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| Biography - Ray Robinson |
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Ray Robinson
Publisher, Dog Ear Publishing
The early days of Ray Robinson's career path found him between a rock and a hard place.
It was 1987, and this geology major had trekked to Wyoming only to discover that he didn't
really like rocks... Six months later, back in Akron, Ohio, he found himself applying for
a job at Waldenbooks.
That application led to both retail experience as well as assignments at the corporate
headquarters in Stamford, CT. He eventually became a marketing director for Pearson Education,
an Indianapolis company specializing in educational books.
Prior to forming Dog Ear Publishing, he worked for a book packager
producing products for traditional publishers.
"We spent a ton of time learning all kinds of technology in bringing books to market
more quickly and economically," he said. "We began to see that those who really cared
about their books were the authors. Why shouldn't an author have access to all the expertise
and technology of the traditional publishing industry and be able to produce their own book?"
When Robinson first entered the publishing industry, authors relied on "vanity presses"
to produce their work - many of whom would charge $15,000 or more and leave the author's
garage filled with hundreds of books.
Ray, along with coworker Alan Harris, joined forces with Miles Nelson to create Dog Ear Publishing
to provide the author community a self-publisher with a heart. The groups application of new
technologies and publishing on demand reduced the cost of publishing a book to a fraction
of previous generations; authors now have the ability to publish a book in as little as
six weeks and print as few as a single copy. "An author sees his manuscript in published
form and thinks you've performed a miracle," said Robinson. "No one writes a book overnight.
It's someone's passion that they've worked on for years."
"I've enjoyed the book industry," Robinson continued. "And since October, I can't think of
a day that I've not been thrilled to be here. We want to be able to keep that sort of
environment forever."
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