Sunday, August 9, 2009

Meet the Press (Quartet Press, That Is): Kat Meyer

Written by Kat Meyer

Ah, dear readers, you have made it to part four of our four part series (at least until we get some more partners). In part four, you get to find out more about me, Kat Meyer. Hope it’s not too incredibly boring, and hope that now that you’ve met the four of us, you will take some time to introduce yourselves to us–in the comments section here, in our forums, on Twitter, in email, in person at any of the conferences and events we will be attending. Doesn’t have to be anything formal, but we would love to hear from you, learn about what you are interested in seeing from us, and any ideas you might have on how to better serve the bookish community. Until then, here’s more about me:

1. What were you doing before you became 1/4 of Quartet Press?

KM: I’ve been involved in publishing of one sort or another since graduating from college (University of Arizona – go cats). My first “real” job was as an editorial production coordinator in the Journals Division of Harcourt (at the time, Harcourt, Brace + Jovanovich – though the names started falling off shortly after my arrival there. Hope it wasn’t something I said) in San Diego.

Since those many moons ago, I’ve worked for a number of publishers in Arizona and California, and done a lot of freelance work for a wide assortment of publishers and authors. I have communication in my blood. My dad was a CBS news correspondent turned PR man, my mom was a teacher, and all of my four sisters work in careers that involve sharing information. Some might even accuse us of oversharing, but can we help it if we like to talk?

Most recently I have been consulting with authors, publishers, and the occasional non-bookish client on social media strategies and online marketing. I like Twitter.

2. How do you feel about the over-crowded nature of the romance market? How do you plan to maneuver?

KM: We are approaching publishing as an ecosystem driven by readers, rather than by publisher. We are developing relationships with the reading community, and doing whatever we can to facilitate conversations with them. We want to know what they want to read before we acquire and publish. We want to hear what they’re looking for, what they’re tired of and what they think could be done better. In addition, we are fully invested in providing quality content. We’re devoting a lot of resources to developmental and copy editing, as well as to the formatting and hassle-free distribution of our ebooks and our POD books. We believe readers will come to know Quartet Press as a brand that can be relied upon to deliver a fantastic reading experience.

3. Where did you find these people you are working with? Sure they’re a good-looking group, but why them?

KM: Ah, the wonderful world of Twitter. I was already a big fan of Kassia’s blog, BookSquare.com, and approached her about co-hosting the TOC TweetUp in February. She foolishly agreed, and somewhere along the way, she, Kirk and I ended up on a TOC panel together. I also started noticing Don Linn’s tweets were not to be missed, and we ended up exchanging many direct messages about how we’d do digital publishing if we ruled the world and called the shots. (Be careful what you wish for).

Shortly after SXSW, I found out that Kassia, Kirk and Don were planning to put their money where their mouths were and they invited me to join them. So, basically I was double dog dared into becoming a partner at Quartet.

4. What’s your role at QP?

KM: I am focused on reader relations, sales, marketing, distributor relations, publicity/media relations, and corporate communications. And by focused, I mean overwhelmed but keeping my head above water. It’s a balls-in-the-air proposition for each of us right now, but it seems to be working (knock wood).

5. What’s your favorite thing about starting a brand spanking new company?

KM: If I had to pick one thing it would be getting to work with the fantastic people I am working with (and the readers we are working for). Among the partners at Quartet, we all share a similar outlook on work – it needs to be challenging and, at the end of the day, it needs to be fun. Along those lines, at our founder’s meeting, the four of us agreed upon two basic rules:
1. No Stupid Meetings.
2. No Assholes. (pardon my French).

Let’s see, it’s officially month four, and so far we’ve managed to follow the rules. Sure, I’ve never worked so hard in my life, but I have never enjoyed my work so much.

The other favorite thing? Getting to put our beliefs and ideas about books and the publishing business into practice. We are going into this venture in a beautifully logical way – our goal is to make readers happy. We are building our entire company around that goal, rather than building the business and then trying to get customers to buy into it after the fact. Simple, but hugely exciting.

6. As you’re on the brink of launching a cutting-edge business, are there any wise words from a grandmother, mother or aunt (or whoever) that come to mind to help guide you?

KM: This may not seem like it’s applicable, but my mom has this retort to any complaints about food being too hot or too cold, for instance if you were to take a sip of coffee and burn your tongue, she’d say, “you want it should be cold?”

Every time I start to feel overwhelmed (daily) by the magnitude of what we’re putting together here at Quartet, I think that, “you want it should be cold?” — “you want you should have no exciting company to be building?”

Very wise stuff, that.