Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Christina Vega. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Christina, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Along with taking care of clients, taking care of our team is one of the most important things we can do as leaders. Looking back on your journey, did you have a boss that was really great? Maybe you can tell us about that boss and what made them a wonderful person to work for?
My best boss, hands down, has been sweet pea Flaherty at King’s Books. From the moment I began working with sweet pea, sweet pea has been willing to teach me anything I wanted to learn related to bookselling and publishing. Even after I stopped working directly with sweet pea at the bookstore, sweet pea continues to offer advice, resources, and community to myself and my team.
Christina, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I came into publishing via bookselling. I worked as a bookseller for about three years at King’s Books in Tacoma, where the owner, sweet pea Flaherty, taught me everything I know about customer service, curation, ordering, the importance of reputation and community involvement, etc.
Before and while bookselling, I was a freelance writer. I did freelance writing for about three years.
Before freelance writing, I was a Chinese-Mandarin linguist in the U.S. Army for six years.
Nowadays, I publish books! At Blue Cactus Press, I make books that spark dialogue about liberation. I love making books that push the boundaries of genre, and which offer tendrils of hope to readers.
This fall, I also started an imprint called Vega Books, where I work with changemakers, community leaders, and service providers to help them develop products (books and games) for their particular needs and industries. I use ethnographic skills, active listening, and story development to get stories and philosophies out of people who don’t necessarily consider themselves writers but whom want to get a book out into the world. Sometimes, they need books to spread their philosophies, sometimes they need training tools for workshops or consulting, other times they to get a story out of their body so they can move past it. I’m still incredibly selective about who I work with and what I’m making, because at the end of the day, I stand behind both the people I’m working with and the content we’re producing.
Can you talk to us about how you funded your business?
I started this business with $500 and a lot of time invested in crafting a high quality product. And I sold that one product for about a year. I took all the money I made from that single product — my first poetry book — and reinvested it into making another book. I kept doing that for about four years, making books part time and bookselling at the local Queer bookstore part time. After I’d made about 10 books, I was finally able to start paying myself out of profits from the press. It wasn’t much, but it covered the gap between my wages at the bookstore and my financial expenses.
Then, I had my first child. And that immediate need of putting food on the table for myself and my child, pushed me to quit my part time job and start publishing full time. But, it wasn’t until about two years after that, or six years into owning this business, that I was able to meet all my financial needs through the press. Even now, I’m not making much beyond my immediate living expenses, but it’s enough for my child and I to live with dignity, food in the fridge, and a good roof over our head. I’m thankful for that, and for the freedom and confidence being a business owner affords me.
We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.
I did not know how to manufacture products before I started my business! I had no clue! But, my parents were wild entrepreneurs and I learned a lot from watching them about simply moving, step by step, through the process of building something, and until you reach your goal. You don’t have to know how to accomplish something you’ve never done right out the gate. You don’t have to know how you will move through each challenge or troubleshoot problems or where to find all your resources. You just need to keep moving and believe that you are capable of finding, solving, collecting, whatever comes across your path. You are capable. This is one of the best gifts my parents have ever given me.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.bluecactuspress.com
- Instagram: @bluecactuspress
- Facebook: @BlueCactusPress
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vegachristina/
