Down to Business: MudScout Media
Issue #31
Losing her day job inspired Emma McKay to start her own publishing company (continued from the spring 2007 issue of Venus Zine)
By Genie Williamson
Published: March 1st, 2007 | 12:23pm
DESTINY: Even as a little girl growing up in British Columbia, Emma McKay got really, really upset when she found typos. In the sixth grade, she and her best friend wrote a letter to the school board encouraging them to start a publishing program for kids. Now 28, McKay is the one-woman show behind MudScout Media, her very own publishing house with titles about famous Montreal skateboarding sites and Canadian electro-pop singers in lederhosen (among other things). “I’d love to be the next Taschen,” she says.
PREP TIME: After graduating with an English degree from McGill University, McKay began an internship with Canadian publisher ECW Press. “It was a small company, so I was able to have my fingers in all aspects of the production process,” she says. She worked as both an acquisitions and production editor, eventually developing her own line of books.
DISASTER STRIKES: In November 2004, ECW closed its Montreal office, putting McKay out of work. “It was a blow,” she says. “I had a lot invested on an emotional level. There were projects that I really cared about, and all of a sudden my authors were getting dropped. I felt horrible that I couldn’t see them through. But, in a sense, it was a blessing in disguise."
LEMONADE FROM LEMONS: With lots of encouragement (and the help of the generous Canadian government’s grants and incentives for young entrepreneurs), McKay began putting out her own books in order to promote “artists and ideas that might not otherwise come to light.” McKay’s street cred doesn’t hurt. She’s reaching out to pre-existing communities who might not be as open with a corporate publisher. What results are collaborative books that speak to communities of fans whom she reaches through word of mouth, wild events, and unconventional book outlets like record stores and skate shops.
MOST ADORABLE PERK: McKay’s underground titles reach a wide audience of nontraditional readers, a fact about which McKay is particularly proud. “I get a lot of kids coming up to me, saying, ‘You know, I’ve read two books in my life, and yours was one of them.’ That’s awesome!”
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WEB EXCLUSIVE: Continued from the spring 2007 issue of Venus Zine
Venus Zine: Do you work from home?
Emma McKay: Yes. I have the tiniest apartment you'd ever imagine. Me and my big dog — but we live right across from the park, so it's cool.
Do you have any other employees on staff?
Not really. Depending on the project, I'll have a little team. We'll work with a designer. Sometimes we'll have a photographer, illustrator -— I'm the general coordinating person, the only full-timer.
Do you have U.S. distribution?
I don't — not officially. My whole distribution strategy is kind of funny because most of the books that I'm putting out are targeting a niche audience. I've found so far it's worked pretty well without going through a traditional distributor. By selling online (and) out of specialized bookstores, I’ve found that it’s been pretty effective to get the books out there. It’s better for me at this moment because I recoup more cash per book.
Is the book market in Canada structured like it is here? Do you rely on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Borders?
We don’t have Barnes and Noble or Borders, but we have Chapters and Indigo, and they pretty much dominate everything. So that’s the thing. Say there’s one buyer for all of Canada for a certain genre at Indigo, and if they bypass your book and if you can’t afford to pay for great placement in the store, you’re screwed, right? You can’t get in there. So I’ve tried to make a strategy to bypass that being a necessity. Hopefully, at some point, it will work. It would be great to be in all the bookstores and everything.
So you sell to the independent bookstores? Other non-traditional outlets? Record stores?
Right now, for the skateboard book, we’ve got a skateboard distributor who picked up the book and is getting it in skate shops. But it’s really hard. You place books on consignment in a bookstore, but then I have to chase them down six months later to see if three copies sold, and paying me is not a priority because they’ve got way bigger accounts with other distributors. When the volume of sales justifies it, I will definitely want a traditional distributor, but for now, this is helping me stay in control.
How else are you getting your books out there?
I go around to stores. But people are hearing about these books all over the place, and often just come to me (and ask) “How can we get them?”
You were talking about having a niche audience. How do you reach them?
It depends what the niche is. For instance, we did the FUBAR book that was based on this mockumentary, so the book is written by these two characters from a film. They’re minor celebrities in Canada, so we toured that book and it was a huge gong show. Every city we’d go to would be wild events. Everyone wanted to come out and have their picture taken with these guys.
Now, with the skate thing, we’re being really, really grassroots, getting on different message boards and using MySpace. The skaters made these fliers for their book. They were brown paper bags, spraypainted with stencils that said “Pipe Dreams Book Launch.” They ended up looking quite beautiful. They took them to some art show a month before our launch and handed them out to people so that everyone had their beers in these paper bags. I think they spent about fifteen bucks on that. But the whole skate community in Montreal knew about it for a long time, and now it’s just (about) getting the word out past that. Thrasher’s said they’d review it, and some of the bigger skate magazines that will have more of an American audience. So, hopefully that will help us get the word out.
The skate community has really come out and supported this in a huge way. It’s really sweet. This project in particular threw so many people together -— photographers, artists. At the launch, one guy created a replica of the Pipe, another guy made a song about the Pipe. The energy that’s coming from all these people — they’re so happy to be a part of something that’s coming together.
The Lederhosen Lucille book — so much of it is artwork and things that people made for her, We had about thirty contributors, and every contributor has a stake in the book. Maybe not in a financial way, but they’re part of it. It’s that much better to have thirty people involved in the project than a single author.
Do you ever hope to publish fiction?
I am interested in fiction, definitely. There was another article with me from a while back, and I said I wasn’t going to publish any unknown fiction authors. There are so many books that come out every year, and to launch an unknown, first-time novelist would be really hard. I think I need a bigger marketing budget and bigger platforms to be able to successfully launch those kinds of books, so for now, I’ve been more focused on authors who already have a name. I’m trying to speak to existing audiences.
How do these authors come to you?
The war postcard book — the guy worked on the FUBAR book with me and did my website, so we have a really good, collaborative history. Lucille is a friend of mine, so that was us walking in the park one day. And the skateboarders — a mutual friend brought me to a meeting with these guys, and they had a table full of magazine clippings about them and the Pipe, and I was just blown away and pretty much signed it on the spot.
Do you have a giant slush pile yet?
I’m getting more submissions these days. It’s nerve-wracking right now because cash flow is super tight, really really crazy tight. I’ve taken a pretty huge risk on this skate book. I’m reluctant to sign anything new until I know I’ve made it over the hump and I’m kind of stable.
I understand that in Canada, publishers can get grants from the government.
EM: You need to have four books published. I just hit four books this week, except the deadline for that application was November 1, 2006, and I missed that. I’m planning something with grant eligibility in mind, but I would really hope that it’s possible to make profitable books without getting subsidized by the government. Maybe it’s a pipe dream. I think you have to be kind of nuts to start something like that because it’s a huge investment up front, and then to pay the printers and everything -— there’s a big period of time before you can recoup your investment.
I was working at (Canadian publisher) ECW Press. I developed my own line. I was doing acquisitions and production management. Then they closed the office in November 2004, so I got laid off and so I started freelancing. There’s an amazing government program here (translated from the French as) Help for Young Entrepreneurs. If you get into this program, it’s a form of business school, and they continue to pay you what you get on unemployment for a year, so it’s a base salary of like five hundred bucks every couple weeks. That really helped me get afloat the first year.
From there, they hooked me up with other grants- — the Mayor’s Foundation here in Montreal gave a grant, a local grant for business development in the community. A business foundation gave me a loan. So I started with a bit of capital. It’s all gone now, but it was amazing.
May I ask how old you are?
28. I graduated at 22 in English Lit from McGill and started interning right away at ESW. I was there about four years. It was a small company, so I was able to have my fingers in all aspects of the production process. I got a lot of great experience there.
What made you decide you wanted to pursue a publishing career?
It wasn’t really a conscious decision. I sort of fell into the internship — it seemed like a natural fit. I could work on projects I was excited about with people I liked. I like watching a project come together and then seeing the book have a life of its own.
I remember when I was a little kid reading through books, and I’d find typos and I’d get so upset — “Why isn’t there somebody looking for these things?” When I was in grade six, I tried to start a publishing house for kids. It was my best friend and I, I guess we wrote a letter to the school board encouraging them to start a publishing program for kids. Nothing really came of that, but (my company) is a continuation of a childhood dream.
Some of the books that I do are really underground. I get a lot of kids coming up to me saying, “You know, I’ve read two books in my life, and yours was one of them.” That’s awesome! It doesn’t really matter what kids are reading. Just to be engaged with books and literature is a wonderful thing, and if I can somehow encourage that, great!
When the press that you were working for folded, was that really difficult for you?
It was a blow. I had a lot invested on an emotional level. These were projects that I really cared about, and all of a sudden my authors were getting dropped. I felt horrible that I couldn’t see them through. But in a sense, it was a blessing in disguise. You have to get laid up in order to be eligible for these programs, and it gave me a couple months to breathe and get my bearings and evaluate where I wanted to go.
People were always telling me when I was back there, “You’re gonna run this place one day.” Maybe I’m foolish and stubborn, but I just kept going. I continued some of the kinds of projects I was interested in before, but I never would have imagined that I could get to this point. It seemed so far-fetched. At first I was just trying to get some money to make this possible. I got the money, and (now) it’s kind of surreal.
Do you find that working for yourself gives you more freedom to pursue the projects you want?
Definitely. I don’t have unlimited cash. That definitely holds me back from some things, but working with these skaters — this project never would have come together the way it came together if it was with a larger house, if they weren’t dealing with somebody they considered to be their peer. I just don’t think they would have the freedom of expression that they did with me. There’s a constant struggle between the purity of their movement and the corporate world. The feeling that this was completely independent gave them the freedom to express themselves.
By avoiding these distribution channels and doing everything yourself, do you find that allows you the same kind of purity?
Definitely, (but) I don’t want to completely shun distributors because they could potentially help a lot. I don’t know if other people do it this way. It seems kind of nuts, but it just makes sense to me as a project I’m working on.
How was the transition from working for somebody else to working for yourself?
I really love it. I mean, I’ve never been this broke, but at the same time, I’ve never been so happy and free. I can choose how I want to spend my day. I have my dog. We go for walks in the park in the middle of the day, and I never would have been able to do that at an office. I definitely forfeited the stability, but it’s way more fulfilling for me.
What are your future goals?
I want to keep going on art and culture books, promoting artists and ideas that might not otherwise come to light. I would improve distribution and be in every corner shop. That would be amazing. I would love to be the new Taschen. In the immediate future, it would be great just to get some other people working with me on a more regular basis, to continue to solidify and build this list up.
The beauty of a book is that you can’t bootleg it like music. You have to touch the beautiful pages and open it and feel the pages — there’s something about that that we don’t experience all the time. Beautiful objects and little details — like printing on the inside of the cover or a crazy spot-varnish on the cover — go a long way. That’s very important to me. I want to print everything on 100% recycled paper, and these are all things I’m sort of working on in general.
The next few months are going to be really telling, I guess. Either I sell a lot of books or I get a day job. It feels like weeping into the void, but I’ve been doing it for so long that I am getting a little more comfortable flying through the air.
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