We recently connected with Macarena Morales and have shared our conversation below.

Macarena, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

My experience in the publishing world is quite extensive. For a time I worked in a Publishing House specialized in historical novels, then I worked as an editor producing language school textbooks and later as an editor in a large transnational.

In 2014, when I was a mother for the first time, I quit my job to be able to dedicate myself to motherhood, and then, the following year, I became pregnant with my second daughter. In 2017 I decided that it was time to start my own business and the logical thing to do would have been to set up a narrative Publishing House, since it was what I had dedicated myself to for a long time.

However, since I had my daughters I began to go regularly to children’s bookstores and I fell in love with children’s books. So, when it was time to start my business, I took a risk: setting up a children’s Publishing House. This was crazy, since I didn’t know any author, illustrator, designer or printer in this area. Despite these difficulties (which were not minor) I decided to follow my instinct and venture into this fascinating universe. Of course I don’t regret it.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

Muñeca de Trapo is an independent Chilean publisher that has more than thirty children’s publications in its catalog.

In its recent five years, it has been awarded various international and local recognitions, including the award from the Cuatro Gatos Foundation (United States), for the book “On the web of a spider” by Pilar Muñoz Lascano and Matías Acosta; Banco del Libro Award (Venezuela) for “The boy from El Plomo hill” by César Sandoval and Gabriela Germain; and the Hummingbird Medal awarded by the International Organization for Children’s and Youth Books, IBBY (Chile) for the books “The girl who was always hidden” by Joceline Pérez Gallardo and “A new neighborhood” by Josefina Hepp and María José Arce.

Currently the publisher’s titles are in the most prominent bookstores from Chile, Argentina and Colombia; and also in some schools in the United States thanks to the distributor Books del Sur.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

When I started with my children’s book publishing house, I asked myself this question: how can I differentiate myself from the competition? It was clear that I couldn’t compete with their prices, since the big publishers do big print runs and have ridiculously low prices. Nor could I compete with the positioning of the books in the bookstore windows, since the big publishers have many sellers and in my company I was just one person. So, it occurred to me that something that could compete would be in the themes of the books. The large publishers generally -at least in my country- do not publish titles with difficult or complex themes. Death, mourning or orphanhood are taboo topics.

So, what do you think the first book I published in my publishing house was about? Of an orphan girl who entered in a juvenile home, something that had to do with the national contingency and at the moment it was a very controversial topic.

The book came to light and over time… it didn’t sell anything!! And, worst of all, no bookstore wanted to have it on their shelves, let alone in their windows. The months passed and meanwhile I continued editing the second and third books. After almost a year, when I thought that perhaps the idea of ​​having started this business was a fiasco, this first book that nobody wanted won the most prestigious award given in our country to children’s books. That was the push I needed to realize that I was right and that, although the sales might not have been as expected, they were necessary books that were worth doing.

Can you share one of your favorite marketing or sales stories?

In August 2019, I received an invitation to attend some meetings organized by the Korean government. The idea was to meet with Korean publishers in Buenos Aires, Argentina, so they could show us their books and sell their rights. I was not interested in buying rights, but in selling my books, which at that time numbered five.

My two daughters were very young and I couldn’t be away for long. For this reason, I took the first flight very early in the morning and from the airport I went directly to the hotel where these meetings would be held. I met with several people and I showed them all my books, knowing that they were not going to buy. The first publisher I passed my books to didn’t even deign to look at them. He took them in his hands, put them aside, and continued to tell me about his books. The second publisher did not react differently. The hours passed and I already had to take the last flight that would take me back home. Just when I thought my trip was for naught, a Korean editor asked me if I could tell her what the book was about with a little girl on the cover. I narrated the story to him and I could see in his eyes the same emotion that I felt while editing it. Then he asked me to tell him what the other books were about. The next day, when I was already back home, an email arrived in the inbox: it was an offer to publish not one, but two books from Muñeca de Trapo in South Korea!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.munecadetrapo.cl
• Instagram: @munecadetrapo.ediciones
• Facebook: Muñeca de Trapo Ediciones

Image Credits
Nicole R. Goussot