Cynthia Robinson drops into the studio for a conversation about self publishing! Do you have an idea for a book that keeps rattling around in your head? Cynthia is the founder of LaunchCrate Publishing, where she makes it easy to self publish, to learn about writing a manuscript, and all while making the financial picture shift in favor of the creatives for a change.
TRANSCRIPT:
Welcome to the Small Business Miracles
podcast. I’m Jeff Randolph. This small business
podcast is brought to you by EAG Advertising
and Marketing. We’re here to talk about marketing.
We’re also here to celebrate entrepreneurs. We
have marketing news and advice that business
owners can use to keep moving forward. Today,
we’re talking to an entrepreneur who is responsible
for LaunchCrate Publishing. That’s Cynthia Robinson.
I am here with Cynthia Robinson. She’s the founder
of Launch Crate Publishing. Cynthia, welcome
to the show. Thanks so much for having me. We’re
happy to have you. And first, let me say congratulations.
It’s the fourth year of being a KC Chamber small
business superstar. Thank you. That’s not nothing.
That’s a big deal. It is. It is. That’s a great
thing. So tell us about the company. Tell us
about Launch Crate Publishing. I don’t know if
that’s the origin story. And ultimately, we want
to get into what you do. So tell us all about
it. Man, so LaunchCrate is something that I did
not see coming for myself at all. I got my start
in education and was working for a college prep
and graduation program. And they underwent a
reorg. And, you know, when your values and the
company values no longer align, something has
to give. It’s time. Something has to give. And
so I took a leap of faith not knowing what was
next because I knew it wasn’t going to be good
if I stayed for anybody. And there was a five
-month gap between when I left there and started
working at UMKC. And in that five months, I picked
up quilting. Oh. I know. You know, as you do.
There are all kinds of surprises in your career
change story. And then I wrote, illustrated,
and published my first book. And when I wrote
the book, I wrote the story, handed it to my
best friend. She was like, what did you do today?
And I handed her this thing. And she’s reading
it, and all the emotions are coming out. And
I was like, oh, I should probably do something
with that. Well, then I started diving into the
publishing industry to figure out, do I want
to self -publish it or do I want to shop it around
to an agent and find traditional publishing?
And what I found out was that the publishing
industry is similar to the music industry in
that creatives are not necessarily getting fairly
compensated for their work. And I understand
it because they are big powerhouse machines that
are doing the work and they have… lots and
lots of people that are promoting the work, but
it doesn’t necessarily mean that’s the way it
has to be. And everything that I’ve done throughout
my career has been from a space of equity. And
I just kind of logged that one in my brain and
then went to work at UMKC. Was working there
during the day, helping students get acclimated
to college and ramp up their skills so they could
be successful there. And then at night I was
writing and illustrating and publishing more
books myself and eventually started helping other
people do it as well. And had an amazing supervisor
that asked when I was going to take a chance
on myself. Oh, man. And I was like, um, no. Those
little pokes that you get. Absolutely. Absolutely.
But I was fortunate to have the supervisor that
I had because she walked me through the process
of mapping out what my business could look like.
So then I took another leap of faith. And that
was in August of Okay. To start doing this
full time. So July st of was my last day
working at UMKC. And I took August st off and
then August nd. You know, I’m so glad you gave
yourself the day off. You know, you got to take
it easy on yourself. Well played. Well played.
Yeah. August nd, which is my brother’s birthday,
I actually started doing this work full time
and I’m still doing it. Yeah. And so the company
that you’ve built then, describe what LaunchCrate
Publishing is. Yeah. So LaunchCrate Publishing
Today offers traditional publishing where we
split the profit -where is going to
the creatives. So that’s the author or the author
illustrator combo. And then % is coming back
to us so that we can. write the ship, so to speak,
because of that little thing that got logged
in my brain. I was like, it doesn’t have to be
like this. How do we flip this on end? So that’s
the traditional publishing route. We do about
five books per year, traditionally. Most of the
work that we do is on the other side of the house,
where we are either helping people learn how
to write books themselves, or we’re coaching
them through the process of self -publishing
their work. Gotcha. And I’ll use that as a good
segue. into the self -publishing thing. And I’m
going to do this as kind of a softball question.
This is a really big softball question because
one of the pieces of content on your website
is really all about, is self -publishing worth
it? And so that’s the biggest, easiest setup
I can possibly give you in that self -publishing
world. Is self -publishing worth it? I think
it is. I think it is. Well, that’s a good answer.
Let’s move on to the next question. When words
are funneled through you into a book, they are
funneled with intention through you. And a lot
of times when you go through traditional publishing,
that original intention may sometimes shift.
Right. Because they want to make it more palpable
to a wider audience so that they can sell more
copies of the book. They need to make it commercially
viable. So the thing the artist has in their
mind may not be the thing that actually comes
out. Right. It may morph quite a bit. Yeah. Yeah.
But with self -publishing, you get to be the
determinant. You get to choose what it is that
you want to say, how you want to say it, and
how you want to deliver that to people. And there’s
a lot of flexibility in that. And one of the
things I usually encourage people to do is to
think beyond just the traditional book, just
pages, right? You have QR codes that can help
you do all sorts of things now. We’ve published
books that have QR codes that take you to…
One of the books that I wrote was my grandfather’s
book. So you scan it and now you hear my grandfather
telling you his life story. Yeah, that’s powerful.
Instead of just reading it, right? Yeah, and
of course, for me, the QR code component is,
you know, oh yeah, because you’d always want
the resources you’re talking about to be up to
date if you’re a nonfiction or something. But
bring that to life. Absolutely. That’s a big
step. Yeah, we have a book on grief that we publish
that is walking you through the author’s grief
journey. But then there’s a course that… It’s
self -paced that you can scan the QR code and
have access to for the price of the book. That
will allow you to walk your own grief journey
as well. Yeah. I encourage people when they’re
self -publishing, think beyond just. The page.
The page. That’s nice. Good stuff. Talk about
the process for a minute because if somebody
has this as a goal, they want to get that book
out of their head. You also have an eight -week
manuscript writing class. I do. So for those
people, I’m assuming, who know they have something
that needs to get out of them. Yes. But doesn’t
– have that connection. I don’t know how to get
it from here to there. So tell me, tell me about
that, that class. Idea to editor. That was something
that was born out of the pandemic because I was
helping people with the same thing. And I was
like, how do I reach more people and then save
my time so that I can continue to do the traditional
publishing work? Cause I was running out of time.
And the master course was born. And I’m walking
people through the process of mapping out their
book and then digging into the work and then
framing their book, adding detail to the pages.
And yeah, it’s phenomenal. And usually what I
tell people is to think about, and this is a
free tip for anybody that I give, right? Sure,
sure. If you’re trying to get the book out. It’s
about to be a free tip, whatever that is. Think
about what you want your reader to take away.
Why are you writing the book? What is the ultimate
goal? How do you want them to feel after they
read the book? What do you want them to feel
inspired to do after they read the book? Write
that down and then write down everything that
you think can help get them to that outcome.
And then you just start to arrange it in order.
Man, it seemed like everything from fleshing
out the detail to… It seems like those are
all so many steps that if I’m going from I have
this idea for a book and I feel like I need to
write that to actually getting it published,
there are all those unknown questions that you’re
helping people with all the way through the process.
Absolutely. It seems very comforting to be able
to do that too. So that is great. Hey, what is
next for Launch Crate Publishing? Because you
said you’re doing five books published in a year.
more books and more people who are writing? Is
it more classes? Where do you go from here? What’s
your path? So we are looking at changing the
model for those that are traditionally publishing.
What we have run into recently, well, run into
sounds like a block. It wasn’t really a block.
It was more of a revelation. Discovered, what
we’ve discovered. We discovered grants to publish
books. And we have one book in particular that
has been translated into three different languages
because of a grant. More than ,copies of
this book have been distributed in more than
three countries across the globe, all because
of a grant. And that helps us to get the book
in more hands, which is ultimately what we want.
It helps us to make sure that the authors are
compensated, which is ultimately what we want.
And it helps us to… get the resources and the
funds to continue doing the work that we love
to do. Oh, cool. Yeah. Oh, that’s a good path
forward. I like that. Yeah. If you’re okay with
it, I’ll throw you into the lightning round,
and we’ll find out even more about you if that
works for you. I’ll start because you describe
yourself in your bio as an author, creative architect,
and accidental educator. I’d like to talk about
the education side of your world because we talked
about at the top of the show you are an advocate
for education. Tell me about that passion and
how it shows up in your life still to this day
because you were – deeply ingrained in education
early on. But it seems like a lot of times those
things that we care about, those values we have
still keep pulling us in. So my path into education,
I say I was an accidental educator because it
was not the path that I saw coming for myself.
You know, you go to college and people are like,
well, what are you going to major in? I didn’t
know. I was undeclared for a couple of years.
I know how you feel. I understand this. Yes.
At K -State was three semesters and then came
home before that fourth semester because I had
a semester that was really bad, like three F’s
and a C, bad. And a lot of people hear three
F’s and a C and they think, oh, well, she wasn’t
smart. She didn’t have what it took. I hear three
F’s and a C and I’m like, what was going on in
that person’s life because of what was going
on in mine? And because I was undeclared, I had
no idea what I wanted to do, and I’m watching
everybody else walk around like they got it figured
out. I didn’t learn until later that they didn’t
actually have it figured out. It just looked
like it. It just looked like it. It just looked
like it on social media. Absolutely. Yeah, so
they looked like they had it figured out, and
I was lost. And it was like walking down a spiral
staircase and then hitting the bottom and looking
up and going, how do I get back up there? And
so I came home. Went to Kansas City, Kansas Community
College for a couple of semesters and then figured
out what I wanted to do and who I wanted to be
in the world. So now let’s find a major that
aligns with that, how I want to show up. And
so I went back to K -State because I felt like
I had some unfinished business, majored in psychology,
figured it out. Crazy shot up because I’d figured
out what was going on internally. And because
of that experience, when I got out of school,
I started working in education to help kids start
to figure out how to navigate through the things
that I had to navigate through in college. Accidental
educator. Accidental educator. You know, and
I hear three F’s and a C and I think this is
the worst scrabble hand I’ve ever had. I need
some vowels. I need. So I’m going to lose this
game. I don’t know how we solve that one. I don’t.
I don’t either. Let’s see. As you think about
your own entrepreneurial journey, I want to think
back to some great business advice that you got.
Because you had a person who was an advocate
and kind of pushed you a little bit and said,
so when are you going to bet on yourself? Do
you have some of that business advice that really
resonated with you that sticks with you to this
day from somebody? Yeah. Well, actually two,
because I just got one yesterday from one of
my friends, which was, I was like, oh, I guess
I kind of do, but I hadn’t thought about it.
Okay. But the first one is to remember your why.
Because when things get hard, that’s going to
be the thing that helps you to push forward through
all of the challenges, right? And then the second
one, my friend sent me a video yesterday, and
it was all about discovering pain points in your
business. And thinking about the process for
each person that would experience that. So thinking
about the authors and when the authors hit a
roadblock or when they’re struggling in the writing
process or when they’re getting close to publishing
the book and they’re starting to get a little
bit nervous and they want to necessarily pull
back and they don’t necessarily want to launch
the book. How do I help them through that? And
what are those consistent things? So once it’s
published, what do I do? Do I send them flowers?
Do I send them something congratulatory? At the
end of the year, when I’m sending boxes to the
authors, what’s included in the box, to encourage
them to go out and continue to share. more about
what they’re doing and to feel proud of the work
that they’ve put in. Oh, yeah. And that’s solid
customer service advice at the same time. If
you have a client, a customer, how are you showing
up in their world and at what times and for what
reasons? That is great advice. You have a history
with our engineer, Theo. You went to the same
high school, I believe, right? We did. Graduated
together. I mean, you can throw out a shout -out
for the high school if you want. I’m familiar
with that. You got to shout out Sumner, right?
Somebody needs to. And if you don’t, Theo’s going
to jump in with an on -mic thing. It’ll probably
be way better than my shout out. We’ll find out.
Insert that right here, Theo. I got it. Shout
out to the Sumner Academy Sabres. Hey, shout
out to Sumner, period. The high school and the
Academy Sabres and the Spartans. You know what
it is. Now, you know what? Back to you, Jeff.
Over the pandemic, he says that you produced.
a trio with a violinist and a vocalist and you
played the ukulele. Tell us about that. He would
also like to know where you find this material.
Why is that not viral? How can he get that video?
All of those questions. Yes. Tell me about that.
Can you play the ukulele? I don’t play the ukulele,
and I didn’t play the ukulele. I think I was
on the keys in this. Oh, okay. But there was
a violinist, and somebody had a guitar. Selective
memory on Theo’s part. He was like, and what
he should have done. Right. It would actually
have sounded really good in there. Yeah. But
everybody was on lockdown. Yes. This is when
the world shut down. And I just found myself
looking out the window and watching people like
the neighbors when they would go on their walks
at strategic times so that everybody wasn’t out
there at the same time. And life was continuing.
It just looked differently. So I took the Beatles
song, Life Goes On. Okay. And made a parody of
it. And it lives on, I think it’s on Facebook.
I don’t know if I ever put it on Instagram. Maybe
I’ll re -release it. If you re -release it somewhere,
we’ll definitely link to that. Okay. I know we
could do that. Yeah. If you could travel to space,
would you? I think I would. Like, this is a dangerous
thing. But for the adventure, is that why you
would? I mean, just to see. Ah, okay. You know,
once you get… Some perspective. Thinking about
flying, right? When you’re flying and you reach
altitude. The cruising altitude. And you get
to look out the window and just think about how
small we really are in the grand scheme of the
world. Like imagine if you go into space and
you get to see the world looking really small.
Right. The pale blue dots from Carl Sagan where
the camera from Voyager turns around and looks
back at Earth and goes, oh, we’d better take
care of this place. Absolutely. Oh. Absolutely.
But you say, you are a wood. I would go to space.
Yeah. I will be happy to write Mission Space
at Epcot. I’ll be… That’s my speed. That’s
your jam. That’s what I’m capable of. I generally
ask a food question in this lightning round,
and I’m not going to make this an exception,
because I’m going to lean on your book that you
authored and illustrated, The Christmas Cookie,
and The Christmas Cookie Returns, because there
was some unfinished business that The Christmas
Cookie still had that needed a part two. Absolutely.
Can you give us a synopsis of that book, and
do you have a favorite Christmas cookie? Oh,
you’re going to make me choose. Okay, so synopsis
of the book. That book is all about leaning on
faith and trusting what’s happening in your gut
when you can’t necessarily see the outcome. That
was the first book that I wrote to get me into
writing, illustrating, and publishing. And it
was exactly what I needed in that moment. The
Christmas cookie wakes up on a plate meant for
Santa on Christmas Eve and has to decide whether
or not that’s his actual fate. Wow. Oh, I like
it. Yeah. I like it. So that’s the synopsis.
Favorite Christmas cookie. I’m a fan of sugar
cookies. Okay. But I also make a cookie that
is white chocolate chips with cranberries. And
pecans. Sometimes cherries, dried cherries instead
of cranberries. Instead of the cranberries, yeah.
But also laced with cinnamon. Oh, man. Yeah.
Okay. And now I’m going to go home and bang it.
Yeah, if you would. If you would, that’d be great.
Bring them back to the office. That does sound
really good. That does sound really good. This
is my last question of the lightning round, so
we’ll make this one count. You know our producer
and engineer, Theo. Any tea you’d like to spill
about him? Is there anything that you’d like
to put out in the universe that he definitely
doesn’t want the public to know, and especially
not us, his coworkers? No, because he has as
much tea on me as I have on him. Mutually assured
destruction. I get it. an even keel. Okay. And
with that, I’ll take you out of the lightning
round. You’ve survived. Congratulations. Tell
people where they can find you if they want to
do self -publishing. I don’t think I’m the only
one who has that kind of thing in the back of
your mind where like, I could write that book.
I could definitely write that book. Tell us where
they can find you if they’re interested in doing
exactly that. Launchcrate .com. L -A -U -N -C
-H -C -R -A -T -E .com. That’ll take you to all
the info that you need to know. We are on social
media at LaunchCrate, just about everywhere.
Not really active right now. We’ll be working
on getting back into that. Sure, sure, sure.
But the website’s active. But the website is
active. Yeah. Perfect. All right. Cynthia Robinson,
founder of LaunchCrate Publishing. Thanks for
being with us today. Thank you for having me.
This was fun. Get into your business. And that
is our show. Thanks to our friends at Launch
Crate Publishing for being on the show today,
and thank you for listening to the Small Business
Miracles podcast. Remember to subscribe, leave
us a five -star rating and review, drop us a
line on the website at eagadv .com if you have
any thoughts. Until then, we’ll be out here helping
entrepreneurs with another small business miracle.