Bringing Old World Publishing Skills To New World Creators With John Bond From White Fox
What has changed in publishing over the last decade? How can a reputable author services company help you achieve your publishing goals? In this interview with John Bond from White Fox, we discuss aspects of the publishing journey. If you are considering working with an author services company or publishing partner, check whether they are a Partner Member of the Alliance of Independent Authors and whether the ALLi Watchdog service rates them well. You can also check for scams and bad companies at Writer Beware. John Bond is the CEO of White Fox, a premium publishing and book marketing partner for industry leaders, writers, and brands based in the UK and U.S. You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript is below. Show Notes * What’s changed in the decade since John started White Fox * How the pandemic has accelerated changes in publishing * How attitudes toward independent creatives have changed in the last decade * Crowdfunding for special limited edition book projects * How to find a quality publishing partner and avoid getting scammed You can find John Bond at wearewhitefox.com — or if you want to support the podcast, please use TheCreativePenn.com/whitefox or tell him I sent you! You can also find him on Twitter @wearewhitefox Transcript of interview with John Bond Joanna Penn: John Bond is the CEO of whitefox, a premium publishing and book marketing partner for industry leaders, writers, and brands based in the UK and U.S. Welcome, John. John Bond: Hello, Joanna, how are you? Joanna Penn: I'm excited to talk to you today. So let's start. Tell us a bit more about you and your publishing journey. John Bond: I started, I guess in a bookshop. That was the beginning, a bookshop in North London. I ended up applying for and getting a job as you did in those days as a marketing manager at Penguin, as it was then, now Penguin Random House, in the early 1990s. I had three interviews for that job. The last one of which was two questions. What are you reading? And do you play golf? So I think that probably says more about that period of publishing. Joanna Penn: Publishing history, indeed! John Bond: I ended up being marketing director there and then I went to HarperCollins in the UK and ran sales and marketing there. I ended up running their literary fiction and non-fiction division, including Fourth Estate. I left HarperCollins in the UK in 2011 and set up White Fox early in 2012 with one of my colleagues from HarperCollins, Annabel Wright. We started working in a cafe in East London with two laptops and trying to organize a diaspora of freelancers around the world.