The story that you will read this week is one of a kind. Here on our blog, we usually focus on the content that we proudly represent. This is where our books come to life and ignite all the conversations that we are happy to continue with our partners. Because this is one of our guiding principles: books are at the core of what we do 📚. They are the true protagonists of the DropCap narrative. And they will always be.

This time, however, we would like to shed some light on all the “hustle and bustle” that takes place behind the scenes. Behind every cover and every email that we share with you, behind every meeting and every book fair that we attend, there is incredible activity. 🙂 But there is so much more than that: there is a story, our story, that needs to be told. Why today? Well, we have recently reached an important milestone and this is our way of thanking each one of you for being part of this journey.

With this article, very personal, very honest and very emotional 🤩 (hence the abundance of emojis), we will metaphorically raise our glasses 🥂 with you to celebrate our 4th birthday. And even if we are well aware of all the challenges and goals that lie ahead of us, we are infinitely proud of what we have achieved so far: 4 years and almost 1300 rights licenses. Here we go, adding another year to this wonderful adventure. Happiest of birthdays, DropCap! 🎉

How it all started

Allison and I met when I was still running my former company. I loved what she was doing in rights, and we came up with a way to work together, but shortly after I sold my company, so that iteration of working together didn't happen. 😔

In 2018, I ran into Allison at an event. Still loved what she was doing. She mentioned how 80% of her time was spent doing administrative work and it was preventing her from growing her business. A lightbulb 💡 went off for me. My former company was a publishing tech company and we had automated a lot of similar admin tasks. I called Lindsay Jones and Mark Traynor (my other company's former COO and CTO), and the rest, as they say, was history 💫. [Mark Levine]

Mark Levine really wanted to offer foreign rights as a service to all of his self-publishing author clients (he had a very successful self-publishing service) so we got pretty far talking about doing something together. He already had a top-notch technological system and he wanted to do an add-on for foreign rights. But then he sold his company and we didn’t end up working together. 😔

Fast-forward a few years later, we met at a luncheon and we started chatting again. After that, we met for coffee ☕ a couple of times and, pretty soon, he asked: «Do you mind if I bring my old COO to coffee next time?» (it was Lindsay Jones) and then Mark Traynor was there too. Mark Levine convinced them both to leave what they were doing and we all started DropCap. We started in May that year and four months later Sherlock was born. [Allison Olson] 👣

I remember Mark calling me up to say he had an idea for a new company and there was someone he wanted me to meet. I had no experience with foreign rights, but the business problems Allison described got me excited to work on the project. A few weeks after that first coffee, we were signing paperwork to form DropCap. [Lindsay Jones]

Maybe you did not know that…

We went to the Frankfurt Book Fair 🇩🇪 in 2018 and we realized that the internet was too slow to run Sherlock (our rights platform) as Mark Traynor had built it. So he stayed up all night - he did not sleep 😴 at all! - and re-wrote Sherlock so that it could run offline and it worked fantastically. 🧑‍💻 That was our first success with tech. [Allison Olson]

“My biggest achievement so far has been building the Sherlock rights marketplace system. It’s a unique challenge and that has allowed me to learn about our industry and customers.”

— Mark Traynor

Memories…

What's your favorite memory of the last years?

Working the booth at Frankfurt and Bologna. [Mark Levine]

I was 7 months pregnant at my first Frankfurt Book Fair in 2018, and I remember one of the editors we met with saying “That’s so American!” for me to be traveling and working at that point. But I did not want to miss out on the Frankfurt experience! [Lindsay Jones]

I have now been with DropCap for almost one year and a half. One of my favorite memories is meeting the team in person in their native Minneapolis. With the new way of working, there is still nothing better than meeting someone after 6 months of email and video conferencing and sharing a meal together. 👭 👫 👬 [Monica Meehan]

My favorite memories arise from the rare opportunities to get together, as a team. 👭 👫 👬 [Aaron McMenamy]

What makes a great team

Do you remember your first day?

I certainly do! Coming on board late last year was both exciting and challenging 🙂 🙃. At the time, precautions for Covid were in full-swing. This posed challenges to my preferred learning style. Fortunately, the team members here at DropCap were extremely diligent and patient in working with me to apply my previous industry experience to their unique and exciting corner of the publishing world! [Aaron McMenamy]

My first day was the day after New Year’s, 2021. What better time to start a new position, with the excitement and anticipation 🎉 that comes with a role that has limitless possibilities. [Monica Meehan]

What is your favorite part of the job?

This is a difficult one as there are many aspects to choose from. As VP of Business Development, I would say that acquiring a new publisher client with an exciting list and selling their first license is always a big thrill. 📚 [Monica Meehan]

This would be a toss-up between working with the wonderful team here at DC - both colleagues and our greater network - and the fantastic books 📚 that we have the good fortune to represent. [Aaron McMenamy]

I absolutely love seeing the translated editions of our publishers’ books. [Lindsay Jones]

Challenges and accomplishments

What is your mission?

Our mission on the rights side is to give independent book publishers a platform to market 💹 and monetize their foreign rights. On the data side, our mission is to help authors and publishers create more and better marketing opportunities for their books. 📚 [Mark Levine]

Our challenges are the same now as they were back then: getting people to use our innovative technology and making the most of it. 🖥️ We are really excited about continuing to improve Sherlock and continuing to find new publishing clients. We are doing a lot of what we call reverse-licensing where we are representing publishers from all over the world. We are also doing some literary agenting that Monica is taking over. It has been really fun adding that to our “tricks”. It is pretty exciting. [Allison Olson]

What has been your biggest achievement?

Acquiring fantastic publisher clients, licensing rights deals to obscure territories 🗺️, and literary agenting some dynamic projects to highly respected English language publishers. [Monica Meehan]

Helping independent publishers get their titles noticed and licensed internationally. Anytime you create opportunities for indie publishers to get their due, it's a win. [Mark Levine]

“My goal is always efficiency! I want our team to be able to focus on the books and the connections we make with them. Anything I can do to improve a process or solve a problem that makes it easier to do that, I will. And there’s always more to be done!”

— Lindsay Jones

What the future holds

What are your long-term goals?

Continue to innovate in the rights and data spaces and provide excellent products and services for independent publishing companies and authors. [Mark Levine]

I see DropCap going from strength to strength. Every day, there are new developments in our platform Sherlock, and with it, an increased recognition of what we do among our publishing peers. [Monica Meehan]

My mission is the success of DropCap and our amazing network of publishers, agents, and buyers. My ultimate goal is to facilitate the ideal environment and functionality for our network. [Aaron McMenamy]

How will you celebrate this birthday?

🎡 Same way I celebrate my actual birthday - working :) [Mark Levine]

Turning the day into a month of celebrating the joy of talented colleagues, inspiring collaborations and wonderful publishing partners! 🥳 [Monica Meehan]

With a cup of tea and a good book! 📖 [Aaron McMenamy]