Raymond Quinton

Raymond Quinton and his family are known to UK audiences. His family hails from Jamaica, England, America, Barbados and St. Croix USVA. His cousin Chris Hanson is one of the founding members of Black Slate. "Amigo" is his second favorite theme song next to Emir Diodato's "Super Strut."

He is a lifelong creative explorer/learner.

Even before graduating from Kansas State University with a degree in Journalism and Mass Communications, he completed prestigious internships with the Kansas City Star and McGraw-Hill (American Society of Magazine Editors) in New York City. After graduating from college in 1981 he published his first magazine (Rabid City Humor Magazine) in Denver, Colorado and moonlighted as a jazz pianist at the famed jazz club, the Bombay Club. His magazine achieved recognition in local newspapers for his outrageous and refreshing humor and he also eventually landed a stint as opening piano act for Dizzy Gillespie at Denver's Historic Union Station.

In 1985, after a self-imposed literary sabbatical in London, he made his way to San Francisco where his publishing and writing career really took off. He spent 4 years as a gardening, home improvement, and cookbook editor for Ortho Books. He is credited as principle co-photo editor of the popular book "The Birds Around Us." At the same time, Quinton wrote and published the first restaurant guide to San Francisco's Financial District called "The Afternoon Lunch Guide." The book was an instant best-seller and a favorite of the late San Francisco's famed columnist Herb Caen.

Quinton didn't stop there. With a partner, he founded and published the still-popular tourist guide, "The Bay City Guide," was founder and executive editor of the Commercial Property Guide. He also edited or published many other periodicals such as "Quest," a men's monthly resource magazine and was production editor for Bancroft Whitney.

In the Early 90's Quinton packed his family in a U-haul truck and moved to Portland, Oregon, to continue his career. He had lined up 5 separate contract advertising sales jobs with 5 different publications. On alternating days he sold advertising for a wedding monthly, a downtown business weekly, a neighborhood monthly newspaper, a monthly LGBTQ monthly newspaper, and a bi-monthly alternative music magazine. He often spent days going from one office to the other to drop contracts or proof ad copy. Within 6 months he a had enough money to print the first edition of his own neighborhood newspaper called the Herald Times. He settled in northeast Portland, rented a small loft by the river and spent the next three years focusing on stories about the then-diverse communities of North and Northeast Portland.

By the mid-nineties, gentrification greatly changed the demographics of northeast Portland and the Internet was quickly gaining prominence. In 1995 Quinton was hired by a growing marketing and communications agency, CMD, to be a key member of their growing writing team. He excelled in spec writing for clients like Nike, Intel, HP, UAW/Ford and he wrote training programs, scripts, marketing and advertising copy for his first two years. Wanting a bigger challenge he moved to client services (Sales) as one of four account supervisors. He sold and managed mostly large accounts, including the management of the Danner Shoe Company's first commerce site. When he was asked the CEO Doug Crane to look into a CBT/classroom based middle-school curriculum project, Quinton jumped on it and eventually landed a 6-module multi-million dollar project for Paxton/Patterson, which was owned by Jeld-Wen, the largest privately owned company in Oregon. Jeld-Wen eventually bought CMD.

Quinton left CMD after feeling like he had gone as far as he wanted to for an agency. He quickly started a monthly magazine called "Historic Property Magazine." He wrote extensively about Portland's history, especially it's complex multicultural origins. He helped launch the renovated historic Hollywood Theater as an event venue with a full day festival called The Historic Hollywood Theater Jazz Festival featuring 15 bands, food and events. He produced the compilation CD which is available on CD Baby.

In 1999 he accepted an offer to head up the digital marketing for one of the largest American retailers, Hollywood Video/Game Crazy. At the time the chain boated 2800 stores. Their web site was 10 static pages and Hollywood Video needed an editor/marketer to help build a publishing team, monetize the site and provide a greater depth of customer touch-points, including email acquisition and marketing. Several years later, Quinton managed a team of 10, helped negotiate and facilitate large retail partner relationships, including a lucrative deal with--yes--Amazon. He lead the team that tested and modeled online/in-store couponing programs, and managed a multi-million dollar budget and complex customer acquisition programs.

While at Hollywood, Quinton continued working on manuscript ideas. He spent one year on the board of the Pacific Northwest Writer's Association. And he was seeing that the Internet was a game changer that presented writers and publisher with a new way to market and distribute books. In his free time, Quinton decided to finally publish more book manuscripts and sell them via web rings and direct marketing. His next book, "The Layperson's Uncensored Guide to Relationships" proved to be a popular seller through relationship webrings. He did a small stint pitching newspapers for the Oregonian, and that stint inspired a carrier how-too book, "A Pitch in Time," which sold well direct to newspaper distribution manager and through newspaper carrier web sites. That same stint as a newspaper carrier inspired his first novel, "A Pitch in Crime."

Observing the the Video rental market would eventually be replaced by the web, Quinton left Hollywood Video in 2005 and took a last swing at publishing newspapers by re-visiting the lunch topic. He founded a monthly newspaper in Portland called the Lunch Times. Two years later, he was printing 20,000 copies monthly in Portland and 20,000 in Seattle, had 400 distribution stands/racks in each city and helped support lunch as an opportunity to explore food. While publishing, Quinton purchased the regional territory for Reader's Digest Jewelry fairs and traveled to hospitals throughout the region hosting fundraiser Jewelry fairs. He hosted 70 events per hear and contributed $30,000 to $40,000 annual to hospital volunteer groups.

Quinton has volunteered his time for different causes and helps raise funds as well to support the arts (Cre8tive Conference), writers (Pacific Northwest Writers Association), sustainability, mental health. He continues to do so today.

This publishing project is an extension of Quinton's desire to help explore ideas; create and conversations. Quinton currently has 10 manuscripts in development for Amazon. When asked what drives him to keep writing, especially with the changing distribution models, he said, "Even if I have an audience of one person who is inspired by my ideas, I win. Naturally, I want to touch as many people as possible. I'm not pursuing the perfect book that sells millions. I'm just telling stories my way. Amazon presents an opportunity for me to reach more people at a price point I can afford and that consumers can afford.

The FTN Press Staff

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