Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Meet the Press (Quartet Press, That Is): Kassia Krozser

Written by Kat Meyer

In our continuing 4-part series, we now introduce you to the woman whose boundless love for romance books and all things “e-” brought the four founding members of Quartet together — Ms. Kassia Krozser. Many of you may already know Kassia, but read on – you may learn something new about K2 (Includes Bonus Material: how to correctly pronounce “Kassia”)!

1. What were you doing before you became one-quarter of Quartet Press?

K2 (Kassia Krozser): I was born and raised in beautiful Lompoc, California. Ah, the coastal life: surf, sand, fog, wind, military police, rocket launches. My mother was my elementary school librarian. On the plus side, I was the first reader of many books. On the minus side, my mom was way more popular than I was. She’s also smarter and funnier, but I would never admit that in public.

While I’m sure my elementary through high school education included more than reading and writing, that’s all I remember. I wrote my first book when I was in the second grade. It was long and surely terrible, but, hey, I was seven. Ever the over-achiever, I turned a 2-page story into a 25-page opus. I later dabbled in really bad poetry. I learned journalism and editing. I stayed up late reading every word J.D. Salinger ever wrote because I was sure it would help me wrap my thoughts around Catcher in the Rye. I was right. And tired the next day.

After a long and happy life on Venus (Avenue—it was the kind of neighborhood where the kids who lived on Uranus had it rough!), I moved to Fresno for college. And back to Lompoc. And back to Fresno. That move coincided, to the day, with my then-boyfriend-now-husband’s decision to move to Los Angeles. I was left in charge of his cat and his record collection. Eventually, both, plus me, were moved to Los Angeles. The hard part was the vinyl.

Fast forward a lot (we’ll skip the awkward teenage years, my time as a young Danish girl, the long process of finding myself, the fact that I am really good at counting cash), and I ended up working for a major motion picture studio doing something called participation reporting. I wrangled my way into the job of managing third-party audits, which was just about the coolest thing a person like me could do, short of being a kept woman.

I learned everything there was to learn about the movie business. I became an expert in production and distribution and contracts and accounting. Loved it, really loved it, but burn-out happened after a decade.

Even while I worked long hours, I continued to study literature and writing. I studied American female novelists, fiction focused on the State of California. Short stories. Novels. Romance. How to read them. How to write them. How to analyze them. You know, the stuff that makes life fun.

Oh, and I started Booksquare.com. I’m still loving the work I do there after all these years.

2. What is up with romance? Is getting into what seems to be a pretty crowded market really a good idea? Why? Where’d the idea come from? Where is it going?

K2: I have always read romance novels, in their various age-appropriate (ha!) permutations. Two themes in novels have fascinated me from early childhood: the formation of family beyond purely biological bonds and the path followed by two people as they discover each other, fall in love, and try to maintain their sense of self while becoming a couple. No two couples follow the same route to love and happiness, and romance novels explore the infinite variations of this aspect of the human condition.

(I would also note that novels published by Harlequin taught me more about feminism than anything else I’ve read. As another note, I have been amazingly privileged throughout my life to be mentored by a string of incredible, strong, smart women. These two elements have been equally important in my life.)

Romance readers read a lot. They buy a lot of books. They buy beyond the romance genre. The authors and readers are early adopters of technology. They’re not afraid to try something new, and if it they love it, they’ll talk about it. That being said, I don’t believe we’ve seen anywhere near market saturation when it comes to reaching readers. Every day, we see new ebook readers joining our ranks, and they’re looking for books that make them feel good, take them away from everyday life, and offer great story closure while making them want to buy and read another book.

I’ve been watching the ebook market closely since 1998. I don’t believe ebooks are going to be the next big thing as much as they’re going to be part of the whole reading thing. Which is why, despite the fact we’re publishing digital first, we want to make sure our readers get the book in the format they prefer. It’s all about the story. We forget that sometimes.

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

K2: (This is the part where I usually embarrass Kirk by recounting the “how we met” story, complete with guy crush sidebar, but I’ll spare him just this once.) I’ve known Kirk since college. He’s always been on the cutting edge of whatever he’s doing, and he has an amazing ability to see into the future. I think the only trend he’s predicted that didn’t come to fruition is the rise of Astroturf.

Mister X (Don Linn) introduced himself via Booksquare. We (X, Kirk, and I) discovered we were all attending the first “Tools of Change” conference in San Jose and agreed to meet for a drink. We talked, we wanted to work together, life got in the way, we kept talking, and—I swear this happened on Twitter—all of a sudden we were all, “You know, it’s time.” So when the three of us met in Austin for South by Southwest, it really was a matter of “So, are we gonna do it or not?”

The answer was yes.

Now, Kat was also at that first ToC, but (ahem!) neglected to introduce herself. So we officially met on Twitter, liked each other, said, “Hey let’s get together for a drink during ToC 2009.” I am not joking: the drink plan went from a glass of wine in the bar to “hey, we should invite so-and-so” to “Cool, we have a venue and a sponsor. It’s a party!” And it was. I wish I could take credit for any part of it, but the truth is that Kat is amazing.

It’s no wonder her name was at the top of our “so, who else can we rope into this crazy venture” list. She said yes almost before we finished our carefully prepared speeches.

4. What’s your role at QP?

K2: It says editorial on my business card, but many of our roles overlap. We work in a highly collaborative sort of way, though getting Kirk to read romance novels has been a lifelong challenge for me. Unless you count Pynchon. I do. I love reading submissions, love it when I forget I’m working because I’m reading, love discovering new voices (I am huge, huge, huge about voice).

But I am also the world’s nosiest person, so I can’t keep myself from offering my marketing advice (which Kat very politely says she’s noting), my technical thoughts (which Kirk swears he’s considering) and my thoughts on all the stuff Don does (which he tells me are great suggestions, keep ‘em coming). Starting a new business is a lot of work. I feel lucky to be part of this.

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

K2: The t-shirts. The brainstorming—at this point, no idea is too crazy. The enthusiasm, even though we’re all working like crazy. Learning new things. The fact that so many people I know and respect are cheering for us—that alone is worth all the work. I want to make them proud!

Honestly, my favorite part of all this is going out and talking to people about what we’re doing—knowing we’re part of a community that really cares about the future of publishing, but doesn’t always agree about how said future will play out. I’m also loving (loving!) that all the parts of my world are coming together in an unexpected way. The romance world is meeting the future of publishing world is meeting the literary world is meeting the geeky world is meeting the people I think are too cool world. And we’re finding so much to talk about. Isn’t that what it’s all about?

6. Is it true that the Quartet Press wine budget exceeds the GNP for some nations? Do you think this is a prudent business decision, and why or why not?

K2: Yes. Yes. Priorities matter. A lot.

7.What was the first book you read on a digital platform?

K2: While I don’t remember the first, I do remember the first where I was convinced the author was something special. The book was a young adult novel called Adventures of the Teen Furies by MaryJanice Alongi, purchased in 1999. She grew up to be MaryJanice Davidson. I’ve heard she’s done very good things with her career since then.

8. How does one correctly pronounce “Kassia?”

K2: You know this comes with a long answer, right:

I am not particularly precious about the pronunciation of my name — it’s interesting how many variations there are. I do, of course, prefer the traditional ka-see-uh (kas-ē-ə), though it’s actually the second preferred pronunciation according the dictionary, like anyone uses those anymore (the first has the two ss’s making the “sh” sound. So wrong!). The confusion, I am convinced, comes from the fact that the Latins or Romans or whomever they were made a mess of the Greek language when they took over the world. I mean, they turned all those lovely words with a “k” into words with a “c”. Which is more manly: Herkules or Hercules? I rest my case. The Romans ruined everything!

Funny story (or sad): when I was 21, my mother looked at me and said, “You know, maybe we should have pronounced it Kasha” (ksh). I gently reminded her that’s the kind of decision you make when the kid is born. For obvious reasons.