Having not much more than a name and a book, I set out to learn the ins and outs of small press publishing. I published my first book (THE EXECUTIVE'S DECISION) in April of 2011.
I didn't set out to be a publisher. Believe it or not, even four years ago indie publishing was thought to be a crack idea. You weren't really an author if you were publishing yourself. However, small indie houses were making their mark. The thought was I'd create a company to make me look bigger than I was. And the company was born
I had no intentions of being anyone else's publisher. I even had gotten involved with a group of writers and we were opening our own "house" to publish ourselves. I'll never to this day know why I went into that, but that it lead me into the path I was suppose to take.
As that house didn't take off, three of the ladies, who had books due out, needed to get them out. The phone call came to me to help. I accepted the challenge and we went out to publish their books. What happened next? Crash and Burn! I might have lost a few friends over that and I took the failure of that publishing adventure to heart for a long time. But everything in our lives is a learning process. I think the four of us might agree that was a HUGE learning experience for us all.
The next call came for a woman who is now a Bestselling Author and when she writes it it's gold. Carmen DeSousa sold me on selling her. What a patient woman. She was very gracious as I built my own titles and hers. There were bumps and bruises along the way. Since she signed we published a lot of books together. Last year she took those titles to publish her own. She's going to do marvelously.
Over the past four years we have crashed and burned a lot. But on the flip side, we have soared!!!! The 5 Prince Publishing catalog continues to grow. We have 26 authors and have published over 110 books in four years. I have all 22 titles which I have written in this catalog. I have been privy to watching a few of my authors take of in grand flight and make a name for themselves. Having authors come to me as an author and a publisher and asking advice is invaluable to me and a priceless gift.
I've been here for awhile. I've seen the market flux. I've seen the industry circle around. I am no longer the newbie on the block.
I will crash and burn again. And I will soar many more times than I crash.
If the past four years have been this wonderful with all that I have learned and experienced, I can't even begin to imagine what the next four years will bring. Thank you to everyone who has participated in this journey.
When not writing, Bernadette Marie is shuffling her sons to their many events—mostly hockey—and enjoying the beautiful views of the Colorado Rocky Mountains from her front step. She is also an accomplished martial artist with a second degree black belt in Tang Soo Do.
A chronic entrepreneur, Bernadette Marie opened her own publishing house in 2011, 5 Prince Publishing, so that she could publish the books she liked to write and help make the dreams of other aspiring authors come true too.
