When you start a small business, it's hard to know what success--or failure--looks like.In 2011, I started a book business with my best friend called Emily Books. We were qualified to start a business in some ways, not so much in others. We had some expertise in our field: We'd both worked at the intersection of publishing and tech for years, and we wanted to start an online bookstore that sold a small collection of books and allowed readers to subscribe and receive a carefully chosen book per month automatically. Our idea was that this would provide an online version of what we loved about shopping at independent bookstores: the great taste and careful curation of expert booksellers, which no algorithm can replicate. We had no management experience, though, and had never created a PowerPoint presentation or written a business plan. We also, probably more importantly, had no ambition to found the kind of startup that barrels toward acquisition or IPO. We wanted to test waters, grow organically, and pivot on a dime in response to customers' needs like a startup, but we also wanted to stay independent, avoid gimmicks, and build a sustainable business that would stay true to its core values.Read Full Story Continue reading at 'Fast Company'
[ Fast Company | 2014-10-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
News tagged with:
#stay independent
#stay true
#core values
After 600k personalised picture-book sales, London firm secures investment from Silicon Valley firms Google Ventures and GreycroftChildren’s storytelling startup Lost My Name raised its first $100k of funding in 2014 on TV show Dragon’s Den. Now the London-based firm is turning to Silicon Valley... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2015-06-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#british children
#silicon valley
#google ventures
#reluctant readers
When you start a small business, it's hard to know what success--or failure--looks like.In 2011, I started a book business with my best friend called Emily Books. We were qualified to start a business in some ways, not so much in others. We had some expertise in our field: We'd both worked at... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2014-10-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#stay independent
#stay true
#core values
Most startups will never see anything close to the amount of money Twitter plans on raising during its IPO this week (a reported $1.6 billion) and in fact, three out of four tech businesses fail. Entrepreneurs in training looking to create a successful company, then, might want to know what... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2013-11-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#makes sense
#early days
#paying attention
A meta-narrator has an authorial awareness of a story being told. They make their presence known, intervening when they deem necessary. In the case that they are also the protagonist (which is often) then they must be as adept as immersing themselves in the real-time story unfolding up close as... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-10-24 08:15:09 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
The writer’s signature style of ending—a final, thrilling note—has the touch of magic that distinguishes the form at its best. Continue reading at New Yorker
[ New Yorker | 2021-06-28 10:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#signature style
#short stories
Andersen Press is to relaunch its weekly online children's storytime sessions in partnership with Seven Stories, the National Centre for Children's Books. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-01-15 10:26:35 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#andersen press
#national centre
The Boston Book Festival has announced that a short story by Grace Talusan is the 10th annual selection for its One City One Story initiative. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-07-24 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#short story
#book festival
THE STARLESS SEA, Erin Morgenstern’s sophomore fantasy novel, takes effort to read, but there are countless narratively complex works of science fiction and fantasy that amply reward such effort: N. K. Jemisin’s The Fifth Season comes to mind as one recent, prominent example of the type. The... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-06-20 17:00:48 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#erin morgenstern
#starless sea
#science fiction
The Edmund Kemper, audiobook narrator story is sensational. The work of The Blind Project, though, is vital, important, and worth knowing. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2019-10-14 10:35:39 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#audiobook
In pushing the romance genre aside, Australia’s publishing industry sent its most successful writers to pursue their careers abroadNalini Singh is trying to convince me to read a love story starring bears. The tiny author is tucked up under a huge scarf in a cafe on a freezing August day in... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2019-08-17 22:00:54 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#romance genre
#41st book
#dystopian future
#publishing industry
In his new book, former F.C.C. Chariman Tom Wheeler deftly explores 500 years of network revolutions, and offers an invaluable take on the challenges we now face. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-03-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
First Story and the University of Cambridge are the new partners of the BBC’s short story awards, replacing BookTrust, in a three-year collaboration starting in 2018. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-09-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#cambridge university
I have always loved the versatility of the short story, how it can so easily take on the forms of other things. There are playlist short stories, recipe short stories, diary and epistolary-style short stories. There are flash fiction stories, short short stories, and long short stories that... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2024-04-15 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#short story
#electric literature
#short stories
Short stories can do things novels cannot because they’re short. They’re limber and can dart in and out of close-fitting places. They can be weird and daring in ways that novels cannot always sustain. Joy Williams writes in, “8 Essential Attributes of the Short Story (and one way it differs from... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2024-03-28 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#short story
#electric literature
#short stories
'The Hive and the Honey' is the winner of this year's Story Prize, which was presented at a ceremony March 26 at the Lotos Club in New York City. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-03-27 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#story prize
Scholastic has acquired 100% of the economic interest in 9 Story Media Group, a Toronto-based creator, producer, and distributor of children’s content. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-03-12 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#scholastic
Leslie Jamison’s new memoir Splinters follows the aftermath of divorce and the awakening of motherhood, but it explores desire more than it does any kind of death. Jamison wants to make meaning, to connect, to love, to feel, to mother, to write, and to revise her life endlessly. There are losses... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2024-03-08 12:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#leslie jamison
#love story
#electric literature
#memoir
Rebecca Rego Barry, author of 'The Vanishing of Carolyn Wells,' on researching the prolific mystery author—whose name, which once regularly graced the pages of the 'New York Times' and this very magazine, has been all but forgotten. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-02-29 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
An Australian startup that recently hired a new North American president plans to grow its U.S. headquarters in Denver. The startup is a digital platform that helps privately owned businesses determine their valuation. It also helps create a roadmap for a successful exit, which could include a... Continue reading at Silicon Valley Business Journal
[ Silicon Valley Business Journal | 2024-02-28 13:09:19 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#digital platform
#younger generation
#privately owned
A look at the publication process for the latest novel from the acclaimed author and poet. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-02-23 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#untold stories
#julia alvarez
#publication process
#acclaimed author