Barnes Brothers Books

My husband and I are the co-founders of Barnes Brothers Books, LLC. I’m the CEO, and he is the CFO. This company was inspired by our children, and named with them in mind. Our hope is they will someday run this company. They are active participants in our company and have been part of the entire journey.

How did this get started?

This journey started with one simple question, “Mom, how can I make a real book?” From there, we researched how. There were several steps. To start this company. We had to do the following:

• Register the company with the State of Indiana
• Obtain an EIN
• Open a business banking account
• Obtain a device to take payments via credit, debit, Apple pay, etc.
• Have the logo created
• Purchase two types of insurance
• Create a publishing account with the Library of Congress
• Buy a block of ISBNs
• Find a cover and interior book designer
• Find an illustrator
• Find a book summary writer
• Find a co-editor
• Build of group of beta readers
• Establish an account with the US Copyright office
• Develop a writing contract to publish other writers
• Consult a business lawyer
• Take legal action to put a cease and desist on an unauthorized copy of our son’s book
• Publish our son’s book. Click here to purchase it!

Later, I will probably look back at this post and remember other tasks my husband and I completed to get this far. Everyone who knows me knows I’m serious about my business. I don’t play around, and I strive to produce excellence. This is why I took most of 2019 thus far to work on these tasks.

Why start a company to publish your son’s book?

It started with my son, and then his brother also wanted to write a book. Their desire challenged me to do more. As a former middle and high school English teacher and current elementary librarian, I wanted more books with people of color as the main characters. I’m tired of people of color being the side kicks or a small insignificant role. I’m tired of black children becoming obsessed with Junie B. Jones or Ramona, (not because I’m knocking those texts) but because there aren’t many other options available. I want to be part of the solution. We have enough people venting about the problem.

Are you really going to publish other authors for free?

I was telling my cousin we are going to publish authors for free, and he thought I was kidding. We are not. We don’t want to be a vanity publisher. Those are publishing companies you pay to publish your books. There are many articles online explaining how they are mostly scams. Many times they are not only charging you for labor, they are also charging for stuff that is absolutely free for them to do. That vanity publisher might not know how to complete the task, so the publisher is using your money to pay someone else or pay for a program to do the work. You might as well be an indie writer and publish your own work; it would cost you much less.

How do I get considered by Barnes Brothers Books?

I’m so glad you asked! Click here to read our publishing contract, and click here to submit a completed manuscript. Most of my followers know I edit for two education publications. I already mentioned my day job. I have a good eye for finding good stories. We will not accept everyone. We also don’t have time for people saying they will have a manuscript ready later. We want people who have a finished story and go from there.

As a writer, I can tell you the hardest part of writing is writing the story. The rest is easy. We can’t do the rest if you don’t have the story completed. That is why we are not considering pitches or partially completed work.

This sounds awesome. How can we connect with you or contact you?

First, check out our website www.barnesbrothersbooks.com, and follow us on Twitter @BarnesBrosBooks. Second, you can email us at barnesbrothersbooks@gmail.com.

We are excited to start this new journey and to put more books out there for children around the world.