Taking heads: Schooled in publishing

Name: Sue Donovan
Position: International publishing & marketing director
Company: Mimosa Publishing Group
Born: New Plymouth

What makes your day at work?


Getting in and finding that my e-mail contains no overnight crises from the US, England or Canada. Also, if the unexpected happens, like a large order for any of our products, or getting sales in Latin America, as we have achieved lately. It is the unpredictable aspect that can be pleasing.

How did you get to where you are today?


By equal luck and hard work. Being in the right place at the right time has a good deal to do with a successful career, but you also need to be able to take risks and act fast. I've been involved in setting up successful businesses in several countries.

Both NZ and Australia have been leaders in educational publishing. The work of NZ educationists and pioneers such as Wendy Pye and Joy Cowley set standards.

The school journal tradition and correspondence schools have been basic to understanding what is needed and what can work in educational publishing.

It's a great advantage coming from a small country with a do-it-yourself attitude. New Zealanders tend to be lateral thinkers and are not too concerned with status. This makes them valued employees, especially in Britain.

Who was your most important mentor?


Lloyd O'Neil, a well-known Australian publisher. He made me his managing director.

Like a lot of people, I got into publishing by accident. I moved next door to a publisher who offered my journalist (then) husband a job. I suggested that I could do it instead. The first book I published was the Australian Women's Weekly Cookbook, which became a bestseller. In those days, we learned on the job.

What advice do you have for someone starting in your field?


Be prepared to do a lot of tedious and basic tasks and to work weekends without complaining.

Understanding financial issues and having a commercial sense helped me succeed in the competitive world of book publishing. One of the best ways of teaching people about the business, I've found, is to invite them to sit in my office.

What was your biggest career break?


Being made a managing director when I was in my early 30s and then a year later being elected first woman president of the Australian Publishers Association.

But what really took me and the company into the big time was when we set up in America in 1984, with one box of books. Now it has sales of $US70 million ($150 million). We had to sell that company because we didn't have the resources to keep running such a large entity. I have worked for myself generally in privately owned companies, with all our money invested in the business, but this company is now owned by the Chicago Tribune.

What's the biggest challenge for your organisation?


Staying current with the changes in educational philosophy in our main markets, but not too far ahead of where teachers are.

The challenge is to come up with new ideas. Both the Australian and New Zealand markets have been imitated so extensively because they have been so good, but you have to come up with ideas and new ways of presenting material.

As for the challenge of new technology, we got into this field in a big way five years ago, before anyone else. We produce multimedia series and CD-Roms. In these fields we have been market leaders and we have invested millions.

We knew that whatever we did would have to be easy to use, unthreatening, but teaching the children to be interactive. Not just using a worksheet and working from a computer screen - there had to be something extra. Children can come back day after day and the screens throw up 70 things to do.

We work with film-makers, actors and musicians but it is only economic if you can sell it in Britain and America. When you use these talented people you have to live the market and we always have two editions, a British and an American English.

You can't just sit in New Zealand and Australia and publish for overseas. You have to be there. I'm always on a plane, attending conferences, meeting teachers. Language and spelling must be relevant to the particular editions.

How do you relax?


Reading, skiing and sailing. We have a 47ft (14.3m) racing boat that we take out most weekends.

What skill would you like to have?


Good computer skills. I have a state-of-the-art computer sitting on my desk but I underuse it. Fortunately, I have a lot of talented staff who can look after all of these facets of computerisation.

I'd also like to speak Spanish as I'm off soon to work in Spain.

How important is it to keep a sense of humour in your job?


Vital, but difficult when we have tight deadlines. Some manuscripts we receive you have to have a sense of fun about. Political correctness can be fun and you have to understand the different needs of every country. One example was when a businesswoman was portrayed in a US publication using a photocopier and that was thought to be a menial task. Showing a man working in a kitchen wouldn't work in Latin America, either.

It is sometimes difficult to keep a straight face.

* Sue Donation talked to Susan Jennison.