No Pain, No Gain

Startups are not a recent trend for fresh graduates. Nancy and Gary, now husband and wife who graduated from Faculty of Social Sciences nearly 15 years ago, also walked away from stable career paths after spotted a gap in the market to found Red Publish 紅出版, one of Asia’s leading publishers.

The pair met when they were studying at HKU. After graduation, Nancy became a secondary school teacher. “I published a book with five other authors, and my story was based on my teaching experience. Gary then spotted a business opportunity, that of providing one-stop publishing solutions for individual writers and organisations, so we decided to start our own publishing house in 2003.”

Running a startup business is never an easy journey. Nancy recalled the hard times during the first few years of the business. “We lacked money and experience. Our revenue was not sufficient to break even. So, from meeting clients, editing and proofreading, typesetting, designing, marketing, accounting, administration, to book fairs and warehouse logistics, we did almost all the work by ourselves. I still remember once I was in charge of almost 30 titles alone and all of them had to be published in three months for the Hong Kong Book Fair. This was the craziest time I have ever experienced.”

To sustain their publishing business, Nancy and Gary took part-time jobs to earn extra money, as well as opening their own distribution company and bookstore in the hopes that by expanding their business scale they could attract more customers, although both closed after around a year in business.

Failures don’t stop determined entrepreneurs. In the ensuing years, Gary developed other successful businesses to help support Red Publish and, since then, Nancy and Gary have signed famous authors and published many bestsellers. Red Publish has also transformed from a self-publishing focused company to a more traditional publisher. “Our revenue, distribution network and reputation became better and better,” explained Nancy.

Today, Red Publish is a team of ten, plus a group of freelancers who help the company meet its peak season’s deadlines. Currently, it is one of the top five publishers in Hong Kong by publishing volume. Their recent publications, one of which is about the famous cat Tsim Tung Brother Cream 尖東忌廉哥 who lives in Tsim Sha Tsui East, have received a lot of media attention.

People may tend to think that entrepreneurs are somewhat innovative. But having innovative ideas are not enough. Nancy and Gary view their journey as a living, breathing example of their motto “No Pain No Gain”. Nancy advises startup newcomers to “never start a business just because you get tired of your current job, because it is much harder and more stressful to run a business. Find an area in which you have great passion. The passion is so great that even you earn very little money, you are still willing to devote your time and effort with no regrets. With such degree of determination and perseverance, you will succeed eventually in some way.”

"我和外子於2000年在香港大學讀書時結識，由同學發展成戀人，現已結婚數年了。我們畢業後，於2003年沙士期間創立了「紅出版」 (品牌包括：青森文化、圓桌文化等)，今年終於踏入了第十三個年頭。回想起當初艱難的日子，仍是百般滋味，當時一邊創業，一邊還要做兼職維持生計，什麼也不懂，邊學邊做，甚至開過書店及發行公司，現在回想都不禁捏一把汗。

後來經營漸漸地上了軌道，開始做版權書，也簽了一些較有名氣的作者，出版著作包括：《重慶大廈》(獲選第七屆香港書獎)、狄娜《電影──我的荒謬》、嚴浩《嚴選偏方》及暢銷書《吵架英語》等。

由主力自資出版發展到如今成為全港出版量首五名內的出版社，期間實在付出了不少汗水，每一本書都是我們整個團隊的心血。

今年書展有幸出版了《我的女兒麥明詩》及《太肥的後裔》，獲得一些傳媒報導，實在感恩。未來我們會繼續努力，替新晉作家提供一個跳板，同時亦為華人出版更多優質圖書，豐富大家的精神生活。"

容慧心