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Meet Emily Hitchcock of Boyle & Dalton

Today we’d like to introduce you to Emily Hitchcock

Emily, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
In 2012, I was working a full-time corporate job (that I hated), going to university full time, and moonlighting as a copywriter. I knew I loved books and writing, and that I needed more sleep, but otherwise, I felt lost. In a desire to connect with the writing community, I started volunteering with a local writers’ group, and then stuck around, running writers’ workshops and doing anything else they needed. The director of the writers’ group became an incredible mentor to me, and I got real, hands-on experience editing, publishing, and marketing books.

I began to learn the technical side of how books are produced, but I also learned a broader lesson: Book publishing doesn’t have to take place in a big city. There are incredible writers, editors, and book designers in big and small corners of the Midwest. I realized that book publishing was a trade I could learn in Ohio.

So when my financial aid package fell through the following year of college, it felt like providence that the director of the writers’ group offered me a job at a new publishing company he was starting. I took a chance, dropped out of college, quit my boring bank job, ignored the shock of my friends and family, and started working at the fledgling company. I made no money, I still wasn’t getting enough sleep, but it was the best decision I ever made.

The company grew, and in 2018, I took over as CEO. Three years later, I bought the business. Today, hundreds of books later, I’m still doing the work that made me happy over a decade ago. If this wasn’t already my job, it would be my dream job. Taking that chance changed my life.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Because the publishing company started out small, everyone did every job in the beginning. I learned so much in a concentrated amount of time, but I also spent a lot of nights crying over my computer, unfairly mad at myself because I wasn’t instantly good at things I’d never done before.

About the time I finally got really, really good at managing the day-to-day processes as COO, I took over as CEO. Although I knew the industry well by then, I had no idea how to lead. I tried to do everything all at once all by myself. (Delegation? Never heard of her.)

But as Jake the cartoon dog from the TV show Adventuretime once said: “Sucking at something is the first step at being kind of good at something.” And I’ve found that to be true and comforting. I might not have believed it in the thick of learning those new skills, but hindsight has made me grateful to my younger self for not quitting before I got good at this job that I love.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Boyle & Dalton?
Boyle & Dalton is a hybrid book publishing company located in Newark, Ohio. We combine the vetting and high-end book production of a traditional publisher, the speed and rights retention of an indie publishing model, and the individualized, publisher-guided experience of a small press.

We often become a home for exceptional books that don’t quite fit the traditional publishing mold in the current moment. There’s a beautiful freedom in being able to publish books based on quality, not on trend, and this has given us the opportunity to work with incredibly talented authors over the past decade.

Those authors really shaped the trajectory of the company. Not just the success of their books, although those did establish our brand and reputation, but working so closely with authors illuminated what they needed and wanted from a publisher. There are plenty of “book factories” out there, both in the traditional and independent spheres. Cranking out books assembly-line style doesn’t appeal to me, and it doesn’t produce great books. Authors should know their developmental editors. Authors should have access to their publisher. Publishers should care and be excited about the books carrying their logo.

Making books is challenging. You need an impossible eye for detail, a never-ending work ethic, and a passion for literature that can outlast industry burnout. But seeing an author hold a book in their hands that once was just a manuscript and before that an idea makes it all worthwhile.

Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
I’m a huge proponent of taking risks in the process of figuring out what makes you happy and fulfilled. Take the unconventional path–most security is an illusion anyway.

I quit a corporate job with health insurance and a 401k and dropped out of college to help build a company that could have failed. A lot of people in my life thought that was risky, irresponsible, even. But for me, the riskier decision would have been staying put and never exploring that opportunity.

When we come to forks in the road, we don’t get to know what lies down the road we don’t take. Can you live with those “what ifs”? That’s the real risk in decision-making.

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