This year disappeared in a whirlwind of great new books, new team members, and a lot of learning around Page Two. Looking back on 2017 to write this post, we find it hard to believe how much change happened for us this year.

These are just a few of our highlights of 2017:

 

• We hired four new people: a marketing director who’s a former entrepreneur herself and a published author, and who has been deeply entrenched in digital marketing for many years; a second crackerjack project manager to produce our books and work with clients; a talented designer to support the work of our busy creative director; and a publishing assistant. And we made one of our dearest contractors, Amanda Lewis, our full-time editorial director. We’re excited to head into 2018 with a tightly knit, incredibly talented and experienced team of ten.
• New digs: Because of this expansion, we were spilling out of our old office, often camping out for phone calls in the hallway or the boardroom. So we moved! We’re now near Main and 15th Avenue in Vancouver, a hip area with good restaurants and cafes and shops—and a yoga studio next door that will help with our new year’s resolutions.
• Travel to some surprising places: This year we sponsored Heroic Public Speaking Live in Philadelphia (photo above); we went to the Sharjah Book Fair and the brand new Dubai Louvre; and at the opposite end of the thermometer, spoke at the inaugural Whitehorse Non-Fiction Festival, where thermal underwear was essential.
• New services: We were also busy this year working on new and better ways to serve our clients. We’ve changed the way we handle translation rights, trade distribution, and we offer several new services, such as Amazon Adwords campaigns.
• Lots of sales! Several of our clients won awards and published bestsellers and wowed us with their sales numbers. Michael Bungay Stanier’s The Coaching Habit reached 300,000 copies sold!

 

What’s ahead for 2018?

After such a busy year, we wouldn’t mind catching our breath in 2018. But that’s not our style! When we launched Page Two, we did it in a spirit of innovation. We wanted to create a book publishing model that was new and improved, and that fixed several things that we felt didn’t make sense—and that evolved as the industry does. These are some of the things we’re excited about in 2018:

• Continued change: No doubt next year will see us continuing to refine our services, responding to changes in the book publishing landscape and, most importantly, to our clients’ needs.
• Our clients: We work with talented, smart authors who make us feel excited to come to the office every day and help us push our own boundaries of what seems possible. Next year we’re publishing books by groundbreaking professionals in a breathtaking range of fields: executive coaching, leadership, comedy, Indigenous cultural sensitivity, funeral care, and more; and by organizations working on issues such as youth employment and organic farming.
• Creative marketing: Traditional media coverage and large social media platforms don’t necessarily translate to book sales. We’re enjoying refining our techniques for a wide range of other marketing tactics, such as podcast campaigns and influencer marketing.
• A birthday party: And on October 3, 2018, we’ll be celebrating five years in business. We’ve heard stats that 50% of businesses fail in their first five years, so we’re happy to be on the other side and thriving!

 

And most importantly, we’re grateful to all of our clients, supporters, colleagues, friends, and family for getting us to this point. Happy New Year to all of you!