In House with Renegade Arts Entertainment

I started working at Renegade Arts Entertainment in January as an assistant publisher after graduating UBC with a bachelor’s degree in psychology—not exactly the first job I was expecting to go into. Renegade Arts Entertainment is a small press publishing company founded by my father, Alexander Finbow, and my grandfather, primarily publishing graphic novels, comics, and illustrated children’s books. Joining the family business was not something I intended on doing; I have never been a big reader, thanks to dyslexia making reading very hard work, so I was never that interested in all the books we had published. Until, after moving back home and having no idea where to work or what to do next, my dad offered me the opportunity to learn about publishing. I thought, why not, and that turned into helping out and then taking on most of the assistant publisher Emily Pomeroy’s role while she studies for a PhD in Wales.

It has been a lot of learning with consistent variation in tasks to learn and complete. For the most part, it is just Alexander and I in the office working away. I started to learn the world of metadata with all the frustrations and joys that come with that. I have worked on more spreadsheets in the past six months than I have in my entire life.

Along with the many spreadsheets, I have been able to work directly on the books we are publishing. Whether it is proofreading or helping to put the print documents together, it has helped me to appreciate just how much work is really put into publishing a book. It also engages me more in the stories and reminds me how important it is to tell all kinds of people’s stories with diverse perspectives. Currently we are working on the second Alberta Comics anthology, Alberta Comics Love, showcasing 50 original short comic stories told by Albertan storytellers, from romance to comedy, memoir to science fiction.

I have become very familiar with Affinity Publisher, our primary software for assembling and designing books, but I also use it for creating social media posts, event posters, our publishing catalogue, and any other marketing needs.

I’ve also been responsible for the logistics for most of the shipments we send out to customers and for awards submissions, reviews, etc, which is a constant reminder of just how heavy books are and how annoying packing tape can be.

I really enjoy how working at Renegade presents a variety of tasks—every day looks different, with something new to learn. And a bonus of working with my father is that we get to spend lots of time together and share all kinds of inside publishing jokes no one else in our family gets. This job has taught me the A to Zs of small press publishing and the enjoyment of working with family. Who knows, maybe my next job will also be in publishing!

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Thanks to Phoebe Finbow for sharing her unexpected journey to publishing.