Tuesday 19 February 2013

Inspirational Interview 4 - Kitty

Hi Kitty!

Thanks for agreeing to talk to me. It's great to have you here!



First off, tell us a little about yourself.

You know Rae, this is usually the hardest question of all, so where to begin. I’m a 40 year old mother of a beautiful 12 year old daughter, and married to a good man. We are animal lovers and belong to 2 Chihuahua’s, 3 Cats, and 3 Ferrets. We often find ourselves rehabilitating wildlife when we can and are currently looking to buy our first home. I recently graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business and Marketing in August of 2012 and now run a very successful publishing business known as GMTA Publishing. This year we have just started our imprints and intend to unveil the sites for those very soon!

You run publishing house Great Minds Think Aloud. How did come to get up GMTA, and what was the inspiration behind it? Were there any frustrations along the way, if so how did you overcome them? What's the best thing about running a publishing house?

Well Great Minds Think Aloud actually began two years ago as a book club/review hub. I began to make a lot of friends both publisher and author as well as many others and found out just how much talent was out there waiting for someone to come along and publish their books. For a year I learned as much as I could about the business and began gathering thoughts and ideas and all the information I could find. Early January of 2012 I decided I may as well jump in with both feet. I began to publish and the start was very bumpy. Starting any business involves a lot of trial and error, staying up all hours of the night (which I still do) and working HARD.

This year it seems I have learned a lot, gone through many changes and cultivated GMTA into a serious publishing business. We are very picky about the manuscripts we accept, more-so than we were in the beginning. We have a strict policy in place for submissions and we have obtained the services of some excellent editors that we recommend to authors that do not have their own. GMTA has become a business that is more about quality than quantity and we intend to remain that way. After an overwhelming response that started at the beginning of the year we have actually now closed submissions until July or at least we plan to open them back up in July given that we catch up with what we already have.

All in all GMTA is doing really well and we have a feeling that 2013 will be our year to shine! The best thing about running a publishing house is meeting some amazingly talented writers. I also enjoy the fact that I get to meet them personally. We don’t operate like many publishing houses that make their authors submit through an agent, instead we allow authors to submit directly to us and I think that makes a huge difference.

What are your hopes and dreams for GMTA? What kinds of books do you publish? My hopes and dreams for GMTA is that we will grow to be supremely successful. I want to make ‘the big six’ into ‘the big seven’ I would love to either become an imprint of one of the larger corporate conglomerates of to become a corporate conglomerate ourselves! As for books we publish almost every genre save memoirs and poetry.



You do a heck of a lot of work! I'm always seeing you online and am constantly inspired by how much you do. How do you keep yourself going? What inspires you? A lot of people use this opportunity to throw in a long speech about their love of coffee and though I do love it, that isn’t what keeps me going. What keeps me going is the genuine love I have for literature and the undying need to produce a book that people will enjoy. I intend to work hard for all my authors and that is why you see me on all hours of the night plugging away with promoting our books and trying to make sure that every single person on all social networks see what we’re doing. I want our authors to succeed and be happy in their experience with us and I want them to know that I will always work hard for each and every one of them no matter if it means me staying up until all hours of the night and morning and some of the next night as well! Lol

What would your advice be to anyone who wants to start their own business? Do it! First and foremost you have to bit the bullet, jump in with both feet and no matter how high the water gets doggy paddle like hell! In fact it’s a good idea to have some water-wings as well just in case. It’s not easy, I will definitely never say that but it takes tons of dedication, a true love for what you do, and it takes discipline, and above all patience. You have to work hard to create anything worth-while, but if you try hard enough you can succeed. No dream is unattainable and no goal too high!

As we know, there are millions of authors out there, some of who will be reading this. What advice would you give to authors who are looking to submit their work to a publisher? What advice would you give them once they've been published? Let these readers know you are here and you’re not going away until they read your book and give that feedback good or bad! One thing you should always, always remember as well, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and even when it was done there were people that didn’t like it. You’ll always find your critics, and they will, at times, be harsh but even Tolkien had his critics, so did C.S. Lewis, George R.R. Martin, some of the greatest and most amazing authors in the world had their critics for as far back as we can remember so don’t let that get you upset. There are worse things in life than someone telling you that your book is no good. Trust me, you’ll have just as many or more telling you that it is GREAT and… remember too, opinions are like… well you know the saying.

The world is a dark place right now. If you could address a global audience, what message would you give to the world? I would tell them that it is time to pull together. You’re right Rae it is a dark world and there are some very bad people out there but if the good ones don’t start doing something about it it’s only going to get worse. Our planet is in serious trouble in more ways than one. From the bad economy, to the pollution problems, to the problems with society as a whole, it’s not getting any better and it can’t until we start fighting back. Until we learn to stand as a unit regardless of race, creed, or religion, there’s no hope for anyone. The key to that is to get rid of the hatred, be kind to your fellow man and try to live life as you should, treat everyone with the respect and dignity they deserve.

Finally, where can we find you online? Everywhere! Literally that’s almost true. If you Google GMTA you are likely to find something on us somewhere. But if you really want to find us here are some sites that may interest you and we’ll have others up soon:








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