It's now 2012, a futurific date if ever there was one, and we're facing some interesting and terrifiying stuff in the world.  Perhaps MOST interesting and terrifying is the thought that the printed word may soon be obsolete.  I don't begrudge people for liking the convenience of eBooks, I just hope they don't bring about the end of real, honest-to-goodness books.  I think the Ohlenkamps share my sentiments...

This is a beautiful example of the symbiotic relationship books and technology can have.

And, to be fair, I first saw these YouTube videos on my iPad...

Well, actually, I write this when Midpoint and RustyBrick (our awesome web developers) are currently working hard to make sure the right pieces are in place for a safe and productive launch.  Of course, the site will never truly be finished.  The focus at the outset of this project has been continuous improvement.  That lofty goal can make life difficult (if you never stop fixing things, how do you know when something is "ready?") but it is also extremely rewarding because I never have to be satisfied.

Though it has been stimulating to always think about the next step and improving every aspect of the business through this new tool, it has also been difficult to launch.  This is my first experience with launching something so significant and managing a process which largely involves tasks which I don't have the expertise to do myself.  To be sure, I know enough to get myself into trouble poking around, but I can't even pretend to have the talent to program a piece of software ilke the new Midpoint Access.  The biggest lesson I have learned, then, is the value of collaboration.

"Access" began as a team of Midpointers sitting around discussing what we needed to do to improve our website.  Quickly, it became obvious that even just that team was not expansive enough.  Every team member had great ideas and fueled some very positive movement, but we all spoke of our own experience and what we needed.  If this site was going to be groundbreaking it couldn't just be for the 5 team members, it had to improve the business for everyone at Midpoint, employees and publishers. 

We began collaborating with the entirety of Midpoint, "interviewing" every employee.  We then began discussing the site with publishers - we needed to find out what our core constituency would find beneficial. Eventually, we ended up with a comprehesive plan to create a new publisher portal and public face for the company from the ground up.  That plan was handed over to RustyBrick so our vision could become a reality

The collobaration didn't stop there, however.  The two companies have worked together for almost a year and not a day has passed without something improving.  Our team talked to all the publishing "insiders" but it is astounding what people with an unbiased perspective can add to the discussion.  Whether it was our designer streamlining our ideas from a design point of view or the programmers building something we didn't think was possible, Access is the culmination of dozens of individual efforts all adding up to something much greater than the sum of its parts.

Colloboration led to Access, a product I believe you will find as amazing as I do.  Team thinking is in every one and zero on this site and so, too, are our publishers.  We built this site with publishers in mind, we built it with their help, and we built it to better colloborate with them.  We will continue to improve on what we've built together, but that isn't just Access.  Midpoint and our publishers work together to create something that neither of us are capable of doing alone and comes together to be something great.  We accomplish that every day with our publishers and always strive to be a little better than the day before.

I wasn’t just born a book lover. I was bred to be one.

My mom is an elementary-school librarian. As a kid, my world was books.  This was partially my own choosing, and partially a result of my upbringing.  From the time we were little, my parents governed my brothers and me according to three rules: (1) No TV or video games, except for the occasional pre-approved PBS program, (2) No uttering the words “bored” or “sucks,” or any other word that smacked of dullness or bellyaching, and (3) No snacks after 5 PM, at which point my dad returned home from work and started cooking dinner. 

Although at the time we considered these to be unjust rules that prevented us from fitting in with our friends and classmates (who could be both bored, and up to date on every Nickelodeon show) they gave us the freedom to pursue our own interests uninhibited and undistracted. 

Because I couldn’t do what these other kids did, I read every children’s book under the sun. That is a slight exaggeration, but not by much. I went systematically through my elementary school’s library, pulling books off the shelf with the letter ‘A,’ and working my way through to Paul Zindel, with time to revisit old favorites.

So I come to publishing a passionate lover of everything that goes into books.

The interest runs deep. Because of my parents’ curious rules, I’ve become a sort of walking encyclopedia of young adult and middle grade literature. Its characters are the people I grew up with, my role models and my friends. I soaked up the wisdom offered by Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, who taught me how to be polite and proper but still have fun.  I fell hard for Bingo Brown, that red-headed boy in love with all the wrong girls. I traveled to Hogwarts and Oz and the Kingdom of Wisdom, and still made it home in time for dinner every night. 

What draws me to publishing is also the power I’ve seen these books have firsthand. In my life, it was Homer Price who gave me courage at school, and Encyclopedia Brown who got me into college. 

I got over my stage fright, won my elementary school’s talent show, and wowed my friends with a rap-rendition of the “Donut Song” found in one of the Homer Price stories. And Encyclopedia Brown was more than just a boy detective for me. He was my first hero and ideal. That literature taught me, and continues to teach children, to look for the small details that most people overlook. It also showed me how to fit in without really fitting in, and how to outsmart bullies. As a result, I wrote about my respect for Encyclopedia Brown in my college application, which brought me to Kenyon.

My interests are not only in pre-adult fiction, of course. I read widely in college—from Buddhist philosophy to Chinese poetry. And I have a variety of work and artistic experience that feeds my interest not only in books, but also in the craft of making books.

After pursuing every one of my interests, I’ve always come back to my obsession: books, how to make them, and how to save them. I am absolutely committed to printed books, but I’m also comfortable with the technology that’s rapidly changing the publishing world. I am the proud owner of an iPad, and I am willing to explore new options when it comes to publishing new books, as long as the printed page is not lost altogether. 

Of course, there is something so sublimely satisfying about holding a book in your hands.  Perhaps I am uniquely powerless to books.  Since childhood, they’ve shaped who I am, and kept me enraptured. It’s that power to open a young person’s eyes that draws me to publishing, and makes me want to bring everything I have to change a few minds amid a world of distraction.