Meet The Disruptors: Tim McConnehey Of IZZARD INK PUBLISHING On The Five Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Trust — Without trust, people, relationships, and businesses crumble. Inaccurate information could cause disastrous decisions to be made based on false information. Always tell the truth.
As a part of our series about business leaders who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Tim McConnehey.
Tim McConnehey has developed Izzard Ink Publishing from a spark of an idea into one of the fastest-growing media companies in the U.S., selling over one million books and developing tech solutions to reshape the industry. Recognized as an international publishing expert, Tim has been featured in Forbes, Inc., MarketWatch, Parade, Dow Jones, Medium, on Fox News Radio, and in other national and international publications. McConnehey draws on a deep background in business, including extensive experience in fintech, business management, and business development, as well as the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business Program and the 26-month Owners/Presidents Management Program at Harvard Business School.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
In 2010 while working at a fintech company, I read an article in the Wall Street Journal about eBooks. I thought, “I could publish a few eBooks.” I learned about an author who had passed away, and their family asked me to publish new eBook versions of some of his books. We started seeing sales immediately; one title sold a few hundred a week. The fintech company began to downsize, and rumors spread about retiring the product I was working on. On the next round of layoffs, I got the call. What felt like thousands of job applications later, I figured the universe was sending me a message, so I founded and focused solely on Izzard Ink.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
The traditional publishing model is broken, and small publishers are struggling due to operational inefficiencies and adapting to new technology. Izzard Ink’s all-digital platform is structured to embrace technology such as applied A.I., cloud and edge computing, industrialized machine learning, and others. We are building the tech foundation for the future of publishing by working to improve the author’s content, making serious, quality publishing available for more authors.
We help authors build their publishing teams utilizing experienced, top talent from the major publishing houses. With the support of Izzard Ink, first-time author Susan Read, worked with one of the editors who worked on The Hunger Games. Her book Mermaid Tears received great reviews and a coveted Book of the Year award. Susan built her team and owns 100% of the copyright of her story, which is now distributed around the globe.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
When I first started, I was testing the idea that getting the best book covers meant working with the best designers. I felt fortunate when I found a designer that claimed to have worked on a cover for a bestselling Star Wars book and the award-winning cover for The Silence of the Lambs. I thought we were dealing with a book cover savant. We engaged him for a couple of our projects. Within a few hours of submitting our cover materials, we received some cover concepts. The color palettes were along the lines of those found in a newborn’s diaper or vomit. Art is subjective, so I figured I was off-trend and discounted my thoughts. We submitted the book cover for various design awards and to bookstore buyers. The feedback was a resounding pass; no awards or shelf space was given because the covers made everyone “queasy.” We learned that we need to vet not only cover designers, but editors and the rest of our publishing team. Today, we only work with the best and develop ongoing relationships with them.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
Many of my mentors have come from business organizations. I’ve learned just as much in these programs from the participants as from the teachers/professors. I learn from fellow business leaders facing similar issues as myself, which has been key to my growth. It was like finding a tribe and going to war to improve your business. I wanted to know if my business was a real business or a hobby business. I returned to the university I graduated from and spoke with Karin Palle. Karin introduced me to the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business Program. Their modules on processes, finances, legal, negations, marketing, and others gave me the confidence to continue to believe in myself. They helped me imagine what publishing could look like in the future.
Since graduation, the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business Voices program has allowed me to share my voice with top elected officials about the needs of my business and our industry. The organization has arranged meetings with my congressional representative and U.S. senators. I even got to shake actor Ryan Reynolds’s hand and hear his views on small businesses — he has a keen business mind.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
Amazon Kindle and others deeply disrupted the publishing world by removing just about every financial and bureaucratic barrier to publishing a book. Anyone can upload a manuscript as a Word document; now, two million books are published yearly. However, content quality has not yet materialized to make it a truly disruptive change. Most authors don’t know the three editing phases, developmental, line/copy editing, and proofreading. They don’t understand how the three different areas will affect their manuscripts. They tend to think they can do every step themselves and still expect a quality final product that can compete — but the vast majority just get lost in a marketplace that’s now crowded with amateur-quality books.
Can you share five of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
Humility — Be humble. There are eight billion people in this world, and we can learn something from each of them.
Curiosity — Keep experimenting and learning the hows and the whys.
Creativity — Never stop dreaming and thinking of ways to make a difference.
Collaborative — If you want the best result, learn how to handle feedback and lift others to build the best team.
Trust — Without trust, people, relationships, and businesses crumble. Inaccurate information could cause disastrous decisions to be made based on false information. Always tell the truth.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
Book publishing is ripe to be disrupted and brought into the digital age. We are on the verge of having publishing technology that can help every author tell their story better.
At Izzard Ink, we’re working with machine learning and artificial intelligence to help our editors better evaluate manuscripts. Our team has completed proof of concepts in A.I. analysis for genre categorization, readability, manuscript summary, sentiment analysis, keywords extraction, and stylometry. Authors need to embrace technology — much like doctors have when trying to diagnose cancer and other ailments. Technology improves outcomes. Like doctors, authors need to trust the new technology but still verify it by working with editors and other experts — do not follow A.I. findings blindly. Artificial intelligence will not replace authors and editors, but it’s a tool that will help them tell a better story.
Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?
How Will You Measure Your Life? Don’t Reserve Your Best Business for Your Career, by Clayton M. Christensen, published in the July-August 2010 edition of the Harvard Business Review.
Izzard Ink identifies authors with great potential, and we surround them with the best team to realize their potential. The end goal is not only to publish a book but help the author develop their writing skills and personal growth as a writer, helping make them better communicators.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Think like a scientist, not a perfectionist.
So often, I’ve tried to do things perfectly the first time. It causes too much discouragement — so instead, think like a scientist, using the scientific method in business and testing new ideas and innovations.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
Understand the importance of owning your intellectual property. Don’t give any part of it away, especially to a company that has not worked as hard as you.
Embrace having another tool to help you create. In the next 3–5 years, there are going to be some technological advances that will help authors create much better content. These technological advances will not replace authors but will support authors and editors. Work to elevate your content and enhance your skills as a writer.
How can our readers follow you online?
Follow Izzard Ink Publishing on Izzardink.com, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
