We recently connected with Joey Powell and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Joey, thanks for joining us today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

Mad Axe Media came out of a love for that strange intersection between metal music and fantasy imagery. When I decided to publish my first novel, I wanted to use it as a test run for what would become a publishing company. The experience helped me dip my toes into design, packaging, distribution, marketing, shipping, etc., granting me the grace of learning from mistakes with my own work so that I was confident making other people’s visions a reality.

My novel was a dark urban fantasy/cult horror story and involves a ram-headed demon who wields a giant axe. I had this vision of a double-bitted axe, chipped and battle-tested as I wrote the story. There’s something elegant about the symmetry of that type of weapon, especially if you look at the artistry of Viking axes from centuries ago. The axe ended up becoming my logo, and I wanted something that conveyed a sense of danger while also hinting at a cheeky sense of fun.

Thus: Mad Axe.

I decided on Media instead of Publishing because of my love for filmmaking. My twin Josh Powell is a director and my creative partner, and my ultimate goal is to have Mad Axe Media become a multi-media company that does both publishing and movies.

Will it ever happen? We’ll see!

Joey, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I like to call myself an end-to-end author cheerleader. Above all, I want to celebrate great work from great humans at any stage of their career, whether that be giving them a spotlight on my podcast Creatives Getting Coffee, as a publisher distributing their work to the masses, or as a freelance designer packaging their work into something unique and praise-worthy.

I’m an artist at heart, and I’m most thrilled by the design aspects of publishing, which is why I offer freelance design services as part of my business separate from work published under the Mad Axe Media banner. I love diving through a manuscript and identifying creative ways to make the interior formatting stand out. Full bleed images?: Awesome. Custom chapter headings?: Great!

I also work with people of all budgets. Cover design can especially get pricey. I’ve personally gotten quotes back in the past for upwards of $1,000, which is more than most people publishing independently or with a small press are comfortable spending.

As a publisher, I’m most proud of my work on an upcoming publication, the cover design of which had many authors I admire (who didn’t know it was me who designed the cover) leaving very positive comments about the design.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

A few things happened in the span of two years to light the fire of what would eventually become Mad Axe Media.

The first life event was the birth of my child. Many people see parenthood as some kind of detriment to the old ways of living. For me, it was a fresh start. I wanted my kid to know that I had this creative itch and actually went for it, rather than sit on the sidelines and wait for “someday”. Shortly after he was born, I began writing my first book.

The second life event was the sudden loss of a close friend. I honestly don’t talk about it often, but it was something that helped contextualize all of my priorities in life. With a finished manuscript, I told myself I needed to do things NOW, and I’ve never looked back since. I’m moving faster with my business than I initially planned for, and any discomfort with that speed has so far only led to great building blocks for the future of the business.

The mission of my creative journey is to help make awesome works of fiction that authors can be proud of and readers can be thrilled by. As a publisher, my goal is to be a partner and an advocate–an author’s biggest cheerleader.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I might not be the best person to comment on this as I only recently crossed over 1K follows on my Instagram author profile @wowcooljoeywrites. I’m managing two other Instagram accounts as well, one for my podcast @creativesgettingcoffee and one for Mad Axe Media @madaxemedia.

For accounts of my size, the engagement is actually quite good, and I’ve only started going hard at social media for a little less than a year. I’m personally happy with how my posts perform, but I try my best to not pay too much attention to “analytics”. My approach to building an audience has been a bit unorthodox, I would say. Something I’ve noticed with a subset of writers or aspiring writers on social media is that they mostly post content about their work. I believe people are much more likely to follow along with your creative journey if they see that you’re investing in the journey of others as well. I started my podcast because I genuinely enjoy connecting with people and promoting other people’s work more than my own. I post reviews of other people’s work and try to gas them up. As someone who’s struggled with self-esteem issues in the past, I know how important it is for anyone–especially a random stranger–to tell you that everything you’re doing creatively is worth it and encourage you to keep going.

I’ve also not done too much in the way of “following trends” on social media. Trends change day-to-day and it can be exhausting trying to get on that bandwagon at the right time. It may sound simple or naive, but my philosophy is to just have fun. I’m a huge dork and I want people to have a laugh when they see one of my posts on my personal account. I want people to go “Heck yeah!” when they see a new author interview pop up on my podcast account. I want awesome writers, both established and aspiring, to see a post on my publisher page and think, “This looks fun!”

Contact Info:

• Website: www.madaxemedia.com
• Instagram: @wowcooljoeywrites, @creativesgettingcoffee, @madaxemedia
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTIP3abGKGB1maO-3WUu9eg