We had the good fortune of connecting with Douglas Bell and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Douglas, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
Between 2018 and 2021, I wrote my first novel. Writing my book, Cakewalk, was the easy part. Now I have to get the work out into the world. Around the first part of 2021, I started pitching the novel to agents. I submitted my book to between 20 to 30 agents. I did not get any bites. I attributed the low interest in my book to the subject matter and no social media following (at the time) rather than the quality of the writing.

Cakewalk is a semi-autobiographical fiction about a man’s transformation from hiding to loving his transgender girlfriend openly. These agents passed me because I don’t identify as LGBTQ+ and am not transgender, so, understandably, those agents and publishers don’t want to become misaligned with their audience. While on the other side of the coin, traditional publishers saw this as an LGBTQ+ story. The audience for this story may be unclear. It was up to me to show them.

I believe in my product, so I decided to promote the story independently. I contracted a PR person, a marketing team, and a social media person. So, I started my own company called Bumbershoot Press. Bumbershoot is an umbrella. Bumbershoot Press will produce literary fiction under the “umbrella” of untold stories in our society.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.

I have an architectural engineering degree from the University of Texas @ Austin. I worked as an engineer for twelve years before resigning to become a full-time magician. Being a small business owner took work. I was very naive at the time and maybe rushed into many decisions. After four years as a professional magician, I made my way back to corporate America. I leveraged my engineering degree and sold myself as a business owner to prospective employers. Soon, I enrolled in Texas A&M University Mays Business School to get my Executive MBA while working full-time. Side note: I would sit in class wishing I had this knowledge before starting my magician business. Achieving this graduate school degree opened doors for me to work at the highest levels in corporate America.

Being a full-time author and publisher is my retirement plan. I wrote Cakewalk and started my publishing company while working to make significant capital investments for my company. Along the way, I’ve learned that you must design or create the life you want in this capitalist society. It’s how capitalism works. Additionally, always look at a plan B because, with capitalism, you continually evolve yourself to create redundancy in your financial life, which impacts your emotional, mental, and physical life.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.

I am a native of Houston, Texas. I still live here today. In graduate school, I learned you should start every answer with it depends.

It depends on the person and what they like. If this person is like me in their mid-50s, wanting to take things at an enjoyable pace, then I would:

I am a good cook, so I make a great cup of coffee with a fancy breakfast. Have a copy of the Wall Street Journal available to read with breakfast. Around noon, we would make our way to the Rothko Chapel (www.rothkochapel.org) and the Menil Gallery (www.menil.org) to have lunch at the Menil Bistro (www.bistromenio.com). After enjoying the grounds around the chapel and gallery, we would go to the River Oaks District to check out the shops and enjoy a glass of wine. Go home to change clothes because we have dinner plans at Masraffs. www.masraffs.com. I like Masraffs because they have the best New York Strip in the city, and they make a drink named after me. That’s a wrap.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I dedicate my shoutout to my wife. My wife convinced me not to wait for someone to believe in my work. Believing in myself was enough. She reminded me that I had been here before. Twenty years ago, I made my living as a magician. She reminded me that I knew how to promote myself. She reminded me of my discipline, desire to build a plan, and ability to implement the plan. I had her support, so I knew I was up to the challenge.

Website: www.douglasbellbooks.com

Instagram: @douglasbellauthor

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