We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jayne Osborne. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jayne below.

Hi Jayne, thanks for joining us today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard.

What we’ve chosen to do differently from the industry standard is to allow the author to maintain creative control. A lot of publishing companies will take a manuscript and throughout the editing process, will chop it up and change it into what they feel will best fit their readers’ interests. When an author begins seriously considering publishing their book, they aren’t doing it on a whim. They have a vision of what they want their book to be and to look like. We do this through extensive book coaching. We video call with our authors and explain the reasoning and literary mechanics behind any suggested changes, ultimately leaving it up to the author to decide any wording, visual or organizational changes.

Another thing we’ve chosen to do differently is to keep costs to a minimum. On our end, we keep our overhead costs low by working from home and by coaching our authors, allowing them to do as much of the work as they are interested in doing, rather than diving in and taking over. We work through Amazon KDP’s print on demand book services, rather than ordering pallets of books from overseas. We do manuscript organization, design, formatting, editing, proofreading, LCCNs, etc in house, rather than contracting them out. Those low overhead costs allow us to charge for our time, and pass the savings on to our authors.

Finally, we’ve chosen to flip the book profit scale upside down. When an author has paid for all the various services that go into publishing in the first place, the last thing they want to do is relinquish 95% of book sale profits afterward. That just seemed absurd to us. We’ve chosen to split book profits 50/50 with the author for the first 500 copies sold, and 25/75 afterward, with 75% going to the author. We use part of our share in the profits to pay for Amazon Ads and other marketing strategies, helping keep sales coming.

All of this matters so much to new authors, which we know well from personal experience.

When I began exploring my publishing options for my first children’s book, “When Mommies Get Sick,” I found myself drowning in a sea of overwhelm. There were so many different companies with so many big promises, big timelines, big portfolios and big price tags. When I spoke with a cousin of mine about his experience publishing a book, I couldn’t believe what he ended up paying. I spoke with someone else about her publication process and I couldn’t believe how much creative control she gave up.

I held my manuscript and illustrations tight and thought about my priorities. I wanted to create this book. I knew it had relevance and deep meaning outside of my own personal experience. I wanted to maintain creative control. I had a very clear vision of what I wanted it to look like, and I wasn’t willing to be bulldozed. I wanted to keep costs at a minimum. I knew first time authors such as myself weren’t going to be making any bestsellers lists, and I didn’t want to end up in the red.

With all this in mind, I decided to self publish. I was thrilled with the process and the outcome. I learned as much as I possibly could about every step of the process, and kept moving forward until my book was fresh off the press and in my hands.

All throughout my first publication process, and throughout the months that followed, my sister and I joked about starting our own publishing company. It just seemed such a serendipitous fit – she with her two Masters degrees in English and Book History, her years of experience working as an editor, and her passion for literature, and me with my Bachelors in Communication, years of experience as an artist, and my newfound knowledge in self publishing.

When our first novella fell into our laps four months after When Mommies Get Sick was published, we decided to pull the trigger. Merry Robin Publishing was officially born.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I was born to create.

I began drawing as soon as I could pick up a pencil. I have always found immense peace and joy in creating artwork and in writing.

When I became a stay at home mother, I knew it was important for me to find ways to continue to create. I began Instagram blogging as a creative outlet and engaged in other drawing, painting, crafting and writing projects as the opportunities presented themselves. Each of these opportunities has built upon the other and has lead to the creation of books, a blog, an Etsy for my artwork, and our book coaching business, Merry Robin Publishing.

The creation of Merry Robin Publishing has been especially rewarding because, through book coaching, I get to regularly help other people create something they cherish, something they’ll pass down for generations. I get to listen to their hopes and dreams for their book and bring it to life by designing cover art that communicates their unique message to the world. I get to work with my sister, who I am crazy about, to bring the words to life and polish up the manuscript, making it as beautiful and as vibrant as it can be.

People tell me all the time, “I don’t know how you manage to do all that you’re doing!” To be honest, I don’t know how either. But what I do know is that finding ways to say “yes” to the things that light my soul on fire, even if they seem intimidating, has led a life of no regrets and more joy and fulfillment in this wild time of life than I could have imagined.

If you have multiple revenue streams in your business, would you mind opening up about what those streams are and how they fit together?

Yes, in addition to being paid for our book coaching, we also have a continual revenue stream through our book sales, both online and in person. We take our books to vendor markets and sell them at local book shops. but our main revenue stream is online sales. By participating in Amazon’s KDP print on demand services, our online book sales are a hands-off, automatic source of passive income. While we do split the book profits with our authors, we have also published and continue to publish our own books, and those book sales are incredibly helpful to our business.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

The best source of new clients for us has been word of mouth recommendations. I know that’s not news to anyone. The way we have generated those word of mouth recommendations is by cultivating meaningful, interpersonal relationships, and by being open about what we’re good at and passionate about. Anyone who knows me or my sister, Holly, knows that we love to read. They know that Holly is a phenomenal, well educated and well traveled editor. They know that I am passionate about art, have seen me post my artwork on social media, and have joined in the journey as I’ve written, illustrated and published my own books.

It’s as simple as sharing what we love. We haven’t had to come up with a sales pitch to bring in new clients, we just carry on, doing what we love, and sharing it with friends, family, and the community, and clients simply have come out of the woodwork.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.life-onpurpose.com
• Instagram: @MommingOnPurpose
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100092532406072
• Other: Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/ARoseByAnyOtherJayne?ref=shop-header-name&listing_id=1445681975

Image Credits
Mary Kim Photography