Oh wow!

Last week I attended Ideas Fest for the first time and it was absolutely blooming fab. Surrounded by so many business people was inspiring.

Something that happened time and again, though, that made me smile was the response when I said I was a publisher - “Oh wow!” was what I got most times. I’ll be honest, it was really nice, if a bit unexpected. Having been in marketing for most of my career, that was often met with a completely different vibe!

It made me wonder what it was about being a publisher that generated that response: is it that we’re usually chained to our desks and rarely get out in public, so we meet so few people or perhaps just that publishing seems like a cool thing to do?

Whatever it is, I think publishers do ourselves a disservice by not talking about what we actually do more. Because when I stop and think about it, it's pretty special.

Publishing, for me, is about trust. The authors I work with hand me something that matters to them - sometimes something they've never shared with anyone. They let me into their world, their story, the messy bits they weren't sure were worth telling, and they trust me to help them make sense of it, shape it, and get it out into the world in a way they're proud of.

That's not nothing when I think about it. That's actually quite a lot.

I feel genuinely proud that people choose me for that, and humbled, every time, that they do. Because they didn't have to. They could have kept their story to themselves, or taken it somewhere else. But they brought it to me. I don’t take for granted the trust that they place in me.

I’ve been described as part private detective, part counsellor, part task master and part grammar nerd, it’s all true! I absolutely love the moment someone tells me that they have an idea for a book, or asks me to work with them to create the story they have in their mind.

I’ve been incredibly fortunate to work with some amazing people, those whose stories have real depth and help others, some who have lived awesome lives and I’ve had to cut stories much to my disappointment, but knowing when to keep things private is also part of the job.

Maybe that's why people say "Oh wow." Not because publishing is glamorous - anyone who's spent three hours chasing a proofreading correction knows it's really not - but because stories matter. Being the person someone trusts to tell theirs, that stays with you always.

I’m always happy to chat if you have an idea or a story you want to share. Get in touch and let’s talk about your book.