Flying About

I've recently been on the road (or in the air, I guess) helping Tate Publishing grow beyond what it once was and providing our authors with even more opportunity and visibility than ever before. In September alone, I was in New York City meeting with our buyer at the Barnes and Noble corporate offices and also in Cincinnati to discuss with managers of the Berean Christian Bookstore chain our new agreement for hosting events in their stores nationwide.

While I don't like being apart from my wife and kids (who does?), traveling (read "sitting on an airplane runway") can provide some time for reflection on life and where you're going. I've seen so much growth and change in my three years at Tate Publishing that it's almost hard to remember where we were just three short years ago. It's pretty mind-boggling, really. When I started here, we had about 25 employees in the entire company. We're now pushing 100 here at our offices, and the marketing staff has more than quadrupled since that time, not including the staff of Key Marketing Group and Communications, the Tulsa-based public relations firm that we've partnered with to give our authors and artists the best representation they can have in the marketplace.

The meetings in New York proved extremely successful. Tate Publishing was moved out of the Small Press Department with B&N and is now considered Large Press. As a result, we are now able to present more of our titles face-to-face with buyers and to possibly have more of our product than ever on the shelves in B&N locations around the country. In addition, we have been given the green light from our B&N buyer to pursue events from coast-to-coast for our great authors.

In Cincinnati, we had the pleasure of meeting with the CEO of Berean stores, as well as many of their corporate staff, to present to the Berean local managers our new agreement for bringing in product to their stores and hosting book signings for our authors. Again, this was a tremendous success, and it is terrific to have a strong CBA Christian retail presence in addition to the outstanding ABA relationship we have with Barnes and Noble (not to mention Borders, Hastings, and others).

I knew that as I sat on the tarmac waiting to fly home from LaGuardia airport in New York that big things had happened, but even bigger things now lie ahead for Tate Publishing. The unprecedented reception we received on both of these trips was an indicator of what is still yet to come...