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

Tracy, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We love asking folks what they would do differently if they were starting today – how they would speed up the process, etc. We’d love to hear how you would set everything up if you were to start from step 1 today.

Meadowlark Press began with the idea that many would-be independent authors needed a partner in turning their wonderful stories into beautiful books. While the arsenal of tools for publishing was growing, they weren’t necessarily easy for all users and there was often a certain look to books that were being self-published that detracted from their content. Ebooks are fine for many readers, but some of us still love paper and print, and the look and feel of a book is important.

I contemplated building a press like Meadowlark for years before finally committing in 2014. I worked behind the scenes for several presses as a freelancer, and I absorbed the stories and observed the needs of area writers through my membership in the Kansas Authors Club. I started as a publisher of Kansans and Kansas books and quickly moved to calling myself a Midwest, regional press. I spent a lot of time, early on, apologizing for not having a niche genre, apologizing for not being bigger or more traditional.

I see now that I was building the press that I wanted to work with as a writer. I was partnering with each author and that partnership looked a little different with each book. Each author brought new helpers to Meadowlark. Some of those helpers stuck around and now contribute other Meadowlark books. As writers began to understand the Meadowlark mission, and I began to understand it myself, we grew. We added to our services, striving to help authors fill more gaps, in marketing books and in distribution too.

If I were doing it all again, I would make no apologies. Meadowlark exists to fill the gaps in this ever-changing landscape of books and publishing. We live in exciting times for writers and artists. It is an era of the democratization of the arts. Meadowlark is a small (but mighty) press building a network of support for the authors of stories we love, books we believe in, and our authors are partners in every sense of the word. We are organic and changing, evolving and growing, dedicated to helping our authors create the best books possible, because if an author doesn’t love every aspect of their book, it’s going to be even harder to go out there with pride and market it. And let’s face it, marketing a book is much harder than writing one. Our authors put an extraordinary amount of time and effort and, yes, money into the production of their books. It’s a hard business we have chosen, and for that I no longer apologize.

If I were starting over, I’d know it is okay to start from scratch. It’s okay to do things differently. And it’s okay to keep changing. No apologies. It’s a process, and I’m not done yet.

Tracy, 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’ve been writing stories and creating books for as long as I can remember. One of my earliest memories is of “binding” a book at the kitchen table with a giant stapler from my mother’s desk. I was so small that I had to stand up on the chair to get enough leverage on the stapler to put the spine on. It was constructed entirely of notebook paper, but I can still see the book I was creating in my 7-year-old mind. I got involved in the school newspaper in junior high and joined the yearbook staff in high school. I was always reading and writing, but I was also studying the composition of books. I would spend time at my grandma’s house so that I could use her electric typewriter. I loved the feel of the paper, textured with my prose, as much as the words I was writing on it.

Though I did not pursue a degree in writing or journalism in college, English classes were among the most satisfying of my coursework, and in every job I’ve ever had, I ended up in charge of creating a newsletter or some type of book binding or production work. When I became a mom, I started writing in earnest, and as part of the freelance work that grew from that, I started working with others who produced books, or who needed books produced. I was making ebooks for online distribution before I’d ever heard of Kindle.

I feel fortunate to have grown up in a time that borders the changing of eras in book production. My first work on yearbooks was pasting column inches and photos to blue-lined grid paper. In high school, we were among the first to have computers in our classroom. My first layout work was done on Aldus Pagemaker 1.0.

I guess I bring years of obsession with books and words to Meadowlark Press, and our team is growing with people who are similarly passionate. Each book is a lesson, a collaboration, a piece of art, a story to treasure and to share.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

I’ve never been a black and white thinker, and it has been difficult to define myself as an entrepreneur when efforts to do so leave me feeling like I am boxing myself in with business plans and logistics. (I do love spreadsheets, oddly enough. Don’t get me started on spreadsheets unless you really want to see some that I have created.) I have learned that I do these “business building type” things, but they unfold better for me when I put them in terms of brainstorming sessions and embrace the fluidity of concepts and missions and timelines.

My husband is an attorney. He has learned that I don’t “just answer the question” as my mind works in stories and getting to the answer is the best part. Yes or No is rarely an option. A checkbox is punctuated with highlights and squiggles and subsets that include tasks and dreams and asides.

Success isn’t simply a bottom-dollar concept. In the end, I do need to put food on the table and keep a roof over my head, but the state of my heart and my head is important too.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

One of the most valuable experiences for me thus far has been in completing a course directed at women who were building creative businesses (WINC – Women in Community). It not only gave me language and framework for the logistics and money side of my business, it helped me to understand my deficits as an entrepreneur and to embrace the fact that what I was doing, indeed, was a business. It empowered me to stop looking toward “traditional” entrepreneurship literature and simply thinking that I didn’t fit, that I wasn’t capable.

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