2095 -Exploring the Benefits of Hybrid Publishing with Publish Your Purpose’s Jenn Grace

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1:06With us right now, it's Jen T. Grace. Jen, you are the founder and CEO of Publish Your Purpose. I love the name. Your website is publishyourpurpose.com. Jen, thank you for joining us. Thanks, Josh. I'm just thrilled to be here. Yeah. Well, tell us a little bit about what you do. I've got your website pulled up and to our friend that's listening, you can kind of click around, click on details, click on the show notes, and you're going to find a link directly to PublishYourPurpose.com. But what I see here is it's a hybrid publisher for storytellers. Tell me more. Well, if we look at the publishing space, so our focus is to elevate thought leaders.

1:46So people who are really trying to make an impact with their work, regardless of what that work is. And I often say, like, I'm not here to define what someone's purpose is. I'm here to help amplify what their purpose is through publishing. And so what most authors don't know or aspiring authors don't know is that there's three different types of publishing. There's self-publishing that everyone knows about. There's traditional publishing, which is going to New York City, finding an agent, doing a book proposal. A lot of people know that that's a path. But then there's hybrid publishing, which is in the middle, and it's the best of both worlds.

2:18And most people don't know that exists. And that is what publisher purpose is. Yeah. Well, and I would imagine that folks coming in, and maybe you can share a bit about your observations about the transformation. I'm not certain what percentage of people have 100 % clarity over their purpose. But I bet, and here's my thesis here, that the process of putting a book together likely leads to some clarity on that. It does. you know, sometimes it can kind of go both directions where someone, you know, they don't know, most people don't know what their purpose is. I will fully agree with you on that one.

2:58In my book, which is also called Publish Your Purpose, the first step is defining your purpose. Because the more aligned we are with who we are and why we're showing up, when those bumps in the road come across us, where it's like, this is too hard, I don't want to do this anymore, we can always anchor back into why we're doing this and who we're doing it for. And so if we look from just kind of a broad purpose standpoint, I find there to be like such immense value in just starting there. But beyond that, when it comes to writing a book, if you've been teaching workshops, speaking, working with clients individually, working with them in group settings, doing a podcast, wherever the case may be, a book is a forcing function to make you have to really think how are you succinctly going to share this information with others, which then gives you the opportunity to go back and revisit all of the things you do in your business through a new lens with this new process.

3:49So it's an incredible tool from that standpoint, in addition to obviously growing your presence as a thought leader. Yeah. Well, I'm really curious about, obviously, you've been in this space for some time, and I'm sure that you've seen trends. I'm sure you've seen some evolutions in both kind of the authorship aspect of books and naturally, you know, when it comes to getting these right, you know, this content in the hands of consumers or readers. Could you kind of maybe catch us up with, you know, here we are kind of looking at the beginning of 2025. Where are we? Give us a state of the union on where, you know, the self-publishing and publishing world is right now.

4:31Such a good question. So if we look at kind of the lay of the land, what's really disrupting things right now is AI. I think that's just, it's disrupting a lot of different industries. And so what I'm finding to be common conversations is that there are people who want to pursue getting their book published. And if you don't have a big audience and a big platform, the traditional publishers are not going to pay any attention to you because their business model is predicated on selling books to your audience. But at the same time, if you have a big following of people, you don't really need them either because you can sell to them direct.

5:06So I think what I'm seeing is that there's an empowerment among authors because authors are starting to realize like, hey, I don't have to work with this kind of corporate type of feel, which is what a lot of traditional publishers are. They're very corporate. They move very slowly and they control and own all of the rights to your work. And so authors are starting to see, wow, that doesn't feel good for me. And the added layer of that is just kind of how AI is being used from a marketing standpoint, because it's making marketing of books significantly easier. And so one of the big benefits of working with a traditional publisher once upon a time or what people believed was that you get all of this marketing support when really you don't actually get a lot.

5:48Even today, you don't really get a lot. So now we have all these AI tools that are here and at our disposal that can make the marketing of our books so much more efficient to make it even less of a good opportunity to go that traditional route. So that's kind of the trend and pattern that I'm seeing, at least from my vantage point. Sure. Well, Jen, I want to also, because I want to celebrate this, that you've done so much work to celebrate voices that perhaps historically or systemically, maybe we weren't just there yet culturally where it was acceptable for those voices to be broadcast. But here we are.

6:27And I think, you know, just everything has been democratized. You know, I want to be sensitive here, but I'm wondering if maybe you could address the kind of the accessibility and, you know, using publishing as a means of promoting and celebrating diversity. Yeah, and I think that when we think about diversity, it doesn't have to be that very narrowly defined diversity that I think is so polarized right now. I think we can look at diversity in so many broad ways as well. But at the end of the day, if you're a thought leader and you're trying to grow your platform, get higher paid speaking engagements, higher paid consulting, a lot of the higher paid speaking, you have to have a book to even get on that stage in many, many scenarios.

7:13And so we have kind of that side of it. But the whole underside is, is that there are so many people who are desperate to hear about a topic from a different lens that reflects their own. So you and I, Josh, could write the exact same book on how to write and publish a book. And someone's going to resonate with you because you reflect something in them. And someone's going to resonate with me because I reflect something in them. And so I think the more we can think about our own kind of both the visible diversities, but also just lived experiences. And so, you know, something like if someone grew up in poverty, for example, that's not an obvious identifying marker when you meet somebody.

7:54And so just being able to share your story, share your methodology, share your purpose with people, they can connect and be like, wow, I really want to work with that person because we come from a similar background. And I think that's really where the power is in elevating and amplifying those different types of voices. Yeah. Well, so share just a bit, Jen, a bit more about what hybrid publishing is. So I always say that it really is kind of the best of both worlds. But at the end of the day, an author really needs to know what their goals are for their book to identify what publishing path truly makes sense for them.

8:32And so hybrid publishing really kind of just sits in this middle space where it is a pay for services model, which is which resembles self-publishing. Because when you're self-publishing, you have to find the editors, the typesetters, the designers, the people to, you know, to write the copywriters to be able to kind of support that process. But when you're self-publishing, it's hard because you just don't know what you don't know. And the benefit of hybrid publishing is that you really have a team who are experienced, and then this is what they do day in and day out. And it's reflective of that kind of traditional publishing house experience.

9:08So it really kind of blends the pros of all of the things kind of together in one path. And I think the biggest thing for entrepreneurs is that through a hybrid path, you are controlling your rights to everything. So you are not going to be prohibited from, wow, I just had to rework my entire business model because I put it all into this book. Now I want to reshift my business model and I want to create new intellectual property. You're not going to be prohibited from doing that because you signed some type of legal agreement with a publisher that says you can't do that. So I think for the sake of people listening to this show, I feel like that is probably one of the big, big pieces because it's heartbreaking when you have, I have conversations with authors all the time where they just kind of, you know, signed away their rights and had no idea they even did it.

9:53And now they're trying to figure out how do I get around it? And, you know, when you're fighting the big corporate behemoths, it's not an easy task. Okay. So to our friend that's listening, Jen, can you tell me a little bit more about, like, how would someone know what might be the most advantageous path for them forward if they want to, again, get this put together? Maybe they don't know where to start. Maybe they do know where to start. Maybe, but, you know, not all paths are probably appropriate for all people. Do you mind maybe sharing, well, listen, if you're at this stage, here's what I'm going to recommend to you.

10:31If you're at this stage, this is probably what's going to open up for you. And if you're at this stage, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. Yeah. I would say if, if the, if you're doing it for the sake of just getting a book out the door and you're not really concerned about quality or readability, you just want to be able to say that you authored a book, going a self-publishing path is absolutely going to be the best, the path of least resistance. Because if you're working with people who know what they're doing, they're going to start to push back to say, hey, Josh, I don't think it's a wise choice for you to skip the editing process.

11:04I don't really think it's a good choice for you to be designing your own cover. They're going to be making those types of recommendations. So if you're just like, I just need to get something out the door, I don't really care, going self-publishing, perfectly fine. The downside is obviously your brand reputation and image. And I don't think any of us as entrepreneurs want to be putting something out that's subpar quality because it does reflect back on us in our work. So I don't really think that's a good approach. However, I see people do it all day long. And so if that's, you know, you're just like, I just need to get it done and I don't want to spend a lot of money.

11:33I'm going to do it this way. That's fine. There's other people who are coming from a place where writing a book has been this lifelong dream. They want it to be absolutely pristine, absolutely perfect. They don't really have a timeline. fine there's no there's nothing creating a sense of urgency and they don't really want to invest any money in it they'll invest time but they don't want to invest any money in it trying to pursue a traditional path isn't necessarily a bad thing those paths tend to take a lot longer because you have to find and you have to start with a book proposal which then leads you to an agent and then you're putting your the faith of your book project in the hands of an agent that they can actually get you they can secure you a deal but it's like less than five percent of manuscripts are accepted.

12:19So it's a really low percentage of manuscripts being accepted by these traditional publishing houses. And so that kind of puts people who are kind of coming into it from that mindset of, I need to get a traditional deal in order to kind of validate so much of how I identify myself because this has been part of who I am for so long. What ends up happening is that you have people on that side who end up getting rejected. And I talked to somebody just yesterday who had 18 rejection letters. And finally, she's like, I just I can't I can't be in this cycle of just constantly being rejected. And most of the time, the reason for being rejected is there's not a big enough platform.

12:56And I don't feel like that is a wise way to approach whose topic is worthy of being told is based on how big of an audience they have. Obviously, audience size plays a big big factor in terms of sales, but it shouldn't be the reason why someone gets published and someone doesn't. But that's kind of how it works. So if you have someone who's like, all right, I don't know. Neither of these options feel right for me. Hybrid definitely can kind of fit that where they're like, all right, I know I want control over what I'm doing. I know I want it to look good. I don't have the mental bandwidth nor the time to try to figure out how to do this on my own.

13:30I'd rather just work with someone who can contain all of the services I need in one location with one company. And so it really it's always that balance of money versus time. I think that's kind of like the big thing. But as you know, I feel like we all you and I know it's, you know, the time ends up costing way more money in the long run. Yeah. Well, Jen, so your website is publish your purpose. Let's let's kind of talk about, you know, maybe two groups of people that are listening to us right now. There's there's the group that they're probably not ready for a conversation. But I know that you share a lot of great resources.

14:05So let's let's kind of maybe equip them. And then there is that group that may be ready to have a conversation and get pretty serious about this, given where they are, you know, kind of the work that they've done already. You know, obviously budget is a part of this as well. So here we are diverged in a path. Can you share maybe the road ahead for those two groups? Yeah. So I would say if this is just kind of something that's mildly like, I thought about writing a book before or someone said I should write a book, I would just kind of explore what your purpose is and what your goals are and see if a book aligns with those things.

14:48And so I have a lot of free resources on our website. It is an extensive amount because I really focus on empowering authors to make informed decisions. So if you're like, you know what, I've been told I should do it. I don't think it makes sense for me. we have it's called the the publisher purpose author lab and it's a five-day sequence that just helps you define your purpose the impact you're going for what your goals are and then you can identify like does a book fit in there now yes or if it doesn't no you can kind of just move on and be like all right i at least just took a look to see does my purpose and goal do my purpose and goals align with having a book because sometimes they do and sometimes they don't and i'm here to force anyone down any particular path.

15:33And then for someone who has legitimately had it on their radar for a while, where they're like, I know I need to do a book at some point because I want to up level how I show up in the world. There's multiple paths that can kind of happen. It's starting in that same spot where it's like, all right, let me now define what my purpose is, what my impact is, who I'm trying to write for, and kind of go down that path. Or some people who really like to kind of plan ahead, it might be starting with what publishing path makes sense for me. And I have a webinar that's available on our website that's, I think it's called Pick Your Publishing Path.

16:08And it just gives you the things to think about to identify which one should you start kind of navigating down. Because if you know right out of the gate that you don't want to pursue a New York City publishing house type of arrangement, then you can start to kind of put other things in place. You can start budgeting properly. You can start finding the right team to support you. And so the paths just look really different kind of depending on, I think, just depending on how people plan, to be honest. And I think the sooner you can plan, the better, because that way there's no surprises along the way.

16:38Yeah. Your website, again, publishyourpurpose.com, Jen T. Grace. Hey, one final thing I want to ask you about. I noticed that you are a certified B Corp. For someone who doesn't recognize why that's a good thing, Do you mind just a quick little blip here? Sorry to cap the very end on it, but I was going to ask you about that earlier. Yeah. So certified B Corps are companies that voluntarily pursue a certification that is incredibly rigorous and it is not for the faint of heart. But what it does is it evaluates your business on your ability to put people and planet before profits. That's kind of the mantra.

17:19And that comes in all forms in terms of just sustainable business practices, inclusion of different types of stakeholders in your practices, and making sure that you're not doing anything that is environmentally irresponsible. And so there's only, I think, about 8 ,000 worldwide that are B Corps. And I am also the co-founder of the Be Local chapter in Connecticut. So if anyone's interested in that, I know all the people and I can connect people to all the places. Ah, Jen T. Grace. Again, your website, publishyourpurpose.com. Jen, thank you so much for joining us. Thanks, Josh. I appreciate it.

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