Nimblewords Books is a new business conceived in 2008 and launched in 2009. We have big plans and big ideals. It's our wish to make all our authors wealthy. We aim to do this using modern technology and techniques while at the same time enabling them to do what they're good at: writing books.
Based in Wellington, New Zealand, Nimblewords Books could just as easily be based in Hawaii or the south of France, or anywhere warm and sunny. One day, perhaps.
Nimblewords Books currently has three staff (see below) working a mixture of part time and full time hours.
Brian is the web guru. What he doesn't know about web content and marketing hasn't yet been invented. A published author, he's worked in the web arena for much of his adult life, on projects ranging from writing the text for a small, four-page brochure-style site through to redeveloping the entire 32 000 page, 100+ site web presence of a major university.
He thinks about website optimisation every waking moment and mutters about click-through and conversion rates in his sleep. He would be more useful still if he could design websites from scratch, but while he's not bad at CSS and HTML, the best he can do is hack existing templates into shape.
He's quiet and thoughtful, and his claim to fame is that he used to earn a living selling balloon animals (and flowers) to passing strangers on the street. He's also secretly in love with one of the other members of the Nimblewords team, and is working up the courage to one day ask her out.
Mike is the publishing expert. He's worked in publishing houses in many different parts of the world, in roles ranging from managing editor through to slush-pile sorter. His areas of expertise include not only self-help and educational resources, but also literary fiction, science fiction and fantasy, and a peculiar blend of free-form techno-poetry.
He claims to be able to spot typos while blindfolded and can sniff out a mis-used apostrophe at fifty paces. He's also a dab-hand at cover design, and knows all the ins and outs of copyright law and ISBNs.
A hippy by nature, like Brian, he's a published author. He's also far from an early-adopter where technology is concerned. He only recently bought his first cellphone, doesn't know what an iPod is and owns a film SLR camera. Despite this, it was his idea to merge the old publishing model with the new and form Nimblewords Books.
(He also knows how Brian feels about Nina, and enjoys casually placing himself between him and her, just to make life a little more fun.)
Nina is the business brains behind the team. Her background is in management. She has owned her own business before, and knows how and where to spend the effort it takes to be successful. Effectively, her role is to reign Brian and Mike in when they come up with some crazy idea that the business can't afford or isn't set up to achieve.
It's also her role to ensure deadlines are met and milestones are achieved. From Brian and Mike's point of view, this tends to mean that she assigns tasks and makes sure each of them achieves those tasks on time, and to the required standard - while actually doing very little herself.
She gets away with all this by being outgoing, friendly and permanently cheerful. She's also been single for quite a long time, and up until recently (when she read Brian's profile) had no idea how one of her co-workers felt. Now she looks at Brian with different eyes and is wondering if one day he might make a balloon flower for her.
*Profiles are not necessarily literal representations of Nimblewords' staff.