We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Aimee Jackson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Aimee, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?
I feel lucky every day for the work I do. I truly believe that creating children’s books puts more good into the world. My work feels purpose-driven, and that gives me a lot of sustained energy. I’ve been working in children’s publishing for thirty years and running Book Bridge Press for thirteen years. The first few years of running my business were tough. I worked 365 days straight the first year. I knew it was a recipe for burnout, so I began to set boundaries for myself, work a reasonable number of hours each day and actually take time off over the weekends. And I found, of course, that the time I spent resting and restoring–time with family and friends and time in nature–made me more efficient and clear-headed when I returned to work Monday morning. My physical resilience comes from walking the balance between work and self-care. And my mental resilience for my business comes from my passion for what I do. I’ve produced hundreds of books throughout my career, but each new book, each new author, is a new adventure, so it feels new every day.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I am the owner and editorial director for Book Bridge Press, a boutique-style book production company that works alongside independent authors and non-profit organizations to create children’s books. We produce board books for babies and toddlers, picture books for young children, and chapter books for older readers. Our business model is structured to support and nurture authors to be fully independent as their own publishers. We give them the tools to be independently successful. What makes us special is that everyone who works for Book Bridge Press–our editors, designers, and art directors–has deep roots in traditional children’s book publishing. We bring years of direct industry knowledge to our development, and our process is individualized as each author, illustrator, and book is unique. Our books stand out because the care that went into every stage of production is evident in the finished product.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Three qualities that have been most impactful on my journey have been passion, first and foremost, discipline, and experience. I’ve always had a passion for books and stories and particularly the art of picture books. Even as an adult, I can still be swept away by a beautiful picture book. Discipline is a skill that is driven by passion–passion for the work, passion to succeed, passion to keep learning and growing. But ultimately, discipline is the unglamorous work of showing up day after day and working just as hard at the parts of the work you don’t enjoy but that allow room for the work that you do. Experience comes with time, but to truly gain experience, one has to be open and curious, willing to trust and learn from those who have more experience and skill, and a willingness to try, knowing that failure is part of trying. I’ve learned to have gratitude for it all: successes and failures, easy times and hard times. I try to say yes to it all because saying yes has led me to today, and I love today.
Do you think it’s better to go all in on our strengths or to try to be more well-rounded by investing effort on improving areas you aren’t as strong in?
A huge part of success in any area of life is knowing one’s strengths and weaknesses. That means learning how best to best use strengths and how to ask for help in areas of weakness. When I began in publishing, I was an editor, solely focused on the editorial process. But as I grew in my career, I was granted more and more responsibility. I began acquiring books, working with contracts, and eventually, managing a budget. I could have stayed at the editorial level only, but I was curious. I didn’t have a background in business or management, but I was eager to learn how it all worked. Numbers have never been my strength, but I learned how to keep a profit-and-loss sheet. I learned how to manage a budget, plan a publishing list years in advance, how to present new ideas to marketing and sales teams. Another important skill I learned was how to manage a team. These opportunities to grow into areas that were new and sometime scary eventually became my strengths as well. Learning these additional skills became the building blocks for eventually running and managing Book Bridge Press. I would not have had the confidence to take the leap into running my own company, nor the skill to make it a success, if I had not stayed open, curious, and courageous about wading into unknown waters.
Contact Info:
- Website: bookbridgepress.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/bookbridgepress
- Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/editoraimeejackson
- Twitter: twitter.com/bookbridgepress
- Youtube: youtube.com/@Halfstreetmedia
- Other: threads.net/@bookbridgepress
Image Credits
All images © Book Bridge Press
