It literally began with a dream of a little girl holding a butterfly in her left hand.
Then it grew.
No matter how I wished it away, it stuck onto me like a leech. So I decided to put my energy into it, and the words rushed at me in orgasmic fashion. It was 2004. I was finally going to write that great novel. And I did write it, a children’s book titled The Dream Of Stones. But that was not all: after failing to find a publisher, I decided to do it myself.
And girl did I learn so much about the birth pangs of a publishing business
The most improtant thing to do if you want to get into business is to begin. It’s to take action. You need a huge dose of faith and courage, and a leap into the blankness. A leap of faith, so to speak.
So back in 2004, I knew that a dream without action is useless and that action without a dream can be as dry as a nightmare. I am gifted with dreaming big dreams, but I am also a hardworker, and I know the value of perseverance and patience needed towards any project of worth.
In no time, I had the manuscript of The Dream Of Stones on my hands, which I happily sent out to a publisher. After three-months wait, the publisher wrote to me, telling me my manuscript was good but their schedule was already full they could not invest in my work.
I gritted my teeth in frustration, picked up the phone to call the publisher, and fell short of getting into a verbal wrangle. That’s how my journey into starting a publishing business began – in frustration.
The vision to become not only a writer but a publisher gripped me so much. I wanted to become a fully fledged publisher of magazines, books and a newspaper.
Armed with tons of confidence, I approached a mentor, a famous and internationally renowned Zimbabwean writer, Charles Mungoshi, to polish my work. Working with him renewed my inspiration, he absolutely believed in my work, and gave me the strength to go on.
It’s important for anyone interested in business to find a mentor – it saves on making unnecessary mistakes. Besides my main mentor, I consulted a lot of other people and did a lot of reading around my chosen career path.
An entrepreneur must feed their mind; reading is such an essential component of the entrepreneurial process. Besides keeping your mind active, it opens you up to new concepts and ways of doing things. It also increases your adaptability in the business world.
My first goal was clear: to equip myself with the skills, essential knowledge, business acumen, and the flexibility of mind and approach necessary to succeed as a writer and publisher.
I had a clear vision. Although it began in frustration, it became crystal clear that publishing was an area in which I could contribute to the betterment of society. It’s essential to understand why you want to do what you want to do.
I began reading about the business of publishing until I became very sure of the terrain that I was facing. Frankly, I was so amazed at the amount of information freely available on the internet about establishing a publishing enterprise or any other enterprise for that matter. The internet is a great resource for business start-ups. I recommend the following four sites:
1. www.inc.com
2. http://www.entrepreneur.com
3. www.magazinelaunch.com
4. www.bizplan.com
I found these four sites very helpful. But the point is the web is so rich of information, and all you have to do is search for what you are interested in – you can never go wrong
One thing that came across though in my reading was that it was not going to be easy, and that the potential to lose money was high. Traditionally, publishing is a high profit and high margin business. The key to success is successful marketing.
Obviously, the Internet has significantly changed the picture publishing, but it really depends on which part of the world you are located in. I chose to take the traditional route of printing my book – the internet could not help much in my context.
The point then is that it’s critical to understand your market. If you don’t know what your market needs, how will you create the right services or products. I don’t always believe in this advice though, because some people are given to innovation and pioneering. The underlying theme is, you should clearly understand your profit edge in order to survive in business.
I had a dream, and was prepared to drive that dream forward. I strongly believed in the product that I had created. Most importantly, I truly believed in the social and political value of the message contained in the book. Put simply, without belief in yourself, your team and your product or service, you will not be able to make it in business.
At the end of the day, business is very much about character, attitude and beliefs – money is a secondary product.
Anyway, I hired an artist to do the illustrations. He was very good. I had seen his work before, and I knew that he would bring a new life to the book.
I put together a budget – without money, you can forget about business. You invest money to make money. Luckily, I had some savings. But most importantly, you have to put together a business plan. A business plan gives direction to your energies, if used properly. Most people who venture into business ignore this vital component.
After getting the manuscript edited, I approached a graphic designer. I sat down with him to explain the concept of my book. We agreed on the terms, and he started the work.
At the same time, I began scouting around for a good printer. I wanted to make sure that the printing was of good quality. I found one.
To cut the long story short, I managed to get book printed. I took The Dream Of Stones to the International Board on Books For Young People conference, held September 2004 in South Africa.
The theme of the conference was Books For Africa, and for me this was a great marketing opportunity. I assumed that people would scramble for my book, but I was wrong.
Well, first, the conference organizers stopped me from selling my book. That was very cruel of them. The big bookshops had bought exclusive rights or something like that to sell books during the conference. I should have protested, but I was rather naive.
A business person must fight, fight for what they believe in. When I look back, I should have fought against the conference organizers. Africa is in need of publishers, and if you deny upcoming talent, you will never correct the imbalances.
I ended up giving away my books for free in South Africa because they were too heavy to carry back to Zimbabwe. After the conference, I went back home rather dejected but not defeated. Then, I entered the book into the Zimbabwe National Art Merits Awards Competition.
In February 2005, my book was awarded Zimbabwe’s Outstanding Children’s Book for 2004. Unfortunately, no local publisher saw it fit to approach me to publish the work at a greater scale. How sad?
It was then that I began taking stock of my work. I had succeeded in doing what I had set out to but it just had not worked. Maybe, my society was not ready yet for me. But there were some key developments, like my book became available on www.amazon.com. But that’s all.
Publishing is not an easy industry. For most people who decide to venture into the field, success can be elusive. Although, it’s a relatively easy industry to enter, the chances of failure are very high. In my case, undercapitalization, insufficient demand, poor management, wrong strategies are among some of the reasons why I failed to take off in 2004.
I am primarily a writer but I know I have fire and passion within me to become a publisher as well. I am in the process of learning from all my failures.
But to be blunt, I think character is the biggest defining factor of business success or failure. Character is what stays around in the event of failure or success. If you have a weak character, then you get overtaken by your success. In the same manner, if you fail, then you choose giving up.
It’s important to know who you are, and what you want to achieve. In my case, simply making money was never the goal, although I realized that making money was key to any future sustainability of the publishing enterprise.
It’s also important to select a team of people that are truly talented, and are willing to make sacrifices required to build a start-up. There’s no point to build a team of sycophants, who will not tell you the truth. As the business grows, the entrepreneur must also learn to delegate responsibilities.
I guess the most important prerequisite is to always have a desire to learn. To want to keep growing, and expand the opportunities in the world.
I have to conclude by saying, I failed in my publishing endeavor. But, I have not given up. You too can go for your dream. You have to believe in yourself, and get started. Remember, sometimes it takes a little dream to get you started, but if you do it right, the rewards can be great.
Above all, never, never give up: persist until you pass the test.
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