Talking Through My Hat

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,

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.