POWER TALKING
with Publisher &
Author Pamela M. Johnson
THE ROCK:
Why is entrepreneurship so important?
Pamela: In addition to it being self-empowerment
and conferring power and control to the business owner, if you’re
successful at being your own boss it is important because it represents
security. At the same time, it allows you to create employment opportunities
for others so that they may plan their livelihood and their family’s
livelihood. Statistics from the Small Business Administration (SBA)
indicates that small businesses with less than 50-100 employees employ
more people than major companies. They are the true driving force
of our economy.
THE ROCK: What
is your mission in the arena of entrepreneurship?
Pamela: To increase the number of Blacks
in publishing and to brand Macavelli Press so that its name becomes
synonymous with good Black fiction and non-fiction novels and books.
When I learned in 2003 that 50,000 books were published annually in
the US and that only 80 of those titles were written by Blacks with
a major publishing house, I was flabbergasted. I thought our publishing
numbers were much higher. After hearing this, I immediately thought
about the number of good books written by Black authors that were
being passed up as a result. Furthermore, only 2% of manuscripts sent
to a publisher are read. With this said and being an author myself,
I decided to create a Black-owned publishing company aimed at recruiting
Black authors to fill this publishing void and meeting this challenge.
THE ROCK:
What is the upside and downside of owning a business?
Pamela: The upside is all work, and the
down side no play at least during the early years of the business.
There are people out there with the misconception that if you have
your own business, you work only when you want to or you don’t
work that hard. If you own your own business and want to be successful;
honestly speaking, you will work harder than you’ve ever worked
in you life at any job. There are laws in the workplace that says
if an employee works a certain amount of hours they are entitled to
a morning break, lunch and afternoon break and they get it. But if
you are the owner of your own business, you will find that there are
many days you work from sun up to sun down without any breaks and
without any lunch. Interestingly, you don’t complain because
you know that you have to do what you have to do to get the job done,
and that’s the bottom line. Essentially, the success of your
business is determined by what you put into it. In other words, if
you aren’t dedicated and put the hard work into it to make it
excel, then you can’t expect to have a flourishing business.
If you put the minimal in it then that’s exactly what you will
have: a business without much worth. For an entrepreneur to be successful,
they have to figure out the necessary work that needs to be done and
put in the needed time and work. The bottom line is that they have
to never feel completely satisfied; there is always something new
and different to be done. An entrepreneur must find away to accomplish
goals and objectives and continuously create new ones.
The downside is that your work is unending. If you have a family it
can become a real challenge especially if you don’t have an
understanding and supportive spouse. As an entrepreneur, you never
get to hang a sign that says "Closed, will be back tomorrow at
9 a.m.," like those signs you see in the windows of many businesses.
The work hours are long and crazy, but when you are passionate about
what you do like I am these things don’t become a deterrent.
I know multimillionaire entrepreneurs who sleep in their office and
never go home for days at a time. To an entrepreneur owning a business
and the way you operate it becomes a new way of life, a new way of
living. If you have employees, they get to go home at the end of the
day, but the owner doesn’t. You literally live and breathe your
business. The upsides are the rewards for me. For instance, obtaining
the distribution relationship with Ingram, the world’s largest
book distributor, my direct distribution relationships with the largest
chain book stores in the world: Barnes and Noble, Borders Books and
Music, and all the right connections I’ve made… and the
future ones that will continue to advance Macavelli.
THE ROCK: Can
you tell us a little about your industry, and how you named your company?
Pamela: I started Macavelli Press in
January 2004 at a time when 50,000 novels were published by major
publishing houses and only approximately 80 of them were written by
Black authors. Before I became a publisher, I knew absolutely nothing
about the publishing business. Now, a year later my knowledge about
the business and publishing contracts is solid.
About why I named my publishing company
Macavelli, a writer has different moods of the day and often works
in the moment. Macavelli for me represented a name of strength especially
during a time in publishing where the numbers skewed of published
Black authors as compared to their counterparts. There was a lot of
truth in some of the things Machiavelli, the war strategist said.
I learned a lot of lessons from him and all the great philosophers
and businessmen and women in general today. Basically, I don’t
hold Machiavelli in any higher regard than I hold anyone that I respect.
But Machiavelli was a name that I was feeling at the time when I launched
my publishing company and decided to use a derivative of it; Macavelli:
make it sound more urban and more modern. Had it been on a different
day that I decided to choose a name for my publishing company and
had I been in a different mood, my publishing company perhaps would
have been called something else, another name of strength perhaps;
it easily could have been called Nietzsche, Zulu Inc., Nefertitti,
Cleopatra, or Black Wall Street or something. I liked Macavelli because
the name symbolizes the struggle, beating the odds, and strength.
Macavelli, I like the sound of it and the power in the word, it’s
one of those names that sticks with you; people remember it. Black
people and people of color are in a struggle everyday in and outside
their communities. To take it a step further, the name acknowledges
and symbolizes the relationships that Black authors have had with
main- stream publishers, and our rebellion that translates to self-empowerment
and the creation of our own publishing companies, where we publish
and distribute our own works, and/or the works of other writers signed
to our small press. Interestingly, once we sell independently and
obtain a respectable number of sales, we then get offered a deal from
the major publishers; thereafter, for the same novel or book they
passed on just a few months back. This is really how it happens in
many instances.
THE ROCK: What is your best advice to someone
struggling to maintain a business?
Pamela: With a clear understanding of
the company financials, the owner or owners of the business need to
go back to the drawing board, re-visit the business goals and objectives
and making sure that they are realistic, if they are not then realistic
ones need to be created to replace the old goals and objectives. It
has to be ascertained why the business is struggling and then a plan
needs to be devised that addresses the findings so that the situation
may be reversed. Nevertheless, the entrepreneur needs to seriously
consider if they have a viable business. At some point, a business
has to sustain itself, otherwise the owner or owners may find themselves
going broke if they have to continually take from their own personal
bank accounts putting it into the business to sustain it. If they
don’t have a business that is earning a profit, then they may
not want to continue it. Perhaps they may need more money than forecasted
to make the business happen, if so then they may want to seek out
a loan or bring in and perhaps even offer the investor a piece of
the business with a buy back clause in exchange for their investment.
If someone is struggling to maintain a business, they should consult
a consultant that deals in their area for advice.
THE ROCK: How
important are partnerships in business?
Pamela: The right partnership can represent
tremendous growth and success for a business. For instance, When I
first started out in publishing and self-published my debut urban
fiction novel, From a Hard Rock to a Gem: a Memoir of a Lost Soul
I started by using the print on demand system where novels are printed
as the are ordered. The system was too restrictive, but at the time
it was the best I could do and it allowed me to get my book out there.
There are real drawbacks to the print on demand system. For one is
the availability of your books. While it’s true that via print
on demand you can have your novel available in bookstores world wide
via customer orders. It suppress you both the author and publisher.
For instance a customer has to first place an order for your book,
wait a couple of weeks for it to be printed and mailed to them. An
author has to be especially careful when using this system especially
if they are doing an advertising and promotions campaigns because
the fact that the reader or customer can’t immediately go into
the store a purchase it presents a dilemma. Print on demand should
be only used as a last resort for authors and small presses. Furthermore,
I see it as a system that you get in and get out of rather quickly.
You have to ask yourself what your goals are using print on demand—you
don’t make any real profit because your production costs are
too high and then you have to pay your distributors their standard
40-60% percentage fee. So the goal is you need to get your print costs
down as low as you can so that you can make a profit. Recently, I
partnered with and received funding from the Black owned Investment
firm, Grigsby & Associates in San Francisco which led way to a
print run of 20,000 copies of my debut novel and its availability
in stores throughout the country. My partnership with Grigsby &
associates is allowing me to do a national ad campaign. Remember when
creating partnerships you don’t need business partners who can
do what you can do. I feel this is where Grigsby & Associates
and I complimented each other I am the author with the writing and
creative talent and publisher with a thorough understanding about
the publishing industry; they are the financiers who believed in my
business proposal and funded it. Now, I can grow my small press, sign,
publish and distribute other authors. In an article that appeared
in Black Issue Book Review magazine titled, "Black Publishing’s
Inspirational Godmother Susan L. Taylor reflects on 34 years nurturing
writers at Essence and her dozen years as an author, in conversation
with Malaika Adero, senior editor of Atria, a division of Simon and
Schuster made a good point when she spoke on Black investment in publishing.
She said, "We need people on the business side, too. We need
Black people with the means to invest in publishing. I’m talking
about the same people who invest in car dealerships, the same people
who invest in liquor distributorships." The entire article can
be read at online at www.bibookreview.com/webextras.asp
THE ROCK: If
you could change one thing about your industry, what would it be?
Pamela: The stigma that comes with being
a self-published author. There are some newspapers and magazines that
refuse to review a book written by self-published authors or refuse
to grant interviews to them. It is their contention that if a major
didn’t sign them they really must not be all that. However this
is a misconception especially when you contrast that philosophy with
the skewed number of the 80 African-American’s published books
published by a major press compared to the 50,000 books published
annually and then as if this isn’t enough only 2% of the manuscripts
sent to publishers are even read, clearly you can conclude that this
may no tin fact be the case.
Furthermore, entrepreneurial people who
elect to self-publisher may have not been rejected by a major press.
In my case I was offered a two book deal by a respected major publisher,
but because I wanted to maintain more of the control and keep more
of the profit I elected to start my own publishing company. Also as
I said before I wanted to do my part as a publisher in increasing
the number of Black authors in publishing. I’m a businesswoman,
a negotiator always looking for the right deal. I don’t know
what the future holds, or if a deal will come that I’m more
comfortable with, if so I might take it, or I may even consider a
distribution deal with one of the major publishers. When that time
comes we’ll see.
THE ROCK: What
three words best describe you as a businesswoman?
Pamela: Earnest, focused, and persistent.
THE ROCK: What
attribute(s) is needed to become a successful businessperson?
Pamela: Confidence, insightfulness, a
good listener, ingenuity, focus, excellent leadership, patience, diplomacy,
commitment, ingenuity and persistence are the immediate thoughts that
come to mind.
THE ROCK: What
to you defines success in America?
Pamela: For some its fame or fortune
or both. For me, success in America is the ability to come from nothing
to something. It’s not allowing your disadvantage to hinder
you from setting or achieving goals, but rather that disadvantage
becomes the foundation where your strength and motivation derives.
Success in America is the ability to make things happen that other
people can’t. With regards to entrepreneurship, it is attaining
what you set out to do as a businessman or woman—obtaining your
objectives and goals especially the ones that people told you you
wouldn’t or couldn’t do. Once you reach them, it’s
the coming up with new ones and attaining those too. It is this kind
of intermitting, incessant cycle for as long as you want it to be.
Success in America also deals with money and power; it’s at
the root of it. Money or the fame or the fortune is one of the fringe
benefits of success.
THE ROCK: What
advice would you give to the youth that have an interest in entrepreneurship?
Pamela: To develop their leadership skills
and strong writing and public speaking skills. To get educated, go
to college and study all of these things. Study marketing other study
courses that benefits entrepreneurs that will help them succeed as
businessmen and women course like promotions, communication, business,
finance, and writing, these are all skills that a successful entrepreneur
will read. Once they are equipped with knowledge than they can better
create a business plan. No business should be started without one
to do so would be like building a house without an architecturally
designed blue print, the business plan is the blue print for your
business. Next, manifest the dream, you want to be an entrepreneur
do it. Have a web site designed and business cards made, go out buy
a fax machine, an answering service, get your cell phones or business
phone line and create your promotional materials. Start you business
by recruiting people and businesses that are in your midst, your neighborhood.
THE ROCK: What
is driving you to success?
Pamela: The feeling of not being satisfied,
that’s what drives me. I have five degrees, an AA, three BA’s,
and a Masters Degree, but still want another one on another level.
In the workplace, I also never felt satisfied. I always felt like
I was working on somebody else’s passion, helping them to succeed,
helping them to make a lot of money, yet there is no job security.
I recently learned what my passion is: writing—being a publisher.
I realized I wanted to create my own business and live my own passion
so I became an entrepreneur.
THE ROCK: What
other things drive you other than success?
Pamela: The challenge that lies in being
told that I can’t do something. I heard that a lot last year
this time, and look at me a year later. Macavelli Press only has one
title, yet we are distributed by the largest book distributor in the
world, Ingram. Less than one year after its inception our title(s)
have presence on bookshelves in bookstores throughout the country,
and I was able to obtain on behalf of Macavelli direct distribution
relationships with the largest chain bookstores in the world, Barnes
and Noble and Borders Books and Music. I was told by a senior staff
member of a publishing house that I would never be able to get Ingram
because I was a new small press with only one title, but I did. I
defied the odds and that feels good. My motto is that there are no
limits except for those that we impose upon ourselves, this is what
I’ve learned along the way. Also, insufficiency and the desire
for prosperity drives me to succeed.
THE ROCK: If
your best friend ask you for advice, what would it be? And,
if the same person ask you for an idea for a business venture, what
would it be?
Pamela: A lot of times, my friends will
seek me out for relationship or business advice and say something
along the lines of ‘I can’t believe this person did this
to me and they are suppose to be my friend or my boyfriend or girlfriend,’
etc. and I’ll say to them, "When someone shows you who
they are believe them." This is something that I heard Maya Angelou
say some years back, but still resonates with me, its deep. I apply
it to my life when I’m ascertaining if someone is being real
with me on a personal level and/or business level. It’s a statement
that applies to your analysis of a person and their actions for what
it is without excuses. It’s reading them. People should be held
accountable for their actions. The saying holds true, "actions
speak louder than words." I wonder why people don’t believe
the truth, even when it stares them in the face.
If a friend sought my advice about an
idea for a business venture, I’d tell them to invest in real
estate especially California real estate. I reside in San Francisco
where the median housing prices are between $750,000 to $850,000.
For the last two years, each year housing prices in the immediate
San Francisco Bay area have increased by 20% which is 40% in a two
year period… amazing! Out-of-state real estate investments may
also present an excellent opportunity for the investor. They have
to research other markets and ascertain its potential. For instance,
Las Vegas real estate is another hot market. Look at its rapid growth
and value appreciation history in just the last four or five years
since 2000/2001. Vegas is definitely hot market where real estate
in my opinion will continue to escalate. You have to be discriminatory
on where to invest in real estate; the key is to buy low and sell
high, and you can’t go wrong. I have stocks and bonds, but I
feel that investment in real estate is one of the best things a person
could invest in
THE ROCK: As an entrepreneur, you are so
driven. Who are some of the entrepreneurs who inspired you?
Pamela: I know so many entrepreneurs
and leaders who have inspired me. I have been motivated and enlightened
by leaders of all colors and walks of faith from ancient times to
the present day who are popular and little known alike. The popular
ones are people like Cleopatra, a leader, and strategist, to present-day
business leaders like Steve Jobs of Apple computer, Oprah Winfrey…
the list goes on! Most recently, I have been inspired by Calvin Grigsby,
investment banker, attorney, and CEO of Grigsby & Associates,
Inc., and entertainment mogul Master P. I love how these men came
from nothing to something. Real rags to riches story. They are so
motivating. As a publishing entrepreneur, I’d like to flip the
publishing industry like Master P flipped the music business, you
know, creating distribution partnerships with the major labels, and
selling millions of records... in my case, books. I’d like to
build an empire and be hot in different areas like him and Russell
Simmons... if not at the same time, at different times. Students at
Harvard business schools and other schools could learn a lot by studying
these contemporary entrepreneurs and leaders. These men and woman
have built empires, and they did so by leveraging their strength in
one area into others. Also, the leadership that authors like McMillan,
Harris, Woods, Zane and others who have self-published before me inspires
me greatly. I’m also inspired by past-esteemed authors like
Walt Whitman, D.H. Lawrence, Edgar Allen Poe, all of whom self-published
early in their careers at their own expense.
THE ROCK: Where
can our readers find you?
Pamela: www.macavellipress.com
THE ROCK: Thank
you Pamela, and best wishes in all of your future endeavors.
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Reviewer: The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers
(RAWSISTAZ.com)
- See all my reviewsImagine this- You are in your teen years
and having the time of your life: skipping school, getting drunk
and high, and having sex with any and everyone without regard
to the effects of having unprotected sex. You are in a gang
and have the whole world at your feet. Then the impossible happens,
you are diagnosed with HIV. Life as you know it changes for
the worst, and your world comes tumbling down. How could this
happen to you? Although you are living the street life now,
you have big dreams of becoming famous. But none of that seems
possible with your diagnosis. You feel as if your life is over,
or is it? What will your classmates think? How can you face
your friends and family? What are you going to do? I'LL CRY
TOMORROW by Pamela M. Johnson is a novel dealing with the above
situation.
Chyna Azzino-Milano, who was
diagnosed 10 years ago as being HIV-positive,is now a world
famous supermodel and has her own clothing line. She has a net
worth of $550 million dollars and was featured in Forbes magazine
as one of the top ten richest African-Americans in the world.
She is married and living a lavish lifestyle. Young girls look
up to Chyna, and she is the epitome of what a role model should
be. She has her head on straight, is very successful and can
have any and every thing her heart desires. She has come a long
way from living in the projects and leading a life of crime.
Chyna has kept her illness from the public, as she feels it's
private and really not anyone's concern but her husband's and
a few select close friends. Chyna's condition is leaked to a
tabloid, and she is faced with deciding if she should deny the
allegations or come clean and finally let the world in on her
secret. Will her fans still love her? Or will they condemn her
due to sins of the past? More importantly, who would leak this
information and betray Chyna's trust? And what was their motive?
I'll CRY TOMMORROW is a touching
novel that deals with shame, regret and fear. As Chyna is in
turmoil over whether to go public with her illness, her faith
in God is what gets her through. The word of God keeps her grounded
and turns her strife into courage. What I enjoyed most about
the book was the development of the characters. Chyna was once
an around the way girl who made it big. She didn't let her humble
beginnings or her illness deter her from making her dreams come
true. If you have any self-doubt and think there is no way your
dreams can become a reality, take a look into the life of Chyna
Azzino-Milano, and her tenacity and determination will inspire
you to reach for the stars.
Reviewed by Eraina B. Tinnin
of The RAWSISTAZ™ Reviewers |
