Want to be more innovative? Start by finding problems

Posted on May 15, 2019 in UK

Some people believe they aren’t creative, that they can’t have ideas, that being innovative just isn’t for them. I disagree. In my work in innovation, I’ve seen people from all corners of publishing come up with mind-blowing ideas. The trick is to know where to start.

I’ve learnt that the best way to have an idea is to start with a problem.

Problems act as a trigger for creative thinking. By focussing on what’s not working, you can generate ideas that would solve it. But first, you need to find the broken stuff.

While big problems like climate change demand urgent attention, you can build your confidence and skills by starting small. So, let’s take a closer look at the stuff that’s not working in publishing.

The first-job problem

I remember trying to get my first job in publishing. I had no experience or contacts in the industry, and my one lucky break of work experience during my A Levels saw me rushed to hospital with appendicitis on my second day. Not something to shout about on my CV.

I got a job in my local bookshop, and every Friday I would scan the jobs ads in the back of The Bookseller magazine. I applied for everything. When I got a response, I took the train to literary London where I would have a withering job interview and be sent packing back up north. The cost, the humiliation, the constant rejection – until one day, I found a job on magazines in Manchester, where I learnt the basics of editing, commissioning and writing that got me on the first rung of a publishing career.

I had it easy compared with people trying to break into publishing today – all I needed was persistence. Now, entry-level jobs are concentrated in London, internships – even paid ones – are beyond the reach of people who don’t have a base in the capital, diversity on all measures is going backwards. Frankly it’s a nightmare.

But don’t despair. The good news is that once a problem is identified, people can start to find solutions. And there are many brilliant innovations emerging.

Innovative solutions to entry-level jobs

Take the Spare Room Project. Set up by James Spackman in 2016, and now supported by Penguin Random House. It has a simple solution: publishing folk in London offering a room to interns.

Tackling low pay there’s campaign to abolish unpaid internships and The Literary Consultancy’s Aki Schilz’s tireless work on #BookJobTransparency. Her repeated calls for greater salary transparency within the publishing industry keeps the issue front of mind.

Collectives like the Northern Fiction Alliance and the SYP regional branches, along with this crowd-sourced map of independent publishers in the UK show that there are options outside the capital.

Finally, new publishers are set up with diversity at the heart of their work, like 404 Ink or Knights Of, and established publishers encourage diversity in-house, such as Sharmaine Lovegrove’s Dialogue Books, which has a home at Little, Brown to tell stories for, about, and by BAME and LGBTQI+ people, people with disabilities and working class communities.

Each of these solutions address the same problem: a lack of accessibility and diversity. But they all take completely different approaches. Together they will make a difference. But more is needed – on that problem and many others.

Let’s get problematic

So, what’s bugging you about publishing? What problems have you stumbled upon today? What’s been making your blood boil for years?

• Can’t get a job or a promotion or a pay rise?
• Love books but have no time to read?
• Hate it when your friends read pirated copies, or share extracts or videos of books online without the author’s permission, or go showrooming to browse bookshops only to order online?

Big or small, I want to hear them all. Tell me what’s driving you mad – then we can do something about it.

Simply submit as many problems as you’d like (the more, the merrier!) via this short confidential form, leaving your name and email address if you’d like to be in with a chance to win a copy of my new book, How to Have a Happy Hustle: The Complete Guide to Making your Ideas Happen! Deadline: Sunday 26 May.   

We will not save your details to a database or mailing list, and will delete them once the competition is over. If you would like to submit a publishing problem, you do not need to enter your name or email address. However, you may if you wish to.  Again, we will not save your details to a database or mailing list, and will delete them promptly.

Be part of the solution

Not sure you have a problem but want to help solve some? Join the workshop!

If you’re in free at 6.30-8pm on Monday 3 June, and happen to be in London, come and join me and SYP members in a problem-solving workshop!

We’ll choose some problems, come up with some solutions and share our ideas in a safe, supportive environment, learning some easy-to-apply innovation techniques that you can apply to your day-to-day job or side hustle, along the way!

Click here to register your place.

Bec Evans, writer, speaker and founder of writing productivity coach Prolifiko, helps businesses to innovate, and coaches people to build the skills and confidence to make their ideas happen. 

Twitter and Instagram: @Eva_Bec