Festoon Publishing was established by Jonathan (Jon) Holden on the 19th of September 2022. The business is registered for GST.
Everything from the founding day of Festoon Publishing has been an experience of learning by trial and error. My first book “Take the Highway” was written under the pseudonym of ‘Paul Bolder’ as I felt that I couldn’t in all honesty take credit for what the Lord God had given me by revelation. I have since learnt that I need to use my own name on all my books as I need to accept open faced accountability before the public for what I write. I need to own it. This book will need to be republished. Lesson learned.
When I wrote Take the Highway my first prerequisite to publishing was proofreading then editing and then more proofreading. That done, I sent several copies to people whom I knew would be brutally honest in their assessment of the manuscript. It certainly came back brutally assessed from every one of them. Such is the need for honest appraisal. Fortunately, the content survived with much needed clarification required in places. The editing process took nearly thirty revisions before it was ready for printing and distribution.
Printing and Distribution – Just when I thought the hard part was over, (writing and editing) yet another hurdle was to be overcome. I sent preliminary copies of the book to Christian booksellers everywhere without a single response. This was rather discouraging to me. Why no response? I would have loved some feedback. Any feedback would have been greatly appreciated.
I eventually discovered from the experts in the field that in the consumer market, it is the book cover design (and perhaps a sensationalist title) that sells books – not the content! Another lesson learned. The consumer is not quite so discerning as what we would like to believe.
Undaunted by the rebuff of the commercial world of bookselling, I launched upon the idea of selling the book myself. Why not? Selling books was just another area of expertise that I knew absolutely nothing about. What was there to know? Plenty, as I was soon to find out in due course.
My first step into the commercial world of bookselling was to get a website where I could display my wares and allow the public to buy as they saw the need. The website was duly set up but it didn’t bring in the buyers that I had anticipated. Apparently, there is a lot to be set in place if people are to “discover” you. Things like ‘metadata’ and ‘tags’ and the like. You may have noticed a revamp of the website with these things having been addressed.
Another set of lessons learned!
