Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jennifer Finger. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Jennifer, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you tell us the backstory behind how you came up with the idea?

During the pandemic, while I was social distancing and many businesses were closed, I spent a lot of time reading.

I had already created two freelance businesses, one called KeenReader Inc. which provided editing services, and another called Pen and Pixel LLC, which provided creative writing, bookkeeping and clerical services to supplement KeenReader’s. KeenReader was losing business while Pen and Pixel was occasionally making money.

I realized that more people were reading as a result of the pandemic, and they were posting online reviews of books on a variety of sites, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Goodreads. Yet I knew of no provider who was indexing the reviews so that anyone who wanted to find out about a book could find them all except through extensive web surfing and manual research. It also occurred to me that more people might be interested in book clubs, and that while many organizations, including Book of the Month, Meetup.com, and a variety of others offered them, again, it would take a good deal of effort to research and find clubs tailored to one’s preferences.

So I decided to reorganize my businesses. I am transferring KeenReader’s editing business to Pen and Pixel. Meanwhile, KeenReader will be relaunching its website to provide indexes of book clubs and book reviews so that readers who are interested in both can find appropriate fora for discussing their interests. The rebuilding of KeenReader’s website is in progress and I hope to complete it this year. Meanwhile, I will be launching book clubs under KeenReader’s umbrella and collecting as many reviews of books as I can.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I think with both sides of my brain!

I am a CPA and have two creative businesses:

KeenReader Inc. has previously provided freelance editing services to writers. Going forward, it will be launching a series of book clubs that cater to different reading interests and genres, such as literary fiction, mainstream fiction, science fiction/fantasy/steampunk, mysteries, children’s literature, poetry, and various areas of nonfiction. It is also in the process of revising its website to index book clubs and book reviews (including ones sponsored by KeenReader Inc. itself) and making these available to users for subscription fees.

Pen and Pixel LLC will take over KeenReader Inc.’s freelance editing business, adding it to its own mix of services, which also include bookkeeping, creative writing, clerical and marketing assistance and consulting.

I run both businesses myself, so I like to think of myself as a Jen of all trades. I feel most proud of the quality assistance I have been thus far able to provide to my clients in many areas.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I had to pivot during the pandemic with regard to KeenReader Inc. I needed to come up with a means of keeping my business going during a period when everyone was losing money. I chose to completely change KeenReader’s sales offerings. Instead of freelance editing services (which were transferred to my other business, Pen and Pixel LLC), KeenReader will focus on book clubs and book reviews, providing both to the public under its own umbrella and creating an index of book clubs and book reviews so that readers can locate clubs and reviews tailored to their interests more readily.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I had to unlearn a lesson about taking on any and all work that comes my way in the early years of my business, as well as when to let some clients go.

I found myself giving away or excessively discounting many hours of work and only being able to collect small amounts. I also found myself doing work that required extensive labor or engaging with difficult clients who did not appreciate my best efforts on their behalf. I came to realize that I needed to be more selective about the projects I agreed to work on, to firmly establish my terms and rates in advance and get a signed, binding contract before beginning work, and to collect a nonrefundable portion of the fee in advance from my clients.

Early in my career, I had a freelance editing client once who wanted to dictate all the terms of our relationship. She had come up with an excellent idea for a fantasy novel, even though she misspelled many words and made a large number of grammatical mistakes. (English was not her native language.) I revised her work at a highly discounted rate. She threw a number of temper tantrums because at the time she was my only editing client.

She wanted me to be available to her on demand 24/7. She would ask my advice about various aspects of the work, then pick fights with me over it while the work was in progress. I would finish the work and turn it over to her just to be finished with the job, while still wanting to be professional and complete the job.

But she would then tell me how much she LOVED my revisions and ask for advice, which she also claimed she LOVED.

But she never published the novel. It turned out that she was unhappy with her agent. I also helped her write a query letter, which she also claimed she LOVED.

Then she decided to revise her novel to include some personal beliefs of hers which were not mainstream. She asked me to edit her first chapter which was a mess. She wanted me to do it manually, whereas I had always done it using a word processor. (She told me she wanted and valued my advice.) Now she was trying to do a mash-up of multiple fantasy and sci-fi genres that just didn’t work. That first chapter was 30 pages long and was basically a lot of sentimentality and unnecessary exposition. (Think Tolkien.) She asked me for my opinion, and I suggested to her that she break that one first chapter into three chapters of about 10 pages each, because it would be easier for her readership to handle. She insisted she couldn’t do that. No, every single thing she stuck in that first chapter was absolutely necessary because otherwise the reader “wouldn’t understand the story.”

Now my own opinion is if the reader can’t “understand the story” in about the first ten pages, that reader is going to put down the book and not pick it up again. That book is going to be a literary and commercial failure.

But I couldn’t get this across to my client because “everyone” who had seen her story “loved” it and has assured her it was a winner. “Everyone” turned out to be five movie directors, not any agents, publishers, editors, book reviewers, or readers. She was completely unwilling to make any changes.

Then she said the line that killed our relationship: “I didn’t ask you for your opinion!”

She then texted me in capital letters that I was fired.

I finished editing that chapter for her manually anyway and sent it back to her along with a bill. (She never paid it, but at least she can’t claim I never did the work.)

She has yet to publish that novel.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.keenreader.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/keenreaderinc/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/keenreader-inc./
• Twitter: @KeenReader