Recently Aqua Fox Press intern Floyd Barnes had a chance to sit down with Aqua Fox Press founder Benjamin Obler and talk mission statements. The plan was to brainstorm a word cloud, maybe consult the Ouija board, but then the idea shifted and they settled on an interview format, which both AFP team members believed would provide ample opportunity for keyword generation that would assist the company’s SEO metrics.
So here, we have it. The two met in the in Aqua Fox Press main conference room, on an overcast late-winter afternoon, Obler of course clutching a mug of black coffee.
F.W.
What’s the mission of Aqua Fox Press?
B.A.O.
Right now the most exciting thing about our mission is our plan to bring in other authors once the technology, design processes, and social media are all in place. But largely speaking, really, the mission is to be kind to myself, as I kind of learn the technologies and how to get things right. A lot of that has been accomplished as far as production workflow. So, it’s been a fun and challenging journey.
F.W.
What about staff? Will you continue to do everything on your own?
B.A.O.
Well, I’ve never done it all on my own. We can consider my wife to have been in an advisory role. In her case, she’s been like Ruth Bader Ginsburg in a turban, if you will—advising me on spiritual conflicts, ethical matters in the content of my novels, karmic orientation in business, etc.
F.W.
Wow. And I thought she was just a life coach, yoga teacher, radio deejay and sound healer.
B.A.O.
She is all that too.
[At this time, the AFP offices experienced a power failure. When the talk resumed…]
Ed in Chief, or Ed for short.
B.A.O.
You know that would be cool? I’d like to create a independent publishing cooperative or something, if that’s not too oxymoronic. Wouldn’t that be cool? A collective where if other presses want to join powers with us, in a kind of loosely supportive way, they can. I’m picturing like, sharing solutions on production issues, and other hot takes on being a top-quality publisher. I’m perfectly willing to share, for example, the suite of WordPress plug-ins that is making everything work for us right now. That information could be really helpful to others who want to publish themselves and their crew. I think that would be amazing. There are no aesthetic requirements, but it if you believe in community and common cause rather than a market-domination model, then we’ll vibe just fine.
F.W.
A collective. Amazing.
B.A.O.
I’m picturing picnics at our headquarters upstate in the summer. You know, a chance to meet and greet and talk shop and actually have real relationships, perhaps, if people want that. If that’s not weird. You know, think of the whopping conference that the characters Damon and Wolf throw in my novel The Mombaccus Expansion. Does anyone really have an appetite for that?
F.W.
That’s what makes them so hilarious.
B.A.O.
Thank you. Anyway, networking, yes. Promotion, yes. But not some hugely corporate affair.
F.W.
Okay, you really lost the plot on Mission Statement. But that’s par for the course.
B.A.O.
I’m playing the part of Eccentric Visionary Startup Guy.
F.W.
How fun for you.
