Bio: “I came, I saw, I conquered. Or was conquered. It’s a toss
up.”
Christina
Brashear, as the President and Publisher, is the driving force behind the
inception and growth of Samhain Publishing, Ltd. She can be reached by email
through: publisher@samhainpublishing.com
Website: www.samhainpublishing.com
Blog: http://www.samhainpublishing.com/news
(I’ll be launching in the coming months a personal blog the url will be: www.betterthanphychotherapy.com.
It’s for fun.)
What made you decide that you wanted to start your own
publishing company and what motivated you to get involved in the romance industry?
I loved my job. When my time at the
previous company for which I worked was over I realized I didn’t want to leave
this industry and all the wonderful authors with which I worked and played. I
just couldn’t see going back into the corporate world of an IT department or
computer operations. When your job makes you happy, do what you need to do to keep
doing it! Also, I didn’t have a choice; the authors said I had to start a
publishing company.
As for the romance industry specifically,
who doesn’t love romance! Romantic fiction is about emotion, a kind of study of
our society and how we live in our time. If you want an idea of what was like
for the merchant class in the Victorian age, read a Jane Austin book. Of
course, with all fiction, you take it with a grain of salt as we write how we
want things to be not always the way they are, that’s why it is fiction.
Reality can be harsh and when I read fiction, ninety percent of the time I’m
going to go for a romance book because I want to read about how people feel and
how they come to a happy conclusion as their lives together are launched.
For me, it’s also a study of the
human condition through entertaining means. How does this slightly broken
person overcome the adversity they suffered to connect with another slightly
broken person and reach a point where they accept who they are and can move
forward. I love reading a well crafted characterization and the journey from
alone to a pairbond.
Can you describe what you do as part of being the
owner/publisher of Samhain?
I answer a lot of questions. The
buck stops with me, so I have to be available to all departments for
decision-making or assisting with their deciding what direction to take. I like
to hire people who are smarter than me, give them the tools they need to do
their job and then be their sounding board and provide direction as needed.
Really, when I think about it my
job mainly consists of looking out for the interests of the authors who have
entrusted their work with Samhain. What are the best deals for marketing,
advertising, audio rights, translation rights, print production, digital and
print retailers and distributors? I have to look at everything and make judgments
on the viability of a new relationship or evaluate an existing one to make sure
it’s still the best for the authors’ works. I review our publication contract
and make adjustments every few years so that we are keeping up with legal
language the changes in the industry bring. We have to make sure that the
copyright for the works are as protected as they can be. I also am the
oversight for distribution of money. Samhain pours the majority of its minor
share back into the company and my job is to make sure that it is spent in the
most effect way to bring in more sales and new customers.
I also travel. A lot! I love
hanging out with authors and some seem to like to hang out with me, too. ;) I
tend to vent aloud what-if concepts that spark storyline and plot ideas. I also
feel compelled to feed authors, so you can usually count on a meal if it’s that
time and you’re orbiting me.
Since I’m from an IT background,
I tend to lean heavily toward the latest and greatest in software. I believe
computers should work for me and not me for them. I like to find software that
does as much of the routine work as possible, so that the team has time to
focus on more important matters, like connecting with customers, developing
strategies to expand sales, and how to make the authors happy.
Also, I am usually the one who
heads up the new website development. I’m really excited about the new site
that launched in October. While it’s a little bare-bones at the moment, it’s a
powerful platform that we can build out a fabulous system that will be like an
iceberg; so little seen up top, but so much down below. I’d wax on about the
plans, but I think people just get bored. Kind of like when I start explaining
the royalties process, eyes glaze over. :-/
What's one important thing you've learned about your job as you
became more
involved in it?
The same thing that I’ve learned
with every job: it’s all about the customer service. It doesn’t matter if
you’re talking about a “real” customer, the type from whom you are hoping to
receive money or the type that’s the concept of treating your coworker like a
customer. If you treat everyone you encounter as if they are a customer, you
get what you give. You get what you give—if you’re dismissive and rude, you are
going to get that in return and who wants to do something for someone like
that? I look for a way to say yes when ever possible. If it can’t be yes, then
I look for an alternative solution. I don’t like to say no, no is a stop and
you can’t grow and expand when you’re constantly stopping.
How do you handle complaints/negative feedback from
readers/authors?
I have a really deep pond. :-O
Seriously, I take their
complaint into consideration, after culling away the emotion usually
accompanying the feedback. What can I do to fix this or make it more palatable?
How can I make this situation better for all parties? Where are we failing the
reader or the author and how can I make it right for them and Samhain both?
The hardest thing for anyone in
customer support to do is learn how to ignore the emotion that comes through
from the frustration the customer is experiencing. It can come in the form of
passive aggressiveness to outright belligerence. Learning to really understand
it’s not personal, it’s not about you, can time some effort, but once you reach
that nirvana, you’re like Teflon and can wade into any situation and find a way
to resolve it.
What do you consider the best way for an author to do
promos?
It varies from author to author,
from genre to genre. And it’s yet to be discovered. There is always something
new on the horizon. The next great thing, way to connect to another human
being, is just around the corner.
I can say that more paper is
thrown away after conferences than tchotchkes give-aways. All the money authors
spend on cards and bookmarks and whatnot just makes me sad. I think it’s better
to spend the money on one good item that someone is going to keep with them and
have in their line of sight long after the event is over than it is to spread
it out over cardstock and paper items which are sacrificed for room in the
suitcase for books and get left behind for the hotel room service person to
discard. Also, all the dead trees make Samhain …er me sad.
I’m still trying to learn how to
make to-do lists. And to actually check them. I have to accept I am not going
to remember all the things I have to do and I have to be more diligent about
making lists and looking at them. That’s a recent realization about my job.
Chats. How important do you feel it is for authors to take
part in chats on loops or at other romance sites?
I can only answer in concepts and
theories as I haven’t interacted in social online settings in years and am not
up on how well attending these types of events are. If they are well attended
by a base of readers, it’s great. If it’s just buddies or fellow authors
supporting each other then it’s a waste of time. Your time is more valuable
than money, spend it wisely. Authors do need to connect with the readers who
enjoy their work and who want to learn more about them. Authors also need to
connect with new readers who are looking for the style books they write to
expand their reader base.
I do advise be aware of how you
might be perceived, as it has been my experience from observing poor behavior
and the consequences that follow, it’s best to maintain an online personality,
an author persona, that is benign and fun but doesn’t hit any hot buttons. It
goes back to the treat-everyone-as-a-customer philosophy: don’t argue and don’t
engage in a no-win. No-wins are debates that could alienate simply because your
position isn’t inline with their position on any given topic.
Don’t give you away, keep the up a mystique like the fantasy life people dream
authors live, you know the bon-bon-eating, feather-boa-wearing, writing-from-a-huge-canopied
bed, castle-dwelling author persona for the public. Keep the real you private
for your own sanity and safety. Most author write under a penname so they can
have that level of distance, but I have seen so many crossing those lines in my
years in the business and it frequently does not end well. Leave them wanting
more.
If you can do that, and find
sites that have people who want to engage with authors, it’s a great way to
introduce your work to new readers and to interact with the loyal readers.
Please add anything else you feel is important.
Write because you love it. Write
to please yourself. Don’t be afraid to fail, it’s how we learn and grow. Speak
well of yourself, shut down the negative voices in your head. Take a walk.
Drink more water. Smile, we’re only here for a little while.
Pleased add your bio and the place online where people can
find you:
Christina Brashear is a veteran
of digital publishing, having begun working in the industry at the turn of the
century. As President and Publisher, Christina is the driving force behind the
inception and growth of Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
Christina’s goal when founding
Samhain Publishing was to establish an author-friendly publishing company where
literary artists can express their creativity in a safe environment where they
receive professional editing, help from a supportive marketing and promotions
team, and a business-oriented operations team to handle mundane tasks. This
allows authors to flourish by focusing on what they do best: writing.
As a voracious reader herself,
this was not done out of altruism, but so these wonderful stories concocted in
the fertile minds of creative people would come to fruition and be available to
Christina and others like her who enjoy non-standard takes on traditional
tropes.
Christina is always open to
ideas and suggestions and can be reached by:
Twitter @crissyb65
Visit SamhainPublishing.com and
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