MEXICAN AMERICAN SPOKEN WORD ARTIST
David A. Romero shared his story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
David A., so good to connect and we’re excited to share your story and insights with our audience. There’s a ton to learn from your story, but let’s start with a warm up before we get into the heart of the interview. What is a normal day like for you right now?
This is my best schedule: I wake up around 8-8:30 am, check my messages, brew a cup of coffee, and get started with editing books for El Martillo Press. This includes proofreading, formatting, and sometimes doing cover design.
I toggle windows between editing and answering emails in order to keep my energy levels up. On a good day, I’m setting up events, doing a little social media, answering booking emails, answering questions authors have about their books, and engaging in interviews like this one.
At around 1 pm I change into workout clothes and go play basketball. I like playing in the middle of a hot Southern California day because there aren’t usually a lot of people out there. I’m just getting back into playing again, so I’m not ready to be running up and down the court with other players yet. After, a daily drill of shooting 100 freethrows and converting the misses into layups, I’m ready for a nap. Just kidding, I take a shower, make myself a mocktail and plunge right back into editing and answering emails/doing other stuff.
This goes on until about midnight and the next day repeats.
After dinner, I dedicate the later hours to sending out booking emails for myself as a professional spoken word artist. Currently, I’m doing poetry: being a publisher and a touring poet, full-time. For a few months, I was working on editing books all day and night, exclusively (I didn’t even take breaks to play basketball or get any other physical excercise). I was ridiculously productive during that stretch, but I wasn’t doing enough to focus on my physical health or my own performance career (which actually helps to fund my publishing).
There are a lot of days I break this routine. Some days to help family, others, to hang out with friends. A lot of days with friends, however, I lament how productive I could’ve been if I had stayed home.
I’ve become something of a workaholic.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m David A. Romero, co-founder and editor-in-chief of El Martillo Press. About three years ago, my best friend Matt Sedillo and I decided to create our own publishing company. We combined the images of the hammer and the laurel, signifiying that through our press we wanted to celebrate working people; especially Latine workers and writers.
Since then, we’ve published 18 books, including We Still Be: Poems & Performances by Paul S. Flores (Winner of the American Book Award 2024) and Paper Birds: Feather by Feather / Pájaros de papel: Pluma por pluma (Honorable Mention, Interational Latino Book Awards, 2024).
One of the reasons why Matt and I have had so much success as publishers is that we’re both grinders, but in separate ways. Matt is a natural-born salesman, he’s amazing to watch in action. Competely without fear or hestiation, we will approach anyone for a sale or to pitch them on collaborating on a project. He often refers to me as “the keyboard warrior” based on my ability to spend hours upon hours sending out booking emails, press releases and more. Obviously, I favor my approach, but I can’t argue with many of the results he’s had, including getting advance reviews from Danny Glover and Jane Fonda for a couple of our projects. This kind of attention helps to validate the work we do, and hopefully, draw press and financial support from larger donors so we can continue to publish working-class writers.
Two of my favorite projects that are currently in proofing stage right now, almost available for wide release, are My Older Brother, A Famous Rapper by Alyesha Wise and Anthology of Latino Plays by Herbert Siguenza. These books are so incredibly timely it makes my head spin. One is inspired by hip hop, the other by the plays of Shakespeare and Moliere, one is deadly serious, the other is laugh-out-loud funny, but both are extremely political and speak to issues like racism, assimilation, police brutality, prison abolition, immigration and imperialism. Alyesha is a slam legend who’s been featured on TV multiple times and Herbert is a founding member of Culture Clash. Both are committed to being a part of the Martillo familia. It’s heartening.
Thanks for sharing that. Would love to go back in time and hear about how your past might have impacted who you are today. Who taught you the most about work?
My father was the most hardworking person I have ever known, personally. As a Cal-Trans supervisor he was required to both do hard physical labor in the sun and rain as well as manage teams of people in an office. He often worked overtime; he came in to work, occasionally in the middle of the night, in the wake of callouts or tragic accidents on the freeway suffered by his co-workers. He worked in the yard or in the house, helped us with anything we needed, and coached basketball and soccer. I could never come close to having my father’s work ethic.
That being said, I owe a lot of skills and drive as an entrepreneur to my brother, whose voice echoes in my mind nearly every day. He and one of my sisters have chosen the road of being entrepreneurs for decades. I’ve worked for both of them (with all three of my siblings, actually!) but my brother was the one who taught me the most about being an entrepreneur. In a time in my life when I wasn’t getting a lot of opportunities (due to my own personal failings), my brother invited me to work for him for his sourcing company The Outsiders Creative, and for his sales company ICI Sales Consulting. During those years, I spent a lot of time databasing, researching potential sales contacts, sending out emails and even doing some pitches over the phone. We did this for multiple products and multiple clients. He often asked me to make websites for clients and to write sales copy for the websites and additional marketing materials. Just as important, or even more so, we occasionally went to various stores, conventions and swap meets to sell products. One of my brother’s phrases that always rings in my head, especially now when I go in with books to independent bookstores, asking them to be carried, is: “We just need to get our foot in the door.” Due to this mentality, I’ve been to foster a number of ongoing relationships with independent bookstores and even place a few books into local Barnes & Noble locations.
Full article here:
https://voyagela.com/interview/an-inspired-chat-with-david-a-romero-highlight/