For a while now, I’ve felt stagnant. The business I set up in 2022 hadn’t taken off the way I’d hoped it would as a bright-eyed university student, and it got lost in the sea of indie authors, booktokers, and other small press publishers trying to make their way in the world.
Where was I going wrong? Why was I not selling enough books to make a living? Why was I struggling to get my books stocked in brick-and-mortar shops when others had little trouble doing so? I knew that I was missing that key connection – a relationship between bookseller and publisher that has been crucial to either’s survival since publishing began.
So I attended webinar after webinar about marketing; building a brand from scratch, utilising your mailing list to generate sales, how AI can improve your content, the list goes on. I got bits and pieces from them, useful tidbits that I applied where I could. I found myself becoming jealous of the other presses that could afford a social media team, because how on earth could I compete with someone whose full-time job was “social media”?
Spoiler alert, you can’t.
Even with the help I’ve been receiving from my sister Hannah and my newsletter writer Emma, I wasn’t making progress. Around this time, maybe a year ago now, I was considering a rebrand; name change, updated colours and logo, the whole shebang. I had already decided to pivot to a more Welsh-centered focus – something I am still striving for – and I was worried that my name wasn’t Welsh enough to get the point across. How were readers and booksellers meant to know what I stood for if my name didn’t convey my values?
After a decent amount of faffing around, I bit the bullet and paid for a Power Hour with Goodness Marketing, one of the only marketing people whom I stuck with after watching one of her webinars. Karen’s newsletters always have something helpful or motivating in them to boost my day a little.
I was a little nervous going into the meeting – somewhat akin to meeting a local celebrity, but more than that, I had no idea what Karen would bring to the table. Some of her webinars included sections where the attendees can complete some tasks independently, like in her Do Crew (which, of course, has its merits), but I’ve never approached her with a personalised issue like this before. Would she just tell me what everyone else was telling me about multi-channel and cross-posting, different types of audiences, and how often I should be posting on Instagram stories?
The experience I received was excellent. Not only did we bond over our love of sea life, but Karen had actually looked at what I was already doing in order to best advise me. I must operate under a guise of imposter syndrome because the idea that someone went out of their way to look at my website and social media is overwhelming.
We spent a lot of time breaking down what I wanted from my business; the 5 W’s and the H of it all. She could see the disconnect I felt in what I was posting – not that my posts were bad, but that the whimsy of my socials didn’t match up with the clean professionalism of my website. She brought me back to WHY I wanted to build Barnard Publishing, which brought me back to my childhood of reading an illustrated copy of The Hobbit with my dad at bedtime and my love of landscape photography as a teenager. She reminded me of why I love books and why I love Wales, and it became clear that Barnard Publishing was the two coming together.
We talked through WHAT I do, WHO I’m trying to reach, WHERE I am presenting myself and WHERE the audience I’m looking for is hiding, WHEN I can stretch my proverbial publishing fingers to entice sales, and HOW exactly I go about doing that. The hour flew by, and it became clear to Karen (who then pointed out to me) that a rebrand wasn’t necessary; I had already done the baseline work, I just needed to reflect the true heart of Barnard Publishing in what I was putting out.
I was reminded why I chose Barnard Publishing as the name to begin with; my dad built himself a business where his name meant something to the people he worked with – reliability, trust, good and honest work, and a sense of community. I want to build that for myself in the publishing industry, which seems more and more untrustworthy as the days go by. So, although my business name may not represent Welshness, I hope people will learn to trust that what Barnard Publishing stands for is what it will deliver.
This is the first step in a long journey of moving Barnard Publishing to reflect what I envision for it. And I can’t wait for the next one.
