Yes, We’re Weird! And, That’s Why We’re Still in Business!!

Yes, We’re Weird! And, That’s Why We’re Still in Business!!

I was always a weird (um, naughty) kid. I never aligned myself with social norms. I recognized when something was ridiculous, even if “everyone else” was doing it. I would do things differently, despite the fact that doing so occasionally led to being an outcast.

BookLocker is an unconventional company that has far outlived many of its competitors because…we’re weird. Yes, family members, friends, and even business associates have guffawed at our life choices simply because we have chosen NOT to live by the standard nuclear family model, nor to run our business like just about everyone else runs theirs. And, in the end, it has greatly benefited us and our children, our employees and their children, and our authors as well.

The unique choices we have made in our lives are why we are still in business after so many of our competitors have gone belly-up. And, our odd lifestyle is why our prices are so low for our authors. It’s the trickle-down effect!

We:

Live on a Mountain in Northwest Georgia, and Homeschool Our Children

There’s no faster way to go belly-up when the economy tanks than to mortgage yourself to the hilt. If I can give any young person one piece of advice, this is it. Do NOT buy more house than you could afford if you lost your job! After protests and other civil unrest forced us out of St. Petersburg in 2020, we sold our sailboat, and moved to a rural town in Northwest Georgia where we are now growing our own crops on top of a mountain. Oddly enough, we have fiber Internet here!

With regards to homeschooling, doing so actually gives you MORE time to work. You’re not rushing around each morning getting the kids out the door, you’re not attending parent/teacher conferences or participating in fundraisers, and you’re not running to the drugstore at midnight for supplies for that forgotten science fair project. I will admit that, yes, the children have always had math tutors. I know my limits! Their other classes are online so it’s really easy. Our children have excellent manners (they didn’t learn bad ones from other kids), and are very social, highly intelligent, and, most importantly, happy. We’ve been homeschooling for 20 years now and I wish we’d started even earlier than that.

Practice Minimalism

I highly recommend it! Spending less on ourselves means we can give our authors lower prices AND take better care of our employees. And, no clutter to worry about!!

Don’t Have a Snooty Corporate Office

In the same spirit as a stifling mortgage, renting offices, having too many employees, and buying a granite conference table and other extravagances is completely unnecessary. And, this type of overspending is what got many of our defunct competitors into trouble.

Don’t Overstaff

Some business owners, quite full of themselves, love to hire too many people (who treat them like royalty when they walk down the office hallway). Personally, I abhor office politics and I really can’t stand crowds. I get FAR more done each day working on  my laptop at home. I communicate with our employees using WhatsApp. The window is always open on my screen and, whenever they need me, my laptop dings.

Make Our Employees Work From Home

When literally everything we do is online (our printer is located in another state), why force people to get up, and drive through traffic for work, when they can simply work from their own homes, and be with their children? Of course, you have to find the best of the best employees when using this business model. It takes a lot of discipline to basically work for yourself all day, every day. And, we’ve been successful at that because our folks are amazing! The secret is finding people who LOVE to work!

When the pandemic hit, literally NOTHING in our business changed!

Are Generous with Our Employees

If you have really good people working for you, you darned well better make sure they’re taken care of! Everyone at BookLocker is paid well, given bonuses for their hard work, and given more holidays than any company I know. They even get their birthday off as a paid holiday.

Give Our Employees Control Over Their Own Work

Nobody wants a boss breathing down their neck, especially if they are well-trained and autonomous. And, I certainly don’t want to spend my day nitpicking anyone’s work. As long as our folks get their jobs done, and done on time, we let them control their own schedules and tasks. And, since they are all so happy in their jobs, I don’t have to worry about a thing.

I think a lot of the problems at larger companies occur because of narcissistic control issues. The owner/boss funnels their employees into an office door each day, demands respect (a silent salute from everyone, if you will), has elaborate offices to make people (even their employees) think they’re successful, and spends too much on themselves instead of being generous with their employees (and giving their customers lower prices). And, later, they wonder why they went out of business…

Booklocker started as a one-woman operation. My writing website, WritersWeekly.com, was created in the wee hours of the morning after my “real job” ended each day, and after my children were in bed. I was going through a divorce back then, and getting no child support. Some of you have read about my refrigerator being broken back then, and needing to give the kids lukewarm powdered milk with their cereal in the mornings.

I lost my job shortly thereafter, and was able to work on my “little hobby website” (what my ex-husband called it) full-time. WritersWeekly quickly grew, and eventually morphed into the successful publishing company, BookLocker.com. I’ll never forget those lean times and I still live lean today. Doing so has enabled BookLocker to grow exponentially because we take good care of everyone (employees, contractors, and authors alike), and we don’t live beyond our means.

So, you see, being weird has its benefits!

RELATED



Got questions about Print On Demand and Self-publishing? Ask Angela Hoy.

About The Author

AngelaPortrait72dpismall_400x400

Angela Hoy is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, the author of 19 books, and the co-owner of BookLocker.com (one of the original POD publishers that still gets books to market in less than a month), PubPreppers.com (print and ebook design for authors who truly want to self-publish), and Abuzz Press (the publishing co-op that charges no setup fees).

Angela has lived and traveled across the U.S. with her kids in an RV, settled in a river-side home in Bradenton, FL, and lived on a 52 ft Irwin sailboat. Angela now resides on a mountaintop in Northwest Georgia, where she plans to spend the rest of her days bird watching, gardening, hiking, and taking in all of the amazing sunrises.

WritersWeekly.com - the free marketing ezine for writers, which features new paying markets and freelance job listings every Wednesday.

BookLocker.com - According to attorney Mark Levine, author of The Fine Print, BookLocker is: "As close to perfection as you're going to find in the world of ebook and POD publishing. The ebook royalties are the highest I've ever seen, and the print royalties are better than average. BookLocker understands what new authors experience, and have put together a package that is the best in the business. You can't go wrong here. Plus, they're selective and won't publish any manuscript just because it's accompanied by a check. Also, the web site is well trafficked. If you can find a POD or epublisher with as much integrity and dedication to selling authors' books, but with lower POD publishing fees, please let me know."

Abuzz Press offers FAST and FREE book publication, but only accepts a small percentage of submissions, and only works with U.S. authors.

PubPreppers.com - "We Prep, You Publish!" Print and ebook design for authors who truly want to self-publish. Offers formatting and design services only, and then provides simple instructions for authors on where to sign up to have the print and ebook editions printed/listed/sold. Cut out the middle man. Keep 100% of what bookstores pay for your book!

Angela's POD Secrets Revealed Series can be found HERE.

Have a POD Book with another publisher? See if BookLocker can give you a better deal. (BookLocker offers "disgruntled author discounts" to those who want to move from other POD services.)


See BookLocker's publishing packages HERE.


ANGELA ON TWITTER https://twitter.com/AngelaHoy


BOOKLOCKER ON FACEBOOK - Provides links to free excerpts!
https://www.facebook.com/booklockerbooks


ANGELA ON FACEBOOK
https://www.facebook.com/angela.hoy.750


ANGELA ON LINKEDIN
https://www.linkedin.com/pub/angela-hoy/78/719/390


Angela is the creator of the Original 24-Hour Short Story Contest!
https://24hourshortstorycontest.com/



Read More Of Angela's Articles HERE





Make Sure Your Marketing is Targeted at the Right Audience





The Best of Boyd's Blogs: 87 Solutions to a Life of Better Speaking and Listening






Ever wish you could have your favorite blog in book form? There's nothing like flipping through the pages and reading helpful snippets here and there.

In this book, Steve Boyd gives you that very opportunity. He has intrigued his readers and clients for years with his insightful newsletters and blog posts. This book includes some of his most interesting stories and communication tips, from listening to speaking. As he quotes this Chinese proverb, "From listening comes wisdom and from speaking repentance."

You won't need to repent from your next speech if you use these articles to guide both your preparation and delivery. As an avid reader of his blog said, "These articles are priceless! People need what you have to say."





Steve Boyd's articles on motivation and communication-related topics have appeared
in various publications. His books on public speaking have sold over 30,000 copies.
He is a popular after-dinner speaker and conducts workshops for businesses and associations
whose members want to speak and listen effectively to improve personally and professionally.




Read more here:


https://booklocker.com/books/7171.html



Writing FAST: How to Write Anything with Lightning Speed


A systematic approach to writing that generates better quality quickly!


Chock full of ideas, tips, techniques and inspiration, this down-to-earth book is easy to read, and even easier to apply. Let author Jeff Bollow take you through a process that brings your ideas to the page faster, more powerfully and easier than ever before.




Read more here:
https://writersweekly.com/books/3695.html





15 Responses to "Yes, We’re Weird! And, That’s Why We’re Still in Business!!"

  1. Pingback: “My multi-tasking mind is STOPPING me from finishing my book!” | WritersWeekly.com

  2. Ethel Geary  February 19, 2020 at 1:50 pm

    We started being weird in1984 – had 22 competitors – what lovely fancy offices and high overheads they had. All chided us because we didn’t have carpet on the floor, or any chairs that matched, or a 5 year plan, but we did have a plan- we planned to still be in business in 5 years and 5 after that, etc. Now we are the last and want to retire, but our 25 yr plus clients are asking us to stay a year or so until they retire. There is no one to take our place. We started with a desk, typewriter, coat rack and bottle of gin the former owner left in the desk when I bought her failing business. We sold to an employee and moved 1200 miles away and she outsources to me. She moved from street front office (they torn down our building) to home and went right on making money and drawing clients. My attorney use to say, “I don’t know how you stay in business, you make your client’s, even me, tow the line and you turn away anyone who tries to tell you how to do your job.”

    It’s not the appearance of your office, or the BS you feed your clients. There were some who disliked me. One client said to my employee, “Can’t you do anything about ‘that woman’.” He stopped coming when he found out I was the owner. What a relief that was.

    I’ve been following you for all these years and so admire how you do things, the opportunity your kids have had and even the boat – we had a Monterey fishing board during some of those years. I think I will retire at the end of this year – I’ll be 84.

    • By Angela Hoy - Publisher of WritersWeekly.com  February 20, 2020 at 8:39 am

      Ethel, do you REALLY think you can retire? We workhorses are difficult to put in the shed!!! We LOVE to stay busy!!!

      Big hugs to you, my friend!!!

      Angela

  3. Cheryl Tuskes  February 19, 2020 at 7:51 am

    It’s nice to know there are other people out there that live the same as me.

    Thanks and keep being weird!

  4. Bryan  February 16, 2020 at 5:20 pm

    Nothin’ beats workin’ for one’s self.

  5. Chris Norbury  February 16, 2020 at 11:53 am

    You’re my kind of weird, Angela. Congratulations on making a life for yourself and your family that’s exactly what you want it to be. Pretty rare in this country these days.

  6. lawrence adam  February 16, 2020 at 11:29 am

    Angela. you are not weird, you are just full of good old common sense!
    May God continue to pour his blessings upon you and your family
    Rev’d Lawrie Adam.

  7. Valerie  February 16, 2020 at 8:22 am

    Thanks for such honesty Angela. I’m one of those weird people too and wouldn’t have it any other way.

  8. Jill Holland  February 15, 2020 at 9:30 pm

    In a world where so much is wrong with business in general, and where people are treated as dispensable and unimportant, you really stand out. I just retired from a place that started out great and then became another uncaring, corner-cutting, money-focused corporate entity. I wish I worked for you now! How could I not be disciplined and dedicated by being part of that? I’m glad I found Writers Weekly so long ago!

  9. EL MCMEEN  February 14, 2020 at 7:36 pm

    Luv you guys!

    • By Angela Hoy - Publisher of WritersWeekly.com  February 15, 2020 at 6:01 pm

      We love you, too, El!!! 🙂

      Angela

  10. Pamela Allegretto  February 14, 2020 at 4:29 pm

    If being honest, dependable, friendly, and knowledgeable is weird, then cheers to you and BookLocker. You win the award. I view you and your amazing staff as THE best company I have ever been involved with. Keep being weird and I’ll keep publishing with your company.

  11. Alicia Kelso  February 14, 2020 at 3:45 pm

    Yes, We’re Weird! And, That’s Why We’re Still in Business!!
    The world needs more people like you, Angela.

    I’m trying to get my manuscript up to at least 300 pages so that the binding is wide enough to see on a book shelf, rather than a thin pamphlet.

    I hope I haven’t lost my free publishing prize because I have taken so long;
    I’ve been taking instructional pictures that can be printed in Black & White for my first book: Everyday Elf.

    Trying to hurry, but I want to put high quality not just fluff to fill pages.

    Alicia Kelso

    • By Angela Hoy - Publisher of WritersWeekly.com  February 14, 2020 at 5:41 pm

      Your prize is definitely still valid, Alicia!! 🙂

      Angela

  12. Kathy Finfrock  February 14, 2020 at 1:52 pm

    You are such a smart woman. I admire you and your success greatly. Thanks for sharing.