When you think about starting a business, the whole idea of it can seem overwhelming. You have to think of the finances, promotion, materials, social media, people involved, others taking you seriously as a start up, and the time you’ll have to put in before seeing any type of results. When we began Whispering Wick it was because we needed an internship for school and we were running out of time to find one. The current pandemic had made it difficult for our program as most publishers closed their internships and the majority of what was available was communication positions in banks and other industries besides our own. Not only that, the few positions available in the industry were so competitive the likelihood of obtaining the internship was low. Thankfully, our head of management, Tamara Thompson, came up with the brilliant idea of creating our own opportunity, a small-scale press with people whose skills we respect and trust. It is thanks to this last statement that the starting of Whispering Wick has been more exciting than overwhelming. The thing about starting a press with the people you know is that you all want to succeed for each other, not just yourself.
When we started Tamara was an emailing machine, and still is, coordinating the CO-OP department, the intended team, and mentors in order to turn this opportunity into a reality. With the help of the Chief Editor, Nathaniel Boulard-Patterson, they spent a whole day simply formulating the job descriptions for the 5 positions required to build Whispering Wick, along with the reasons they would fit the internship requirements and the qualifications that would be required for them. The two also spent time working on the company ethos and brand that same day. Things began to move rather quickly after that. Emails were exchanged, a mock website was created by Nathaniel, everyone on the team submitted their reason for wanting to be a part of Whispering Wick and by Tuesday October 6th, 2020 we had 5 individuals starting their own publishing press.
For some the past couple of days have been a learning process and for others a continuation of tasks undergone beforehand. Regardless, everyone is finding excitement in even the smallest of things such as a logo stamp, finding a writing committee’s email, learning what other team members are doing, receiving a response on a social media post, or learning of a new type of thread. Everyone is finding their own.
Tamara, although shackled with meetings, finds joy in learning and providing feedback on everyone’s tasks. She gets to see firsthand how others are working to develop her brain baby into a success and she aids in doing so. Ensuring we are all on schedule while making the schedules and directing each team member towards a clearer future is her bread and butter. She also works closely with our mentors Paul Vermeersch and Robyn Read in order to keep them in the loop on our proceedings. Not only has she aided in contract markups, she’s assisted production with budgeting, design with logo and poster samples, and promotions with social media posts and accounts.
Nathaniel’s first week consisted of having to create formal documents such as contract templates, submissions guidelines, and more. However, these were not new tasks since he had done the same a couple of months prior when he had undergone a course where himself and some classmates created their own theoretical publishing press; featuring him as the editor, requiring the very same documents. For Whispering Wick he started anew, ensuring that the documents suited the needs of a chapbook start-up instead of a novel publisher. As some of the requirements need a special form of jargon for law binding documents which can be difficult to understand at times, this task, although basic in theory, was time consuming. For instance, Nathaniel spent the entirety of a day working on the contract alone and its format followed by a two-and-a-half-hour meeting with Tamara ensuring that all was in order. He has stepped up to the plate by not only covering his duties but also showing his excitement which always peeks through when he talks about the press.
For our designer Grace, things were a little trickier. In order to provide the images and logos requested, she was forced to learn a new design system called GIMP. We at Whispering Wick think her work is to be commended as it produced six wonderful versions of our aesthetically pleasing, meaningful logo. She has since been able to learn her way around her difficulties and has made multiple stickers to be used on posters and social media posts along with banners for our website. Grace has put a lot of detail into the logo alone, even taking into account the position of the fingers and what the symbols could mean. From the idea that people tell stories around fires, to having the hands open to invite the reader and having the thumbs be different to give a center flow. The effort put behind it was a perfect fit for our press and its identity. Grace also had some comments for the blog:
“I got to hear more about what everyone else is working on and it makes me excited to see where Whispering Wick will go. I’m getting a better sense of all the steps that will go into making this chapbook press a success. I’m also thinking I should watch some more Film Noir, because all I’ve really seen is The Big Sleep, The Maltese Falcon, and LA Confidential (if that even counts).”
On the other hand, Rebecca Gruszka’s time was consumed with drawing up social media posts and accounts to increase public awareness of Whispering Wick. She often worked alongside Grace Regan and Tamara to design and select the images used. In the end it was decided that social media such as Instagram and Facebook would receive three posts every weekday prior to our launch with new information and promotional material. As it stands now a Twitter account is being formulated along with the posts intended to be featured. Rebecca also worked with Grace to ensure copyright legislations are followed on images as this is an important factor that often goes unnoticed when discussing the overall outcome of a company to the general public. Rebecca has been busy with all her tasks but always approaches the post with an idea on trying to engage people, teases the press and has fun with the posts. The heart she puts into making the press look polished and just enjoys interacting with people teasing the big secret.
As for our final member, David Stevens, much of his work has consisted of crunching the numbers for the budget that will need to take place for both production and promotion. This entails researching the cost and quality of business cards, printing materials, sewing materials for spines, paper, printing locations, and more. He offers some words of wisdom:
“For the most part, starting up a chapbook press isn’t too expensive if you just look at the raw materials needed, as most can be found for quite cheap. (This would result in a lower quality of chapbook. Though arguably what matters is the message/the story, and not the means of which it is delivered). If what I’ve stated is the case, and it isn’t too steep on the old pockets, how come more people don’t start one up? Printing. Printing my dear friends will cost you much more than a pretty penny. The sheer cost of buying a printer and paying for the ink simply dwarves the cost of the raw materials needed to make a chapbook. Paying for printing at various stores doesn’t help much either since the service charges can often be high when you end up printing in bulk. So, what is a writer to do? Cry.”
In the end our first week has resulted in quite the success for what it is, a first week where the basics of a company are formed. During a meeting with our mentors they’ve expressed their enthusiasm with how well we are proceeding so far and this only encourages all of us at Whispering Wick to keep moving forward. By the start of next week our call for acquisitions will be out in order for us to officially begin working with authors and we cannot wait.
Stay tuned for some more fun updates on our weekly lives here at Whispering Wick!
Bonus staff comment of the week:
“One cup of flour (gluten free is a-ok), one egg, about a tablespoon of oil, and water (play with it till it feels right.) is enough to create an egg bread that can be thrown in a skillet/pan with butter to create an easy to eat bread. No kneading, less than 20-minute cook time guaranteed. Make sure to mix herbs, veggies and or meats of choice into the thing to get some nice flavours and substance. Make sure it’s cooked; I am not a chef.” - David Stevens
