Parisian Phoenix Publishing

As a college professor and a mentor, I frequently remind people that when networking, it’s important to ask your connections about themselves, their hobbies, and their general lives. This also applies to working relationships.

Organic conversations, the kind that people remember and act on, involve genuine interest in learning who the other person is and what they value.

I recently had a meeting with the dean who supervises me. We were reviewing the course outlines for my publishing classes at the college and discussing their place in the creative writing curriculum. She complimented my syllabus. I mentioned why I structured it that way, and complimented the college for offering courses that focused on the practical, business end of writing because not many institutions do anything other than discuss craft.

(In the past I mentioned this in a newsletter: My theory that academics only know the craft side of writing as teaching is typically based on “publish or perish” which requires entrenchment in traditional publishing methods. Teachers also teach which means teaching provides their steady income, not writing, so they can focus on craft and not finance.)

Somehow, this conversation with the dean then turned to my students grappling with the reality of how royalties work— the old “book math,” where in a generous arrangement, if Barnes and Noble sells your $20 print-on-demand novel, the printer takes $5, Barnes makes $10, and the publisher and author share $5.

And at this point, my dean mentioned that she does voiceover work for audiobooks as a hobby. Now, as a publisher, I think that’s really cool. So, I ask questions. And she asks me if I know who Freida McFadden is. And I happened to be reading a Freida McFadden book at that moment.