Supply chain woes aside, book sales have fared relatively well the last few years, both as consumers had more time in order to read at home but also as many people turned to nonfiction for self-education on social issues and experiences about which they knew little .
Founded in 2021, Bond & Grace launched as a female-owned publishing house that wants to add context to be able to historical literature, reflecting interpersonal and personal growth that will comes with time. The imprint’s first book is scheduled for publishing this October. Available for pre-order now , The Secret Garden Art Novel will be filled with scholarly texts by identity plus belonging expert Dr . Amy Wong in addition to historical framework expert Dr. Maria Frawley, among others.
Founders Jacqueline Bond, Savannah Relationship, and Ayana Christie recently shared more with Fortune about launching a new posting house and even the mission behind it.
The following interview has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.
Could you share a bit about your professional backgrounds before launching Bond & Grace?
J. Relationship: I began my career in the public health communications space. I worked with nonprofits and foundations on issues including access to healthy foods, the opioid epidemic, childhood obesity, plus climate change. That’s where I learned the power of storytelling in addition to how to use it in order to help improve society and create positive modify.
From there, I worked well in the particular corporate government consulting area. I discovered quickly typically the corporate environment was not for me – or rather, it was not really meant for people like me. Every decision our leadership team has made for Connection & Elegance about our values, policies, culture, and even advocacy work—we call it our “People Promise”—is informed by together with in response to our collective experiences as corporate professionals. We want to demonstrate how leading with kindness, respect, and additionally empathy drives productivity not to mention revenue.
Christie: Right out associated with college I was at a crossroads. I needed to be able to maximize this glow regarding my Ivy League degree, but We felt compelled to intentionally choose which employer would benefit from my youthful energy and will. Knowing for sure that I wanted to “do good, ” I actually chose for you to start the career in consulting with regard to the U. S. authorities. Fast forward 10 years later, I’m so grateful for that choice. While problem solving on behalf involving everyday citizens, I fell in love with often the dance that will happens between chaos and also order because ideas take shape. Deepening my knowledge in tech development as well as customer behavior, the activities that go into iterating the value of something as a person build this, and the quest of turning curious minds into early consumers, became my domain. Most recently, I’ve championed our expertise by implementing incubation strategies at Google Cloud. And in year one of Connect & Sophistication, we’ve birthed our first creative invention using the very instincts My partner and i developed while working with emerging technologies. Same dance, different song.
S. Attachment : After interning within New York City during the spring of my personal senior 12 months of college, my love letter to New York City began. The entirety connected with my earlier career was spent in a large beauty company, one with the top names in the world. I proved helpful across various brands and roles from supply chain to global marketing. In every role I was exposed to help new learnings: logistics, event management, brand development, product development, plus go to market strategies. I’m forever grateful regarding the valuable skills My spouse and i gained at every level but the core for what I just loved has been brand building. Eventually, When i wanted more for myself and my own talent in order to experience brand name development on a deeper level. With your reality about burn out in addition to wanting alter, this encouraged me in order to set my eyes on this next opportunity. This inside turn led me to take the life changing leap to join Rapport & Style and build our startup. We now have the small incredible team and even plan to be able to hire intended for two a lot more part-time positions this fall to support our retail sales together with distribution techniques.
Courtesy of Bond & Grace
What inspired the launch of Bond & Grace?
J. Bond: I have collected Jane Austen novels since I fell throughout love with her writing in middle school. Every time We visit a new place, I try to find a local bookstore. I proceed directly to their classics section and pick out their own version in Pride and Prejudice . I probably have regarding 50 for you to 60 unique versions from Jane Austen’s books I have collected over the years.
In late 2019, We were visiting my husband’s family farm in upstate New York with my very own mom. They have a beautiful old library with hundreds of old books. While browsing through the books, I asked my mom, “Have you ever seen some sort of coffee table book version of Satisfaction and Bias ? ” She knew I collected them. She said no, she hadn’t seen that. I quickly did a Google search. Nothing popped up.
”Someone should do that, ” I told her. “Why don’t an individual? ” the girl asked.
And that was the beginning. Bond & Grace had been born from our search pertaining to a coffee table book; we have evolved not to mention expanded our own mission quite a bit since then. Today, we are My university & Acceptance, a women-owned publishing house and art shop but we know we’ll have more to help give.
Part of Bond & Grace’s mission is to add context to beloved works of historical literature. Can you explain more about what that means and also how My & Leeway intends to achieve that?
Christie: As we began masterminding the item features, we realized all of us needed the books in order to represent the particular growth of which comes along with time. We witnessed even more hearts and minds opening to social change, and saw it as an opportunity to challenge ourselves, and others to choose progress . Many of these so-called classic books are misaligned with contemporary values. They document sexist, racist, homophobic and a range of other dated narratives that young readers are questioning.
It’s such an opportunity to be able to see these books as the historical artifacts they are plus instead of erasing these stories, or rewriting them, we thought, “What if we could evolve all of them? What in case we could share the historic context around the publications? What when we’re able to provide background about the author and what may have influenced her writing? What if we call out what we know today is controversial regarding the book, so that no matter who is reading it, they too can feel the story belongs in order to them, not just the few? ”
Courtesy regarding Bond & Grace
The publishing house’s first guide, The Secret Garden Art Novel , comes out this fall. What made that the first pick?
J. Bond: We first took a look at the particular extensive list of typically the novels on the public domain . There are nearly thousands in addition to thousands involving books to choose from. There were some major copyright changes in recent years, and even as connected with 2022, anything written prior to 1926 does not have a copyright law associated with it in the United States. That includes countless popular novels like Little Women , Pride & Prejudice , Treasure Island , together with The particular Secret Backyard , to name a few. All of us compared this public domain name books listing to multiple other lists including required reading in schools, the most beloved classic books list of all time, and even listings like “books banned across the U. S. ” After cross checking these types of lists, all of us narrowed down to a dozen novels we all thought might be an exciting first release option. ”
Christie: In often the end, The key Garden was chosen because of its opportunity to be able to stand out as a work of art given all the beautiful descriptions and additionally floral scenery in the book, while also, with course, giving us a rich opportunity to unearth marginalizing narratives not to mention tropes evident within your novel. It’s also a book that can resonate with all ages—there’s a tapestry of topics from mental health, gardening, and friendship to parenthood, orientalism, and also medical history that will serves the little something for almost everyone.
Then there was the exact element of timing. The novel, being largely about regrowth, regeneration, as well as redemption, echoes sentiments for the post-pandemic experience as many of us are recovering from loss of special events, lack of normalcy, or loss of a loved one. We even believe the author, Frances Hodgson Burnett, wrote The Key Garden because a memorial to her son, Lionel, who died of tuberculosis at the tender age of sixteen. And in this particular novel, she gave us main characters who model how to thrive in the face of reduction and find happiness by way of determination–it really couldn’t be more perfect.
S. Bond: We all have heard countless times, “I read that publication as a new child, and I had no idea about the deeper implications of the medical references within the reserve or even noticed the commentary on colonialism. ” It is a powerful example of why our brand matters. Not only to honor the book so of which it continues to live on, but for you to give this new life with some sort of contemporary and socially conscious lens. While both timely and gorgeous, The Secret Back garden is a resilient story many of us have the world is ready to reread.
What other famous books do you intend to help explore next?
S. Bond: That’s the particular beauty about the public website. There are thousands of extraordinary books in our fingertips that most of us can republish next. As we continue to evolve our roadmap forward, we have in mind typically the next four titles the fact that we’d like to release, launching a new title each year. Many of us view every new Relationship & Grace Art Book launch as a means to reach different types of readers, but also to demonstrate a range of art plus artists. If you are so curious, we may or might not include a subtle hint to our own next title in Typically the Secret Yard Art Story .
Courtesy in Bond & Grace
How is the company funded? Is it self-funded or have you reached out in order to investors? Exactly what has this financing process been such as?
J. Connection: Bond & Grace will be currently self-funded, and whilst we’re not seeking funding from institutional investors we’re open to often the conversation. Most of us acknowledge your privilege from being self-funded and it’s a driving force in all our decisions to use this opportunity to not only focus upon the details but push the exact envelope of supporting causes wherever possible. It may be a humbling experience in addition to welcomed responsibility to further my family’s legacy in this way and even to then do that alongside the sharp since nails co-founders, I feel so proud together with grateful for where we are and additionally where we are headed.
Christie: Because we’re self-funded, we’ve maintained a focus on production. There’s a good lot we want to do yet using your phased product roadmap, we’ll be cash positive this specific year. We’ve also put a heavy emphasis on feedback loops with users, founders, advisors, artists, and writers who can help us fail smart not to mention avoid pricey mistakes.
Looking ahead five years, how do you want to Connect & Grace to grow?
Christie : Looking forward, we have a robust and ambitious plan starting with the launch of our online art shop inside 2023. After that, I expect us to develop deep versus wide for some time by deepening our authority in publishing and interpersonal impact through the arts. We have a queue of story titles to produce and impact strategies to be able to implement and also test–the first being the particular sale of original artwork featured in our textbooks. All the initial art within each Art Novel will be sold through Attachment & Elegance with most of the proceeds going back to typically the artists throughout support associated with them as well as their contributions to localized social change. We’re always looking to do more around a smart way.
In these kinds of foundational five years, we will detail how focused effect will carry our business to the next milestone. We’re already planning ways we can bring this meaningful Art closer to more people through reproductions and line extensions. No matter what this future holds, we know loyalty is all about making people feel seen therefore we plan to remain intimate with the customers plus deliver often the benefits these people crave: treasure-worthy expressions of their curiosity in addition to discernment.
H. Bond : As most people evolve along with each year, each of our brand values: progress, beauty, love, and even respect will certainly remain in the root regarding everything we do. With our consumer at your center, it is critical all of us continue offering experiences that drive connection and joy. As we grow, we envision intimate engagement with our consumers at various touch points from pop-up events for you to brand together with bookstore partnerships. Showcasing not really only just our Artwork Novel item, but also our advocacy and community engagements.
J. Rapport : Our vision with regard to the future is to continue to evolve public site works thus they may be go through by students, parents, and additionally teachers regarding generations to help come. We are thinking concerning ways to make our ebooks accessible intended for all who hope to read these people and would love in order to offer digital versions to get schools not to mention research efforts. Yes, all these books are usually flawed and also contradictions exist, but we all think all of our books usually are creating some critical chance to pass them along, with the exact future on mind.