SparkPoint Studio, including our industry-leading BookSparks division, is approaching our 7th anniversary and I simply can’t believe how far this company has come in these amazing seven years. My intent when leaving my global PR agency career behind and starting my own agency was simply three things –  to do what I love and am passionate about every day (books and authors); to use my education and experience in high-tech and start-up PR and apply that to the industry I love (publishing); and to have more control and flexibility over my life so I could enjoy both being an ambitious career woman and a loving and present mother.

Seven years ago, I was working out of my dining room, worried that this leap was too risky, worried the publishing industry was too elitist, and suffering from what many women do – impostor syndrome. Who am I to jump in and start my own company counseling clients on how to navigate the changing publishing landscape and create publicity campaigns for authors when I had only worked in PR for high-tech companies, start-ups and corporate brands?  

Today, thankfully, I look back at the last seven years – the ups and the downs – and I am simply grateful for the journey because I do get to do what I love every day, I have passionately and successfully applied years of high-tech PR and start-up experience to build a wonderful company and to become a disruptor and innovator in an industry I love, and I’ve been able to do this while being present with my family and enjoying a career where I am in control of my daily destiny. All three things I set out to do when I took that leap of faith seven years ago.

In the last few years, SparkPoint Studio has seen incredible growth (1000%) in the BookSparks division as we enabled authors and publishers to navigate this crazy publishing industry with smart, strategic, creative and innovative campaigns for book publicity, author branding, social media and platform building. BookSparks has worked with more than 450 authors and 25 publishers!

But we’ve also seen growth in other areas, too. We now operate two award-winning and successful publishing imprints (SparkPress and She Writes Press) where we publish more than 220 authors through an incredibly innovative hybrid model that is disrupting the traditional industry and giving many authors a chance to bring their incredible work to the masses. We also now operate an engaged community of writers at SheWrites.com – the largest global community of female writers online. SparkPoint Studio is evolving into a multi-faceted parent company that is meeting All Your Story Needs™ – from publicity to publishing to platform – thanks to all our divisions: BookSparks, SparkPress, She Writes Press and SheWrites.com. 

This growth and journey has happened thanks to two things:

1) The many amazing clients and authors who have trusted our team with their stories and allowed us to be part of their incredible journey – thus allowing us to be on this journey of our own. Many of these clients found us through agents, editors, other authors and industry people who have referred authors to us over the years. We have built this company on word of mouth and by delivering incredible results so that referrals are the top driver of our business.  I do not take this for granted. My team does not take this for granted. Thank you.

2) This has happened, as well, because it takes a village and this rock star team in our SparkPoint village is supremely passionate, talented and they continue to push the  envelope every day – including our endlessly hard-working publicity team, our enthusiastic and creative digital team, our innovative and tireless publishing and editorial team, and two other fearless females who started their own companies (Kamy Wicoff and Brooke Warner) who allowed She Writes Press and SheWrites.com to become part of the SparkPoint Studio family. Thank you to this team – both our in-house and virtual teams that work so hard to make this happen.

This journey would not be possible without our amazing clients and authors who pick us and trust us to partner with them and certainly wouldn’t be possible without the word of mouth and referrals and this incredible team. We are forever grateful, I am forever grateful. Not just today when looking at the past seven years, but every day.

Our commitment as a company is that we will constantly continue to keep SparkPoint Studio, BookSparks, and all our divisions growing in new and innovative ways to better serve our authors and clients.

With this being said, I have exciting news to share with you. 

As we move into our 7th year as a company, we are officially expanding SparkPoint Studio and our BookSparks division to the East Coast and building a presence in the hub of book publishing: New York City.

We are thrilled to begin this new and exciting expansion for the company. Being in the West has never been an issue for us or our clients – we create and execute stellar campaigns for authors all over the world. But many of our clients and media are based on the East Coast and having the chance to work with them regularly face to face, like we do our West Coast clients, is something we are extremely excited about.

In New York, our BookSparks team, led by stellar Senior Publicist Robert Soares, will be working from Brooklyn and will manage media relations, meet with major media face to face regularly, build relationships with bookstores in Manhattan and Brooklyn, continue to serve our East Coast and national clients, meet with the publishers we work with regularly, all while growing our presence and team there. This move will benefit the company greatly and enhance our relationships that are based there.

Our new office there will be up and running by March 17th. This is the first step in our expansion to New York City and we will continue to keep you updated on all news. 

Please know that we are incredibly grateful for this journey and this new phase in our company. We couldn’t be here without all of your support and we look forward to celebrating our 7 years – our intent is to bring our clients along for this celebration throughout the next few weeks, so please stay tuned for more on that – and we look forward to keeping you updated on the expansion efforts and what that means for us and for all of you! 

Here’s how we began celebrating today…. Enjoy some pictures from our New York City themed celebration and some incredible well wishes for Robert as he makes this move to NYC to lead our efforts there!

Forever grateful,

Crystal and team