Cynthia Fails, Founder of LaunchCrate Publishing

by Mariko Rooks

LaunchCrate is interesting and it's not something that I saw coming for myself at all, which is kind of cool because I get to use all of my creative talents to help other people. I was doing this before when I worked as an educator, but I get to do it from another lens in terms of helping people write books that will in turn help other people… essentially, my reach now is a little bit greater! The entire aim of LaunchCrate is to make sure that creatives are fairly compensated for the work that they are creating. When you look at the traditional publishing profit split, the profit share has the majority going towards the publishing house. They're able to do that because they have so many people who are working to make sure that they're publishing books: copy editors, content editors, folks who are doing book layout, cover design, someone who is specific to marketing...  but when you're doing all of that with just one person or a couple of people, you don't need as high of a percentage. So we really work to make sure the authors who are coming up with these great ideas are compensated the way that they should be compensated, because ultimately I wouldn't have a book to publish if it weren’t for their expertise and their message. A long-term goal for us is to equip as many people to follow whatever creative endeavor they're interested in, whether that be illustrating or sharing your stories not just in book form, but also through public speaking. So one of the things that we've created is a podcast so we can help people share their stories: not just what they do but who they are and why they're doing the work that they're doing. Similar to the work that you are all doing with this platform, which is really great.

So far all of our authors have belonged to a minority group in some aspect, whether that be women or people of color. I've worked with a lot of Black women in particular, and I think it's because of the story that I share with people about why I started the business and because I’m not in this business to make a million bucks. I mean a million dollars would be great if we can get it, but I got in the business to help other people learn how to do this for themselves. Women of color in particular have to learn how to navigate the world in different ways than even white women. I’m not saying that white women have it easy at all, because they're still women, but women of color have to be creative in the way that we navigate to the world, especially in America because of the systematic racism that's embedded within the fabric of our country. So I think that a lot of women of color have gravitated towards me because they trust that I'm not going to lead them astray, which is great. Because then, once I can teach them how to do it, they can teach other people how to do it and you've got a ripple effect where you can spread and you can start to really make an impact on some of the structures that have historically left us out.

Books from the Ella Series, LaunchCrate Publishing

Usually what happens is I'll be out at an event, networking with people, or speaking, and when people hear what I do there's almost always somebody at the event that wants to connect with me to talk out an idea they have that they want to make a reality. So that's how I've been connecting with people, which has been great because I haven't had to do a whole lot of marketing to connect with authors.

I've connected with people who have just an idea of what a book should look like, and people who have their first draft completed and they’re just looking to figure out what that next step looks like.

Once we get their first draft, we edit, and then there's two avenues. We have publishing services, which is where we're helping people learn how to publish the work themselves, or publishing with us. For those who are traditionally publishing with us, once we receive a manuscript we go through the formal process just like the big publishing houses do: We review the manuscript, and if it's a good fit we’ll send off an agreement. From there we'll work on the same things that we work on with those who are doing publishing services: reviewing the manuscript, editing a manuscript, looking at book layout… If someone has a children's book, connecting with an illustrator, which can sometimes be a challenge… Just making sure that we're knocking off all of the items that are on our checklist... A book layout, cover design, and then social media content that's going to align with the book and the promotion process. 

Origins: 

I'll give you the short version of that story. I started as an educator and was working with a college prep and graduation program. I was there for a little over 7 years until they went through a reorganization that no longer aligned with my core values. I always knew that I would stay as long as there was good alignment between the work I was doing, the service I was providing, and who I am at my core. When that no longer aligned I knew I had to do something else; I didn't know what that was, but I knew that I couldn't work there anymore. So I left there without another job, not knowing what was next. In the 5 months between that job and my next job, I actually wrote, illustrated, and published my first children's book. 

So that was kind of where the journey started in terms of writing and illustrating children's books. And publishing as well, because I discovered the ins-and-outs of traditional publishing and what a good contract looks like versus what an average contract looks like with big publishing houses. I also discovered how much more control you can have if you learn how to do it yourself, because I wanted to make sure that the core message of my book was the same and it didn’t shift. I decided that I wanted to give it a shot and do it myself. My first book, when it got pushed to Amazon by the self-publishing company that I was using… all they did was to push a pile. They didn't do any book layout, any cover design, any of that stuff. The book had a $5 profit margin per copy sold and I ended up with $0.14 per copy and they took the rest of it.

I started looking at the number of books that they were helping people publish (allegedly), and I knew that all of these people were just accepting that this was the way that it had to be and that there had to be a better way to do it. I didn't realize it at the time, but that was an internalized idea that I had. I started working at University of Missouri, Kansas City (UMKC) after those five months, helping students to figure out their careers. And in the meantime at night, I was trying to figure out a better way for people to publish themselves and their work. So I published more books while I was at UMKC, and as I was learning how to navigate through other avenues of publishing I started helping other people do it as well. At one point, I had basically two full-time jobs: publishing at night and working at UMKC during the day. Something had to give, so I followed my passion. 

Photo courtesy of LaunchCrate Publishing

Project Overviews: 

My grandfather's book is based on some of the stories that he shared with his family about his life. I captured some of the stories that he shared with me on audio and linked them to a QR code in the book, so you can scan it and hear him tell you the story; it's not just you reading it. And so that has actually morphed into a service that LaunchCrate offers as well… we help other people capture the stories of their family members so that we're not losing these great legacies.  

We've also got the Ella book series, which are a series of books that we call “power”ful because each of them is driven by the “power” of something. We have the power of “one” and how one person can have a ripple effect on the world, we have a book on the power of sight and holding onto your dreams even when others don't necessarily see them, we have a book about the power of grit and how important it is to keep going and build that muscle within you, and we have a book about about the power of “yet” and the importance of adding that word to the end of a sentence to make possible that which was not before. There are six more books that are coming in that series. After the first book was released, we created an “Ella Ambassador Program.” It was incorporated into some of the schools here in Kansas City, specifically kindergartens. Students are being recognized by their peers for doing something nice that has impacted someone else's life. That's the Ella series and again, that's more about a character value. 
Those are all inspired by just how I watched my mom navigate through the world as a woman of color. I think about when I was younger when my mom was working on her master's degree and her doctorate degree so I got to go to the library with her as she was doing research. I got to observe more than a lot of kids necessarily would have when they're four years old. I didn't realize it at the time that the relationships you have with other people are hats you have to wear. You are somebody’s spouse, you're someone's mom, a student, a human being. So she was navigating through all of this and did so with grace. I think I kind of took it for granted until I was older and I had to wear some of those hats myself, and I was like how did she do it? You know, when I think about my experience with my mom, there's one time in particular that really stood out to me. I don't know if I'll ever forget this. We were in a department store and she was standing in line about to make this purchase and these white people were behind us in the line. The white cashier that was ringing people up pointed behind us and asked them to come up even though we had been standing in line. I asked my mom, “Is that lady racist?” And she said, “Well, I don't know if she's racist but she definitely called white people before she called us even though we were standing here first.” And she looked at me and she was holding this piece of clothing and she said, “And we don't have to buy here if we feel unwelcome,” and put the item down and walked out of the store. I looked at her and her head is held high. That's just really affirming, that you don't have to stand for being treated like you're less than. So those are the kinds of things that she instilled in me, that we’re trying to build in the series, and also that I'm trying to instill in other people.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

To connect with LaunchCrate about publishing opportunities, click here!

To connect with Cynthia, click here.