Hazel Cushion is the founder of Accent Press, a successful publishing company that started life as a student project.
Based on the side of a Welsh mountain, Accent distributes books worldwide. Many of Hazel’s titles compete in top ten bestsellers lists, not bad for a company that’s only five years old and used to operate from a front bedroom.
Hazel has won many awards over the years and recently visited Buckingham Palace at the Queen’s behest
Hazel has won many awards over the years and recently visited Buckingham Palace at the Queen’s behest.
I caught up with Hazel and asked her to think back to day one.
Sally Grant: How did you end up in Wales?
Hazel Cushion: I returned to the UK after living abroad for years and years, my husband was still working abroad, we just moved to Wales.
I did an MA in creative writing - I was 40 when I started it, my children (triplets) were each five years old.
SG: Triplets? Wow! Did you feel isolated in Wales?
HC: I was effectively a single mother, running the home with the children and I just knew that I would never be able to get a job in Wales earning the kind of money I needed to be earning.
SG: Was starting the business a direct result of studying for your MA?
HC: The MA opened up so many different opportunities. I was trying to think of a business I could run, where I could be based in Wales and I did this course not realising it would lead anywhere.
SG: How did one lead to the other?
HC: My fellow students and I took ourselves far too seriously! We decided that we would make a book as a product to sell. They had a student scheme at the university where they helped you set up a business, so we set up a little publishing business. We got grant funding in order to produce our book and it was all done on a committee basis.
SG: Did you think you were the architect in terms of starting the company?
HC: I’m afraid it’s a bit of a reflection on my personality, but every committee I seem to join I end up doing all the work as everyone in the committee tends to back off!
SG: So you like to be in charge?
HC: I got involved in the sales and marketing aspect of the business and the production and found that I was completely hooked.
I learnt how to cost a book out and things like that; it seems an incredibly daunting thing if you’ve not been involved in publishing before, but it is, in fact, so very simple.
