A criminal career with Rebecca Collins and Adrian Hobart, Hobeck Books Artwork

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Business Live: for curious entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurs

A criminal career with Rebecca Collins and Adrian Hobart, Hobeck Books

June 23, 2023 • Jamie Veitch • Season 11 • Episode 7

Today's guests have bumped off nearly 300 people through their business.

But they're not career criminals. Adrian Hobart and Rebecca Collins run Hobeck Books, a leading family-run independent publisher of award-winning crime, thriller, mystery and suspense books.

What better business to get on air in National Crime Reading Month?

Rebecca and Adrian launched Hobeck Books in the middle of the pandemic. Rebecca brought expertise from over two decades working in the publishing industry, with clients such as Bloomsbury, Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press. She is also a published non-fiction author and poet. Adrian has been a broadcaster and journalist with the BBC for twenty-five years, and is an audiobook narrator, filmmaker and a writer.

This episode is a super business case study in itself, giving an insight into how Rebecca and Adrian launched the business, choose which books to publish, what works best to promote their authors, and the ever evolving world of the publishing industry.

We talk plot, character, what makes for a riveting read – and I couldn't resist asking Adrian and Rebecca for their favourite ways in which their authors have knocked off characters.

It's chock-full of tips anyone can use in their businesses too, with practical advice about branding, building an email list, giving radio interviews, and writing your own business book. And Rebecca and Adrian discuss their own work as editor and audiobook narrator too.

Today's show also includes upcoming events for entrepreneurs and some new funding opportunities after the interview.

What next?

Visit Hobeck Books: https://www.hobeck.net
Adrian and Rebecca's Hobcast Book Show has been nominated as one of twenty of the best UK Mystery Podcasts. Listen here: https://www.hobeck.net/hobcast
Rebecca worked with me and co-author Jonathan Bland on our new book, Vitalising Purpose – The Power of the Social Enterprise Difference in Public Services, published this week by E3M. It's available in paperback and ebook formats here: https://e3m.org.uk/vitalising-purpose-book/ and from Amazon here ( https://amzn.eu/d/6f25KJB )
Events mentioned on the show: Bagging Your First Investment, Wednesday, June 28, Electric Works, Sheffield: Details. And Fundraising for impact startups - Unrest, Friday, June 30, webinar. Details.
Plus the Welcoming Cultures Celebration in Sheffield and Alternate Realities: Sheffield DocFest at Site.
Funding; go to https://www.powertochange.org.uk/our-work/our-programmes/ and https://get-it-made.co.uk/grants/women-in-engineering for details of funding mentioned in the show.