• Can you tell me a bit about yourself and your role within Busybird Publishing?

I’m co-owner of Busybird Publishing with my husband Kev. I’ve always been a storyteller and began my working life as a photographer. Fifteen years ago I enrolled in a course that had publishing as a module and fell in love with the process. I haven’t looked back and have helped over 500 people to self-publish in the past 12 years.

What’s your favourite book?

Oh, that’s like asking who my favourite child is! It has to be whatever I’m reading at the moment.

• What are you reading at the moment?

I just finished Where the Crawdads Sing, which someone in my bookgroup chose. I loved it. Next up is The Survivors by Jane Harper.

Busybird Publishing is an innovative company, offering a variety of author services, mentor schemes, and self-publishing help for creatives interested in publishing their stories. Can you share a bit about Busybird’s story, and how it has evolved to fill a gap in the Australian book market?

Both my husband and I are creatives, and we were frustrated with how hard it is to earn a living from your work, especially here in Australia. Our aim is to provide a creative space for people to hang out with like-minded people and to share ideas on how to get a return on investment when publishing. We believe that everyone’s story is important and that there are a variety of ways of getting this story to the reader. Self-publishing offers so much scope for people who would have to rely on the ‘gatekeepers’ in traditional publishing in the past, so I like to think we are offering options for many people who feel despondent about getting published.

What sort of genres does Busybird publish? Are any of those genres a particular favourite of yours to publish?

We don’t think about books in terms of genre, despite the sellers and readers needing to know this. We start with the story that the writer wants to tell, then work out the best way to get it into a reader’s hands. We do tend to work with people’s memoirs a lot and I write memoir myself, but I am happy to talk to people about their story no matter where it fits.

Have you noticed any interesting trends in what your readers are buying at the moment? Any runaway successes?

Self-help has been very popular for a while and we’ve worked on a few fundraisers that have done especially well.

It is a very difficult time to be in the publishing industry. How has Busybird coped with the COVID-19 pandemic? How has Print-on-Demand factored into your response?

After a small dip in activity, we were quite steady right through the year. When Melbourne came out of lockdown later in the year, we were inundated with people who had used the lockdown as a chance to work on the book they had been struggling with due to lack of time. There are several books dedicated to COVID, strangely enough. Print on Demand was especially helpful when people were worried about selling their book. It was also more reliable than trying to post things from country to country since the books are printed close to where the sale happens. The Australian production team seemed to handle the situation very well.

Busybird uses IngramSpark to publish the stories of the creatives you work with, as well as your own books under the Pinion Press imprint. How has working with IngramSpark helped you to help so many authors tell their stories?

Once our authors understand how print on demand works, they can see how convenient it is. It is also a great advantage in terms of investment in their project. Not having to outlay thousands of dollars in the printing is a bonus when they might be investing money in the publishing. In this way, we can show them how to get a return on their investment. The print turnaround times are also fantastic when planning for launches or out of the blue events.