but he's been trying to bring the world of the book together with the (better) world of the web since about 2005. He's particularly driven by the intersection of book publishing, open licensing, and distributed collaboration. In this episode, we talk about the idealism that led to (and fed from) his founding of Librivox, and how his experiences with PressBooks and Rebus differed from that initial example. Also, how for-profit and not-for-profit organisations differ, how his vision for the future of the web has developed, and the support mechanisms that a 'vision' person like Hugh needs to put in place to ensure that things actually get done!

Miral Sattar is CEO and Founder of LearnSelfPublishingFast and of Bibliocrunch, an award-winning marketplace that connects authors with vetted editors, designers, marketers and more. She's worked in the media industries for 11 years, including launching several digital initiatives at Time. She's written for and been featured in Time, Forbes, Consumer Reports, CNN, and New York Daily News. She's also launching another new business, Bearily Bear, selling cuddly toys that read audiobooks to children. In this episode, we discuss how initial business ideas change when they encounter customers, how to learn what your customers actually want, and the excitement of working in an industry that's going through huge changes.

Emmanuel Kolade is the founder of Shulph, a book-technology company focussed on multi-format reading experiences. He comes from technology industry where he has spent the last 17 years specialising in human-centred design to build digital products. Before founding Shulph, Emmanuel led PricewaterhouseCoopers digital experience practice to deliver digital transformation programmes for some of the UK and world's leading brands. He's also worked for a wide range of large and small businesses from National Rail to digital payment companies, as a designer and user-experience consultant. In this episode, we talk about the experiences that drove him to found Shulph, the ways books and book-buying will evolve in the next few years, and the balance between building a business for revenue and building a business for users.

Sebastian Posth is a serial entrepreneur and consultant for the publishing industry, with a focus on digital publishing and innovation. His interests always feature the hot topics, currently including data analytics and blockchain technologies. Sebastian has been working for 15 years in a variety of roles to transform these new technologies into useful products, services or tools for the publishing industry, with the aim of supporting media companies to develop and implement a digital business model that suits their needs and helps them grow. In this episode, we talk about his journey from studying philosophy and German Literature to publishing technology, including the crucial role that a photocopier played. Also, how digital sales and distribution are vital for the publishing business, how to convince publishers to adopt new technologies, and the balance between pursuing new stuff and maintaining your existing business.

Helen Bagnall is co-founder of Salon London, co-founder of the Transmission Prize for artists who promote bold, beautiful ideas, and also Director of the Also Festival of ideas. Before all that, she worked as a writer for Sony Pictures Entertainment, looking after characters across a range of platforms. In this episode, she talks about how Salon London helps people to spend time with new ideas, and how the Also Festival gives even more space for this, because you need time to properly learn and integrate ideas. And being exposed to ideas across science, philosophy and culture are important if you want to be truly creative. Also, one of the big advantages for her team is that, because they work on ideas every day, they are continually reassessing how they work and live - a challenge for book publishers of all shades, too, I think!

Lorraine Shanley is co-founder and President of Market Partners International, who are consultants for the changing environment of publishing. Before MPI, Lorraine worked at Barnes & Noble, Book of the Month Club and HarperCollins, and now also serves on the Advisory Board of New York University’s Publishing Program, and for five years chaired the Launch Kids Media conference at Digital Book World. In her spare time she writes articles on publishing, technology and social media, and regularly reviews audiobooks and books for several sites. In this episode, Lorraine talks about maintaining a broad focus and how having several distinct types of work means that everything stays interesting. We talk about how the business grew into the shape it did, some of the famous clients they've worked with, and how they introduced Jeff Bezos to the world of bookselling. Often, expertise lies in knowing who to ask questions of, rather than necessarily in knowing the answers.

Richard Nash is a coach, strategist, and serial entrepreneur in new and traditional media. He led partnerships and content at the culture discovery start-up Small Demons and the new media app Byliner, and ran the publisher Soft Skull Press, for which work he was awarded the Association of American Publishers' Award for Creativity in Independent Publishing in 2005. Utne Reader named him one of Fifty Visionaries Changing Your World and in 2013 the Frankfurt Book Fair picked him as one of the Five Most Inspiring People in Digital Publishing. Last year he founded Cursor, a shared US publishing office for five of the world’s leading independent publishers and this year he will launch a book-and-wine subscription box called Rapt. As a coach, he works with artists, writers, and entrepreneurs, helping them navigate personal and professional transitions. In this podcast, he talks about his change-filled journey from soft-drink-company heir to publisher and entrepreneur, via avant-garde theatre. Along the way, he's learned a lot about learning, and been driven by a desire to do new things - or, sometimes, to do an old thing in a new and sensible way. And he's also found that there are times in life when things bounce and splash around, and others when the way broadens and becomes calmer.

Kevin Duffy is co-founder of Bluemoose Books. Having been in publishing for 20 years back in 2006, he and his wife mortgaged their house to start Bluemoose, with the aim of publishing new and exciting voices. Since then, their books have been sold in 82 countries, and had rights sold to British TV and Hollywood. He also founded the Northern Fiction Alliance, and is an author in his own right. In this episode, Kevin talks about how Bluemoose arose from his bile and anger with the big publishing houses, and changes in the wider industry. Kevin believes that, if literature is about anything, it's about finding new voices and new talent, and he's passionate about that - a passion that comes through loud and clear in our conversation. He founded the Northern Fiction Alliance to give "regional publishers" (a term he hates) a voice against the London establishment, with its bias against voices that aren't from the parts of society it already knows.

Sean Preston is the founder and editor of short-fiction platform Open Pen, whose self-titled magazine has been described as “More like a shot of absinthe than a boring pint of lager,” and is making its first forays into book production. He's a proud East Londoner, an ex-pro wrestler, a full-time thing-maker at a South London record label, and an occasional short fiction writer. We talk about the deliberately analogue, hard-copy, zine approach that Sean took and the motivations behind that, and how that vision has continued over the years even as they grow into social media, a successful website and live events. In particular, the way that the physical constraints of a printed magazine affect how you publish and how your authors are perceived - and how the infinite digital space gives room to grow. Also, how Sean has kept a free print magazine going for a decade through advertising and sponsorship, and how that model is evolving with their expansion into live events and now books.

Jens Tröger, the founder of Bookalope is an experienced software engineer and computer science researcher with over two decades of industry experience including Microsoft Xbox, Intel Labs and Oracle Research. He is also a book lover, typophile and book designer for print and e-publishing. Bookalope weds his two passions (computer science and book design) in a set of intelligent tools that automate analysis, clean up, and conversion to and from various formats. In this episode, we talk about why he took a set of tools he'd built to make his own life easier, and turned them into a business. Also, about escaping life as a corporate drone, how to make AI useful in book production, and the fact that the customer is always right - even when they're definitely wrong.

Ron Martinez is the Founder and Principal of design and product-innovation firm Invention Arts, and also a prolific inventor with >60 US patents and many more worldwide in the fields of media, mobile and social technologies, and commerce. He's worked in Intellectual Property Innovation for Yahoo!, and enjoyed a long and successful career designing, producing, and coding consumer software products, including pioneering interactive fiction, entertainment and educational software, massively multiplayer games. And when he was younger, he wrote fiction, young adult pathway books, and comics. In this episode, we talk about his journey from fisherman and writer to successful inventor and entrepreneur, via a brief flirtation with corporate life and even working with Arthur C. Clarke. He learned to program computers because he enjoyed writing unusual stories so much - so that he could create his own software to enable those stories. Now, he spends his time balancing "going deep" and "going broad", and he believes that "you are what you ship," as a business. That is, you are what you give the world.

Michael Kowalski is the founder of Storienteer, which is exploring augmented-reality, as well as the programme director of the Confluence conference this February. Before all that, he worked as a software developer at the Guardian and was Head of Publishing for a digital initiative at News International, as well as founding two other businesses, Kitsite and Contentment. In this episode, we talk about what augmented reality, or mixed reality, actually is and what it could mean, as well as the delights and perils of building a business based on a technology that's only just emerging - where the task you're tackling is to establish the basic grammar and rules of the new world. Also, the complexities associated with a business that's supplying tools for other people to use to build their own products.

Ryan Morison is a serial entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience across two continents developing and commercialising digital publishing solutions, from a digital reading ecosystem, through a multichannel content-management solution to an award-winning direct-sales platform. He's even run a successful crowdfunding campaign for a subscription-based website! Now, he runs publishing-technology company Erudition and direct-to-consumer music publisher Informance. In this week's episode, we talk about his journey from musician to publishing entrepreneur, the problems that a high-risk no-prisoners approach can cause, and his just-in-time approach to learning - seeking out what you need to know at the time, rather than spending valuable time on business books that aren't relevant. Two books he recommends in the episode are Winning without losing by by Martin Bjergegaard, Jordan Milne, and The origin of wealth by Eric Beinhocker.

Gary Price is a librarian, author and co-founder of infoDocket (on the web and Twitter), now part of the Library Journal. Before that, he co-founded ResourceShelf and Docuticker, which he edited and ran for ten years. In addition, he's worked as a librarian at George Washington University and as Director of Online Information Resources at Ask.com. In this week's episode, we talk about the importance of curation in an information-rich environment, and how being that curator helps establish your authority and profile in the community. We also touch on the open web, the invisible web, and the present and future of libraries in an increasingly online world. His most recent collection of open web documents and reports is here.

Bill Rosenblatt is a media-industry commentator on intellectual property and technology, President of GiantSteps Media Technology Strategies, and programme chair of the Copyright and Technology Conferences. In addition, he's spoken at the Davos summit, written a book about the business and practice of DRM, and come up through publishing from an IT background. In this episode, we talk about what it's like to work in publishing and media when you come from an IT background, and what it was like to start working in publishing after years of experience in digital publishing. Also, what digital transformation looks like, and how to use careful requirements harvesting to get insight into what your business could be like - and also to get buy-in from the team for that change.

Joanna Penn is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author. She spent more than a decade as an IT consultant, but is now much better known as a writer and independent publisher of thrillers and dark fantasy novels, an award-winning entrepreneur, a publishing commentator, and a podcaster and YouTuber. Her long-running blog, The Creative Penn, shares what she's learned and helps give authors the information and inspiration they need to get published. In this episode, we talk about starting a new business and a new career at the same time - and what it's like to go from a well-paid and safe career to launch into the unknown as a writer. Joanna talks about what being an independent publisher means to her, how she separates creative time from business time, and how she navigates the world of changing formats and channels.

Georgina Atwell is the founder of Toppsta, a community for reading, reviewing and discovering great children's books. Before that, she worked at Penguin UK, and also for Apple's iBooks team, which all gives her a unique perspective! In this episode, we talk about the importance of flexibility to a small business, how best to use Facebook and social media (and when to own your own customer relationships), and how writing and reading reviews gives a better experience than algorithms.

Laura Dawson is a metadata expert for the media, entertainment and publishing industries, and the Founder/CEO of Numerical Gurus. After years working in and around publishing, she got involved with the International Standard Name Identifier. And, on the side, she ran The Solitary Chef, a book and website platform for people who live alone. In this week's episode, we talk about the ISNI and why musician and actress Lady Gaga has two while Brian May (Queen guitarist and astrophysicist) has one. Also, about changing industry and transferrable skills: "Just because you're shifting industry doesn't mean you're shifting the problem you're going to solve."

Asi Sharabi is Co-Founder and CEO of Wonderbly. Before this successful venture into the world of publishing, he spent time as a researcher and lecturer at the LSE, worked at startups, and was MD of Sidekick studios. Now, of course, at Wonderbly, he leads a team creating highly personalised print books for children, starting with their original book Lost My Name. Asi describes Wonderbly as "accidental publishers" and is very proud to have become part of the publishing industry - even though he and his team started as complete outsiders. They experiment constantly and have built a very broad organisation that does everything from content creation and technology to e-commerce and direct-to-consumer marketing. In this episode, he talks about some of the ways they reached 4 million book sales to 190 countries in just 5 years.

Jo Bottrill worked for Nature, Taylor & Francis and Cambridge University Press before setting up Out of House Publishing over 11 years ago to help academic and educational publishers to develop, edit and produce their content. In this episode, we talk about how Jo grew his business from freelancing to being a global partner for major publishers and how he dealt with the challenges that that change in scale brought. And also about how building trust is crucial for success - both between you and your clients and suppliers, and within your business. Jo recommends The E-Myth by Michael Gerber.

Dominique Raccah is Founder, Publisher and CEO of Sourcebooks, which has over the years grown to produce everything from children's books to college guides. It is the largest woman-owned book publisher in the USA, as well as the largest trade book publisher in Chicago. Dominique has long been recognized as an innovator and was named Publishers Weekly's Person of the Year in 2016. Her writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and The New York Times. In this wide-ranging interview, Dominique talks about discovering and building authors in the long term, creating business relationships that last, using data as well as taste to support your publishing, and the need for a growth mindset and radical transparency within your business so that everyone can contribute to success. In this episode, Dominique recommends a book by Carol Dweck called Mindset: Changing the way you think to fulfil your potential and its associated website.

John Bond is the Co-Founder of WhiteFox, a new breed of publishing services company. He set up WhiteFox after being Marketing Director at Virgin Publishing, Penguin and HarperCollins, and then MD at HarperCollins. In our interview, we talk about finding co-founders among your existing relationships, and about how it can take a lot longer to get where you want to be than you thought - but also that these mistakes and diversions can be important for learning what you need to say No to. And about how there's nothing more motivating than proving people wrong!

Arthur Attwell is a self-described serial adventurer in publishing innovation, and has co-founded several publishing businesses, perhaps most famously Paperight, which enabled people in Africa to print out legal copies of books from local photocopy shops. Currently, he runs Electric Bookworks, using unique tech skills and open-source tools to build complex books in multiple formats simultaneously. In this episode, we talk about how Arthur's love of building machines (people, processes and teams as well as tech) helped him to solve problems - lots of them! Sometimes, he found that he was solving a problem that the customer didn't think they had, and had to change direction as a result. The job of a technologist, as Arthur sees it, is often to protect people from technology by building a solution that's appropriate to the context in which it'll be used. And the role of a leader is often to explain the context to a team and set out a vision, and then (if you have the right people), they'll get things done.

Justine Solomons is a networker extraordinaire and Founder of Byte the Book, which helps writers and publishers to learn more about the publishing industry, and to make connections that will help them in their careers. In this episode, we talk about building a business on helping other people while also being clearly focused on making a profitable business. Also, how everything is sales, while scaling means learning to lean on other people and delegate work. "Our work is just a dream, until other people interact with it."

Michael Bhaskar is the Co-Founder of digital publisher Canelo, author of the books The Content Machine and Curation, and also Writer-in-Residence at Google's DeepMind with the Ethics and Society team. In this episode, we talk about how Canelo tries to do things differently - not just the obvious "being digital" stuff but also using marginal gains to produce a large overall result, and how the economics work differently for small publishers, enabling them to work effectively with "mid-list" authors that big publishers might reject as unprofitable. Plus, the need to make time for your creative projects, being willing to work hard to get results, and how mistakes are inevitable and often painful, but how you can learn from everything.

Nina-Sophia Miralles is the Founder of digital culture magazine Londnr. She is a writer and editor with a focus on arts, culture and lifestyle, served as Head of Partnerships and Special Projects for the Society of Young Publishers in 2017, and has received awards from The Hospital Club and the Young Stationers. In this episode, we talk about how a side-project turned into a full-time business based on providing writers and journalists with a paying market for their writing, with a clear focus on timeless content about art and culture. Turning a website into a business has taken lots of ingenuity, and Nina shares some of her journey here. You can find their inaugural print issue here.

Fiona Spencer Thomas is a literary agent and book publicist who works with a range of authors on both fiction and non-fiction. In this podcast episode, she talks about how she got started as an agent, what a literary agent does for her clients, and how her own passion drives her choices. It was interesting to talk about striking the balance between creativity and nit-picking attention to detail - between helping writers create better books and handling the fine points of royalties and contracts. And, in particular, the need to tread a cautious road alongside your authors, because everyone's different, from the diffident author with no self-confidence to the bull in a china shop who needs protecting from themself!

Kate Wilson is the Founder and CEO of Nosy Crow, an award-winning child-focused, parent-friendly publisher of children's books. Kate has an extensive pedigree in publishing, but her decision to start a publishing company has its roots in a professional crisis that she's turned to a comprehensive victory! In this episode, we talk about the need to know yourself as a Founder, and to surround yourself with people who will complement your strengths (and weaknesses), and about how even commercial failures can be a great source of pride. Kate's story also highlights the importance of finding a support network - whether that's people on a similar journey or even stories and books about those who've trod the path before us.

Chris Meade is a newly-minted Doctor of Nearlyology (not, as I mis-spoke in the introduction to the podcast "Director of Nearlyology"!), as well as running If:book, which among other things supports the New Media Writing Prize and the Dot Awards. We talk about what he means by "nearlyology", the differences between running a for-profit business and a charitable company that is primarily funded by grants, and the relationship between thinking and doing. But most importantly, the nature and future of the book. Publishing used to be the only way to share what you have to say, but now we're published whether we like it or not, and a book is more about withholding what you have to say until you're ready!

Nancy Roberts took time off from a successful career in publishing to work out what she really wanted to do, and how she could continue growing. Her answer to that was first Business Inclusivity (consulting with publishing companies to help them understand and improve their diversity and inclusivity) and recently Umbrella Analytics (providing hard data, comparison and analysis to back this up). In the podcast, we talk about how Nancy took the opportunity afforded her by an MBA to reflect on her career, and then to combine two passions to create something new. Her work has brought home to her the importance of top-down ownership of culture and change in a business - but also the way that both can be driven strongly from the bottom up, by people in an organisation who want change if they can only find ways to do it. Those at the bottom often underestimate their power in the workplace!

Emma Donnan is a ghostwriter, and in this week's podcast we explore the often-overlooked and important work that ghostwriters do. In Emma's case this grew from her work as a journalist, and she sees her work writing memoirs as an extension of that - discovering and spreading stories that from extraordinary people, as well as from ordinary people who have important stories.

Justo Hidalgo co-founded 24symbols 8 years ago, and this 'Spotify for Books' contender is still around and successful. In this week's podcast, we talk about how books really can compete against Angry Birds, the importance of continuing to provide ways for people to easily find and read books, and of balancing your work and home life. In the episode, Justo mentions several great business books in passing so I thought I'd list them here for you. Hacking Growth by Sean Ellis and Morgan Brown (Amazon / Kobo); Scaling Lean by Ash Maurya (Amazon / Kobo); The Founder's Dilemmas by Noam Wasserman (Amazon / Kobo); Venture Deals by Brad Feld (Amazon / Kobo); New Venture Creation by Geoffrey Timmons (apparently out of print but available from Amazon). Transcript  (This is a bit of an experiment - let me know if you like transcripts!) John: [00:00:35] Welcome back to Talking Through My Hat. Today I'm talking with Justo Hidalgo, CEO and co-founder of 24symbols, the subscription service for ebooks. He's also an author, a university professor teaching product strategy and innovation. And I just discovered he's also a radio host. So thanks for talking to me today Justo. Justo: [00:00:53] Yeah. It's a pleasure to be here. John: [00:00:56] Yeah, so 24symbols has been around for over eight years now, which is quite an achievement. How've you distinguished yourself from all the other e-book subscription services that have come and gone in that time? What's kind of unique 24symbols thing? Justo: [00:01:10] Well if I really knew [laughs] I would probably sell the idea. Oh yeah the idea's still the same. You know, it's a subscription service for ebooks as you said and other kinds of cultural and entertainment assets like comic books and audiobooks. I believe that the reason we are still here is that since the start, it was very clear for us that these was a long race. That it was gonna take time and that we needed partners to work with us so very very very early in the state as soon as we could we started talking to partners especially in the customer acquisition stage. You continue having the amount of people that wanted to read and that we were unable to reach just because of our size. John: [00:01:53] Okay. So which sort of partners were you kind of linking up with there? Justo: [00:01:57] Oh but mainly right now is mobile carriers. We started having relationships with them in 2013 I think. These are typically launch and relationships both in terms of getting their relationship to work - you know very well how it is to work with big companies! John: [00:02:11] Yeah. Justo: [00:02:12] Yeah. And then of course they need some time to work. So right now we're for example in Latin America in a few countries, also in Germany, and we are also working with having some others. In some of the cases, some regions didn't work. We tried and it didn't work. In other cases, well the unit economics didn't work. You know in some countries for example, where the price of ebooks is too high but they are very used to very low-cost services. Well that's fine - we'd love to work there but that's very difficult. And also we're also started to diversify, to try to find other areas where books are necessary - for example transportation companies, hospitality companies, you know. Anywhere where someone can spend some time reading, we are trying to be there. John: [00:03:00] OK. Yeah. It's the hard thing about business, it's not building a product. It's finding someone to use it. And I think this strategy of working with people who have lots of customers who they need to find interesting things for, like mobile phone companies and as you say trains and hotels and stuff. I think that's a really interesting way of doing that. Justo: [00:03:20] Yes I mean, what we do is very straightforward. I mean we want, as someone from my team always says, we want to feed people books. You know, people want to eat this that we offer. But the difficulty is that being a generic service, a horizontal service, you need to provide a very good value proposition. We have 24symbols the B2C service that allows you to do whatever you want. But then of course you have to look for other ways to reach the people that may not know that they want to read. And this sounds like a very, you know, commercial or product-ish but it's the truth you know what we found it with more carriers, we're finding it in other verticals that people, you know they find out that you know, instead of playing Angry Birds, they can read some books sometimes. John: [00:04:07] Yeah well that's the thing, isn't it, that we say, you know, that books are now in competition with all forms of entertainment but they always were. And, you know, there's something there that people have always liked, so it's gonna be really great. So it's fantastic to find that you're finding this place for yourselves, this way of reaching customers and stuff through these partnerships. Why did you first create 24symbols? What was the big idea where you thought, I'm going to do this mad insane thing and an e-book business. Justo: [00:04:34] Well I think there are many many reasons. First, personally, I always wanted to build a company, so I come from a family where my parents always ran small businesses, and I kind of grew up seeing their difficulties, the challenges, the hard work. John: [00:04:50] A realistic view of what it might be like. Justo: [00:04:52] Yeah yeah. But at the same time, how my parents built something from scratch providing value to the community. You know they started with a drugstore and they started building driving schools - one and two and then three, before they retired. So, for me, it's part of my memories where I had to take chairs from my house to the driving school because suddenly there are lots of people in their theory classes. And then the opposite when there's some competition coming up and there are some struggles there in the family, but I always kind of looked at my parents to see how hard they work and is like: this is cool. But then I start, you know, I did my Computer Science degree, I started working for companies - always small companies but always like with a salary - and I always had, like, yeah this is good but, you know, I want to try to replicate what my parents did in a new way you know, of course, because I had other abilities, you know, my parents... John: [00:05:50] You've got to work on your own skill set than. Justo: [00:05:52] Exactly. My parents were great salesmen and I'm different but I know Computer Science. So that's kind of my first reason. Then, more specifically, 24symbols - technology. In other companies I worked for technology was basically an end, you know, so I spent many years working in a tech company doing data integration stuff, which has been really valuable for me afterwards in 24symbols. And I really enjoyed it. I got my PhD there. All that stuff. But I had the need to build something that people could use as a final result. Basically, what we were building there was a tool to build solutions. And I wanted to be that solution. And then I would say that the third reason is that thinking about that and related to what I have said this act of of the "Spotify for books" at that time. Everything I really wanted, it merged technology of course because at that time creating a cloud reader subscription service with all the cloud DRM was technologically quite challenging. At at the same time it was books, it was basically giving people books to read, which is something I've enjoyed all of my life. So, you know, these three things plus working with my colleagues at that time, my partners that I had worked with them in the past. You know, one of them was a previous student of mine. With another, we had been like 15 years working together - made a lot of sense. So he was kind of the final push as to say: This makes sense. Then of course from a business perspective it looked like people were talking (and you know that because you were at that time very deep) talking about you know subscription services in publishing. There were many doubts but there was also many good opportunities and we decided to give it a go. John: [00:07:37] So how did you form that initial kind of team, the co-founding team, the people who have, hopefully, the same kind of vision, of passion, that you did? How did you build that group? Justo: [00:07:48] Yeah I think that, typically, most of the decisions we make here while creating a company, and you know that very well, John, is pure serendipity or random. But some of the decisions you make are quite thought out. And in this case I think we kind of gave it a good thought. It was basically the four of us initial partners who came from the same company, that B2B tech company I mentioned. So we typically had, you know, coffee or had lunch together and talked about books. Most of the times were business books, but some of the time it was narrative, and we kind of shared this love for books. So at the beginning we would think, you know, of moonlighting projects of bringing American books, business books, to Spain and getting the rights and translating them and, you know, basically becoming a publisher. John: [00:08:38] Yeah. Justo: [00:08:39] I think it is good for the publishing company that we didn't do it! [Laughs] We would have been a horrible publisher, I believe. But that kind of started to say, maybe we should do something about this. And this idea came in early 2010 about the "Spotify for books". And then I remember very well the presentation of Steve Jobs with the first iPad. And that was the moment where it was like, Wow, this is the future. I mean that was our bet. And then it's when we start thinking, OK, with us four, does that make sense? It kind of makes sense - I mean, we have sales people, all of us were technical people. But you know, one of us very high experience in sales and marketing, the CTO had very deep down experience with with this technology, had experience with product and also had lived in the United States for a while doing product management and sales and marketing, so that we kind of had most of what we needed. And of course we missed the publishing side. So that's why one of our first - we tried to, and we found our one of our first investors to be part of the industry in Spain. John: [00:09:53] So, your co-founding group, as you say, you're all technical people so you're presumably all together writing the product, but then sharing out all those other roles as needed, kind of thing. Justo: [00:10:04] Yeah. So, building the product, like coding, it was our CTO Angel. Then I worked in the product and, you know, the data architecture. And then one or the other worked on the product management and product design but the four of us were able to give insight. It's about, you know, we could have very detailed discussions about, I don't know, I remember one discussion about the cache, you know - the book cache - how the information was going to be kept secure or whatever. And so we were able to - but then each of us had very specific roles, which changed completely as, for example, I was going to be focusing a lot on product but, you know, since we launched at the London Book Fair in 2011, it was clear that because of my English, because of all the things I could do that my other partners couldn't do, I was going to be more like PR. John: [00:11:02] Yeah - the public face for the English-speaking world. Justo: [00:11:04] Exactly. And that's that's very funny because out in Spain, it was very clear that one of my partners was the CEO at the time. Everyone knew my partner but nobody knew me. But, you know, outside in the English-speaking world, it was the total opposite. It was like, So you're not the CEO? No, but that doesn't matter! You know, so, and he also talks to me! John: [00:11:27] So you kind of mentioned that you started off with you that little group of you, you were a kind of a book group effectively, and one of the things you did was talk about business books. Is that how you've gone about learning to run a business yourself? Do you go to books, is it kind of web sites and stuff these days? Anything particular that you found useful? Or are you more of a, kind of, throw it up in the air, try it and see what happens? Justo: [00:11:48] You learn from everywhere you can. I mean, I have a very small anecdote about that, you know, then we can talk about books. So, we got accepted by Seedcamp, which is a London-based accelerator that was here in 2012. So one of the incredible things about Seedcamp is that, I think it was a Monday, I said something to them. I said, you know, since we're Spotify for books, I would like to meet someone from Spotify. You know, it would be great. John: [00:12:16] Yeah. Justo: [00:12:17] So, two days, they got me a VP, a vice president of Spotify, talking to him, and the meeting was five minutes - five minutes. It was, like, you know, we're 24symbols blah blah blah blah blah. "Oh yeah?" So he just put the hand on my shoulder and said, "Quit." [Laughing] Sorry, maybe my English is, I speak too fast. Let me explain that again. 24symbols... "Yeah yeah, you're like Spotify but for ebooks. Quit." So this is something like, OK. "So you want to be like Spotify for books, right. What's your background - technical this and that? Yeah OK. So it's great but only take into account one thing: if you are successful, you are not going to be a tech company, you are not going to be a content company, you're going to be a law firm." So, basically Spotify is the best law firm in London, in Europe. OK. So that's going to be your role. You're having a huge understanding of the law. Huge understanding of the relationship with publishers. Yeah that's going to be 24symbols so, you want to go for it, that's it. And for me those five minutes were huge in understanding where I was getting into. We're not a law firm at all but it's true that that, for many years, that's basically what I've done. I've basically learned to negotiate contracts with publishers before we tell other people. So these things are what I learn from. But also of course, you know, I'm more like a product guy so books like the classic "Crossing the chasm" or "The Innovator's Dilemma" or "Made to Stick". But there are also some very recent ones that are really good like Sean Ellis's "Hacking Growth" or Ash Maury's "Scaling Lean", which I don't know how it's going in sales but I think it's much better than his previous one, "Running Lean". And then from a business perspective there's a really good one called "The Founders' Dilemmas" from Noam Wasserman is really good for founders. I'd really recommend it. John: [00:14:20] Yeah, I found that really helpful at the beginning, just to get your head around some of the things that are coming your way. Justo: [00:14:24] Exactly and what it means to be together in a company with your partners. And of course for example Brad Feld's "Venture Deals" is absolutely key in terms of negotiating deals with VCs or business angels. And maybe a lesser known one is called "New Venture Creation" by Geoffrey Timmons. It's from a course at Stanford University - it's a huge book, it's really huge, it's a thousand pages, but full of good information for someone who started a business. So basically, my part of the business plan was written with this book open. Because there are so many good information. John: [00:15:03] So as we think about business and product and stuff, and when you think about it, you look back on eight years and the ways you've grown and changed and stuff. When you think about the next eight years, or eighty years or whatever it is, how do you think about that and where you want to be? And if so, how do you plot that kind of work? John: [00:15:26] Yes, That's a very difficult question! Well, I have no idea! [Laughs] Most of the time, we're trying to continue, I wouldn't say survive exactly but to continue - to thrive and to continue giving them the best product. But it is true that when you see where the industry is going and where the entertainment is going and even what the data for me is. And you know, because of my background, I think a lot about, you know, how this is going to evolve in terms of what kind of entertainment is going to be created. I believe that a service like 24symbols makes sense in the following, you know, five to eight years or whatever. I think a subscription service - the area of consumption instead of ownership - is there. People are consuming more Netflix, more HBO, more Spotify, more Amazon Prime. So we're looking to use that as part of our life. I think in terms of ownership, we're always going to own things and it's because it's an integral part of who we are as a species. So everyone, you know, all of us are still going to have books - I still have a full room of books - but they're going to be the books that are important to us. And it's going to be the same with everything. John: [00:16:40] I think this is interesting. We often hear "book people" talk about how it's really important that people buy books and own books and stuff, and this terrible, terrible modern thing of subscription is awful. When I was growing up, most of the books I read, I got from the library. They weren't my books. I took them for a week, I read them, and I gave them back. If I wanted to read it again I had to go back, find the book and bring it in. And OK, yes, then you'd find your favourite books or favourite authors and then you would buy those and want to own them for the long term. And I think we get a little bit too obsessed with ownership, you know. Borrowing, subscription stuff, is actually, has always been a really good low-barrier way to discover stuff. Justo: [00:17:21] Absolutely. You know, of course I have to agree! John: [00:17:26] Yeah you would, of course. Justo: [00:17:27] But I don't think this is a fight between, you know, print books or having books. There are some books that we're going to want to have because it's part of our life. And actually we might actually buy a better edition because we want to have it there, but because he has a story. And there's some others like, you know, I read it, that's fine. I have some notes, that's fine. You know, 24 symbols or whoever, you keep that. Just in case. But that's that's how I say to think of a more ahead is, you know. How people or why people read I think is the question to try to solve. John: [00:18:00] Yeah I think that's going to be a fascinating one. So when you look at the business, when you look at 24symbols, what is it that you find hardest about being a CEO, about running the business being a founder whatever? You know, some things obviously come naturally and, for you I guess from the sound of it, product is your focus and that's what you like. But what are the things you kind of shy away from but still have to do? Justo: [00:18:22] But still have to do, yes. This is totally personal, I mean, as Justo. I don't like to negotiate. And I know that's that's a horrible thing to say as a CEO. But you know I decided many years ago that I was going to be honest on this. I have to do it and of course, if you have to be hard on a negotiation, you have to be hard. But, man, it's just some people that enjoy negotiating, you know, it's like, No no, we have to negotiate. It's like, no, you know, let's get a deal fast, that's it, you know. And that I have my own issues with that. Then of course you have to learn and I've been successful in some negotiations. But wow, for me that's the hard thing. John: [00:19:10] That's really interesting. When we were talking earlier, actually before we started the show itself, of this thing of running a business and being a parent. I mean I'm in the same kind of shoes as you with kids and I love that you were sharing a quick story about looking after your daughter while you were having to do a presentation. Justo: [00:19:31] Oh yeah. Yes. Yes. The thing is that my wife and I, we both have companies so we both are entrepreneurs. She's more in the health side and I'm more in the book side. We have a daughter, an almost 4 year old daughter, and we have to kind of keep a balance of how we take care of that. Because for us taking care of Olivia is a priority. So it has good things, you know. I can take her to school every single morning, no problem. But there's moments where, you know, it's impossible to manage and so this year, this academic year, there's been two occasions where I had to give a talk to, in both cases, like 150-200 people. And I couldn't find someone to take care of Olivia. So I said that to the organisers and in both cases they said, Just come with her. Like, are you sure? It's like, well let's try it. So you know there were some people taking care of her, playing with her while I was giving my talk. But in both of them she just wanted to be with me, so she would be up with me in the final minutes or whatever. But in the first one, she came to me while I was giving the talk - actually the talk was in English so kind of my brain was totally busy with, you know, in general translating everything I want to say. And she just came to me and said, Daddy! Yeah you want you come here? Yes, but I want to go pee. Just like that. Well, can you what with this other person? No no no no, I want to go with you. So I had to ask the audience can you wait for five minutes? [Laughter] And the audience started to clap and, you know, we go. But I was totally embarrassed because for me, you know, this is serious. There's like, I'm giving a talk. John: [00:21:21] Two halves of your life blending. Justo: [00:21:23] Yeah. But the audience saw it as, you know, this is life. This is life as well and people are starting to understand that this happens. And I wouldn't rush with her. You know, she did what she had to do and then we came back, and people were clapping again and I finished and everything went well. They invited me to give a talk again. John: [00:21:39] So that went very well then. Justo: [00:21:41] That went well. But, yes, this is what you have to do when you have a startup and you want you to continue engaging and commiting to your family. John: [00:21:51] So as you look back over the last 8 years or so of running this business, creating it, building it - what have you learned about yourself from doing that? You know, do you still think of yourself as the same person or have you learned more about who you are or have you changed? Justo: [00:22:08] Yes I think everyone in 8 years changes a lot, you know, regardless of what you do. But it's true that running your business means having to make a lot of decisions, having to do things that you didn't expect that you would do and even enjoying it throughout the process. As I said, I never thought that I could negotiate the things I've been able to negotiate. I came from a career, a professional career, that was basically meant to be an expert in a very specific area. I did my PhD in data integration so I was meant to be that. John: [00:22:44] More specialist kind of thing. Justo: [00:22:47] Very specialist. And so even when I decided to be part of this, even my previous boss, who is someone I truly respect for everything he's done, was like: are you sure? You could be a big-data expert and things like that. You know what it's like. I don't know if I would be able to do that, but I want to try this. And it taught me a lot about, you know, having to manage many things at the same time and all that stuff. And then one thing I learned is, for us as for any company, we've had our ups and downs. And I remember, in 2012 we had a very very strong down and I never thought I would be able to have this, well now this word is resilience, right? It's to continue. We were like 15 months without having payments at all, you have no salary. And we are not rich. We don't come from rich families. So we had to do many different things because we believed and that, and for 15 months it was like I don't know how I'm going to do it. Of course sometimes you think, I'm what, 38 at that time or 36, 37. And I looked at my account and it was like, What am I doing? You know this doesn't make any sense. But you know I like this. I think this makes sense to me and you continue doing it. John: [00:24:06] So what is it that then brings you back every day in the face of those difficulties? It gets very real sometimes doesn't it? Justo: [00:24:14] Yes. John: [00:24:15] What brings you back? Justo: [00:24:18] I think in this case, at least for 24symbols, it's this vision. As I said before, I wanted to build something that could be used by people. And I know this sounds very typical but in my case at least this is true is of course we have our bugs, we have our complaints, but also we have lots of people saying, hey I'm enjoying! I read everyday with you, you know, with your books and this is just amazing. This is just amazing that you are building up a service where hundreds of thousands of people are being able to read and that's what in 2012 and other years it's like, OK one more. There's a challenge there. I remember I had a chance to talk to Ash Maurya the author of "Running Lean" and "Scaling Lean". And we were talking and he kind of agreed with me at that time that we still need to learn more about entrepreneurship like in judo or martial arts. You know, when you do martial arts, this is something you are taught: when you quit. You know, these guys are beating me. Okay so let's quit. You know, that's it. In entrepreneurship, you don't know that, you have no idea. There is no one who can tell you and in our case in 2010 and all the years, we were lucky but we could have not been lucky and we would have been in trouble. So that's I think in terms of knowing or learning more about what it means to build a company or a startup. We still need to learn more about, you know, when to quit, when it's the right moment to say that's it. John: [00:25:51] We gave it our best shot. John: [00:25:52] That's it, you know, next. John: [00:25:56] Well that seems a very topical note on which to say thanks very much Justo for that fascinating conversation and it's been great to hear from you again. Justo: [00:26:03] It's great you always talk to you John. Thanks so much. John: [00:26:07] Thanks to Justo for that fantastic interview. I'm always energized when I talk to him because he's got this real passion for just making books available to people. And it's really great, it's been great over years now to follow 24symbols in the way that they have persisted and survived. There are so many companies that have been touted as the "Spotify for books" and they're still here, they're still doing really well and just getting books in front of people. And the fact that, you know, this consumption model of streaming books, of borrowing books, of just having books for a while is nothing new. You know, as I said in the interview, you know, we've borrowed books from libraries for hundreds of years, decades. And this is just the new iteration of that model. So it is great to see people pushing that forward and developing it. So thanks very much to Justo. Next week we're going to be talking to Emma Donnan who is a ghostwriter. If you've ever wondered what ghostwriters do, how they go about things, how they fit into the world of publishing, tune in next week and hear what Emma has to say. Until then thank you very much.

Bec Evans is Co-Founder of Prolifiko, the digital productivity coach for writers that uses persuasive technology to help people achieve their writing goals. She's also worked as Head of Innovation for Emerald Group and as Centre Director for Ted Hughes's historic house and grounds, and the writing courses that were held there. In the episode, we talk about finding a problem you're passionate about, and embracing the fact that your solution to that problem will change. Being a Founder means committing yourself to the business, and so we talk about the journey Prolifiko took from being a side-hustle to a full-time job - and the way that journey changes you from being a specialist to being a generalist, and the way that forces you to stop giving advice and starting to solicit it.

Emmanuel Nataf is the co-Founder and CEO of Reedsy, a marketplace for authors, editors, designers, marketers and more to come together and form teams to get books published. In this interview, we talk about Emmanuel's belief in leading the market - coming up with new ideas and solutions rather than just asking what people want. Also, how he founded a business to save his own mental health, picking the right home country for your company, and finding networks to help and support you. In the interview, he mentioned Venture Deals by Brad Feld as a valuable resource for him when they were getting funding for the business, and you can find it on Kobo (ebook or audio) or Hive (print or ebook).

Tom Chalmers is Founder and MD at the Legend Times Group, and also founded IPR License (now sold to the Frankfurt Book Fair). In this week's episode, we talk about finding your way to success in publishing with a combination of serendipity and deliberate reflection, using market comparisons and data to focus on the areas where you have the greatest chance for success. And don't be put off by the craziness of your ideas!

Syima Aslam co-founded the Bradford Literature Festival in 2014, and in this episode we discuss what makes this festival special, the ways that a literature festival helps the city that hosts it, and what it means for her to run this successful, growing annual event. In particular, her passion for reading and stories shines through - and for her home city and how books, libraries and reading in general are essential for young people to succeed in life. It's inspiring how she's making "literature" accessible and attractive for more people.

This week, John Espirian and I talk about how to be your own Google (providing the best answers to people's real questions in your areas of expertise), pursing clarity and simplicity in your writing, and how content marketing can work for your business by creating content that works for you even when you're on holiday - and how to balance the time spent creating that content against the time spent doing the work that directly brings in revenue! John is a freelance copywriter, helping businesses communicate better with their customers. He's also been a Director of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders for 8 years, and tirelessly shares his knowledge via his blog and mailing list, and on social media. A central theme in this episode is the idea that no-one ever complained that something was too simple to understand, which John found in Ann Handley's book Everybody Writes.

Mindy Gibbins-Klein and I talk about finding your business idea in unexpected directions, the importance of peer support (for your staff, for your authors and especially for you as the person running the business), and how to balance the need to plan for the future with the need to respond to what's happening now. Mindy runs Panoma Press and The Book Midwife, helping people to find their best message and turn it into a great book. She came from a corporate marketing background and moved into helping people publish books as a result of her own experience writing books. In this episode, we discuss some of the networks Mindy has used to get support from other business leaders: Vistage; the Academy for Chief Executives; and MD2MD.  

Simon Appleby is Founder and Director of Bookswarm, the digital agency for the publishing industry. In this week's episode, we talk about being a non-specialist founder of a tech company, the power of networks and personal connections, and the idea of business-karma and "paying it forward".

Bridget Shine is the Chief Executive of the Independent Publishers' Guild, a UK-based organisation that helps independent publishers to have better business through support, training, communication and a whole range of activities. She's run the IPG for about 15 years, in which time it's more than doubled in size. In our conversation, we talk about the ways in which the IPG helps its members, as well as the approach Bridget takes and what she's learned. What always amazes me about the IPG is its open and collaborative atmosphere, and the way that people help each other - whether their businesses compete or are completely different!

Suzy Astbury owns and runs Inspired Selection, a recruitment agency dedicated to the publishing industry. In this podcast, we talk about her early determination to run a business, her decision to buy Inspired Selection, and the many things that working in recruitment brings. It's not just the people who work for us, either, but those we work for, those who advise and support us, and those who hold us to account. Overall, a great conversation!

Ken Jones is Director of Circular Software, creating software like CircularFLO (to easily create advanced fixed-layout EPUBs) and GreenLight (to make sure that files from your team and suppliers follow all the right specs for your printer). He's also helped develop exciting ebooks like Galdo's Gift (with Tapocketa), which we talk a little about in the podcast. In this episode, Ken talks about his background in print (an actual family tradition), his time spent training and in particular his work creating software to help publishers do their jobs better. We discuss the need to experiment and learn, and how important it is to listen and understand what publishers actually need.

In this week's episode, Alison Jones and I talk about how important it is to work on your business as well as in it - that is, to plan carefully. But even more, how passion and fun can drive you to success while making sure you enjoy the journey. Alison's worked in publishing for 25 years, starting as a bookseller and then an assistant editor at Chambers, then Oxford University Press and Palgrave Macmillan, to become Digital Innovation Director. Then she left to make a career change, and became a publisher again almost by accident. Now, she runs Practical Inspiration Publishing, helping people write books that actively support their businesses. She also runs the Extraordinary Business Book Club podcast and is a writer and her most recent book This Book Means Business is all about these issues - understanding your business, and then writing content that actively supports your goals for it.

This was the hardest episode of this podcast so far to record (so apologies in advance for the slightly scrappy quality of some of the audio), because I'm getting personal about some subjects that are often taboo - education, career progression, choices, and the privileges that affect our access to these things. "Privilege" is the preferential treatment that we get from other people, companies and society in general because of our skin colour, socioeconomic class, gender, health or other factors unrelated to our actual ability to perform. At the moment, it's important for people to own how they got to where they have. Privilege is sometimes a subtle thing - or just something we don't want to admit to. So, in this week's podcast, I tell my own career story, in the interests of owning some of my own privilege and hopefully encouraging other people to speak, too. And perhaps making a few people think about their own privilege in new ways. If these are issues you're interested in, check out the report from Panic! It's an Arts Emergency (PDF) and Chris McCrudden's excellent commentary, read about the recent BookMachine event about diversity, inclusion and privilege - and try attending similar events in future. Read articles by people who aren't like you. Follow them on social media and listen to what they say. Watch TV that's "not aimed at me". Don't ask your less-privileged friends to educate you, though. It's not their job to improve you. Put the effort in to improve yourself!

Suzanne Collier (@suzannecollier) of BookCareers entered publishing at 16 from school and has since then chaired the Society for Young Publishers and worked for a range of publishers in a range of jobs. Some changes in personal circumstance led to her setting up her own business, and over the past 20 years, Suzanne's been instrumental in making the publishing industry a bit more open and honest through exercises like her annual pay survey. And along the way, she's helped a lot of people with their careers! In this interview, we look at her history and discuss some of the systemic issues that still afflict the publishing industry, as well as the effects of physical and mental changes - and some of the ways in which people still succeed. If you'd like to donate to the Book Trade Charity and support Suzanne's epic 140-mile bike ride this coming May, please do so here. Warning: contains a brief reference to suicide.

The London Book Fair was its usual self - perhaps a little cooler this year, both in temperature and busy-ness levels, but still a great few days. This is my review, touching on the terrible mobile app, the fantastic people, the surprising conversations and the odd discoveries. For another view of the Fair, check out Julia Garvey's (written) review!

In a special LBF18 episode, I talk to Emma Barnes, the CEO and Founder of Snowbooks, Bibliocloud and Make Our Book. We discuss discuss epiphanies, passion for what books can mean, and why everyone should learn at least the basics of computer programming. Links mentioned in the podcast: Rails Tutorial Learn Enough to be Dangerous Makers' Academy Thanks again to Emma for this fascinating conversation!