Welcome to the New Year! Carmel Heart
Media, LLC was founded in November, 2012, with grant funding from
Lane VR and a carefully designed business plan with my adviser Leah,
of Lane Small Business Center. Since November, I obtained a business
license and office equipment, professional software and beautiful
business cards. Over the summer, while I waited for my grant to come
through, I took on two clients to help them with their
self-publishing needs, which have ranged from editing to layout and
cover design. In the process, more have lined up with an interest in
becoming published, now that I own my own imprint.
My original plan was for me to publish
e-books and apps of my own work, yet now demand has been strong for
print projects. Carmel Heart Media will offer two print publication
services: full publishing under the CHM imprint for premium quality
manuscripts that fit the genre and theme of Carmel Heart Media, and
also basic book production for those who want to self-publish. This
will involve a la carte services, such as cover design and editing,
or putting the entire book into print-ready form. These services will
cost less than any service available on-line including Amazon's
CreateSpace, AND clients will receive personalized care and attention
not available from the mass self-publishing industry.
None of these projects were my original
business goal and they weren't even included in my business plan.
However, these are skills I have and enjoy using, and they are skills
people want. Hopefully, by the spring, I will have my new web page
designed, which will have many more details and samples of my work,
especially showcasing my graphic design work, such as the cover I
created above. I won't be able to do it all and wear all hats. I have
a volunteer employee who will be working with me, until I am able to
pay him. This should free me up to follow the monthly targets that
are on my original business plan, which has an eight item product
list for 2013. Because of this, I am only working with one Carmel
Heart Publishing author at a time and time-frames for a la carte
services may be longer than the industry standard. Luckily, my plan
is flexible enough to accommodate these changes in what I'm able to
offer, because I'm excited about helping new authors succeed in
realizing their dreams.
Carmel Heart Media books will have an
inspirational theme and incorporate aspects of the Carmelite
tradition, such as mindfulness and contemplation, or they will be
works with complementary themes. We welcome inquiries at
info@carmelheart.com. Our first book will be Ordinary Heroes:
Creating a Culture of Life, by Terry Ianora, OCDS, and we are
planning a release for the anniversary of Roe v Wade this month.
Terry has been a client since June of this year, and her book has
been created with great care and love.
I'm looking forward to an insanely busy
year, but not a stressful one, because I'm doing what I love. My most
cherished project will be the development of a Borderline and Beyond
app for sale on Itunes. Thanks for everyone for their support and
encouragement as I and Carmel Heart Media go forward in the new year!
