When it comes to choosing partners for the Women in Publishing Summit, we are lucky to have so many companies who share our values. It's great to see companies stepping up to support women authors.
We're excited to announce that one of our favorite companies is stepping up to sponsor the Summit once again. Michelle Vandepas with GracePoint Publishing, is joining us as a Gold Sponsor!
People who’ve attended the Summit before will remember Michelle for her thoughtful presentations on publishing topics which marry her decades of publishing experience to create a book that sells with her deeply rooted passion for authentic, meaningful connection with her clients. Her whole business model truly embodies the Women in Publishing Summit ethos: “Empower. Encourage. Support.”
But even if you’ve heard Michelle speak at the Summit, in her TedX talk, or elsewhere, you might not know about GracePoint Publishing — so here’s your chance to learn more about them, and see if they’re right for your book!
What does GracePoint Publishing do?
GracePoint is a traditional publishing house that knows that traditional publishing just isn’t right for everyone. They have a big team dedicated to finding the path that works for you and your book. That means they publish books directly AND offer a partnership publishing route. They even have support for true self-publishing clients, if that’s what you need.
When you choose GracePoint, no matter what route to publishing is right for you, you work with a team of experts who will consult with you every step of the way, so your book achieves both your creative vision AND your benchmarks for success.
GracePoint can work with you from the jump, helping you write and edit, all the way through to building your marketing strategy. Whether you need a ghostwriter, a developmental edit or a branding consult, they have someone on their team to help. They offer author coaching, if you need some help in your creative process. And one big benefit that I really love: they can help with distribution – a confusing and expensive proposition for so many indie authors, I know.
GracePoint’s work stretches beyond your book – they know that there are all kinds of ways that today’s creatives grow their profile. If you’re looking for PR support, help developing online classes and opportunities for speaking engagements, GracePoint does that, too. They even have an in-house production studio that can create audiobooks and podcasts in support of your book or business.
This is all important stuff when it comes to choosing your publisher: GracePoint Publishing’s soup-to-nuts approach means you’ll never have to worry about starting from scratch with someone who doesn’t know your book or your story. You’ll be able to keep the momentum going through your book launch and WELL beyond it, to make sure your book isn’t just sitting in a warehouse someplace.
Choosing GracePoint means choosing an activeparticipant in your book’s success.
What kind of author is right for GracePoint Publishing?
If you’re a leader, a teacher or a creative, GracePoint might be the perfect home for your book. The company was founded with a goal to “give voice to the voiceless,” and that’s been a big part of their mission over the years.
Some common genres that GracePoint has published include self-help, business, human design, channeled work, fantasy, fiction, physical therapy, spirituality, LGBTQ+, devotions, and SO much more. What’s most important to them is to maintain the author’s authentic voice and vision, and to ensure high quality, professional books that will find their perfect readers. Michelle has published over 1000 books in her career, so whatever your genre, she and her team have worked with someone in your shoes before!
How can I find out more about GracePoint Publishing?
Head on over to the GracePoint Publishing website and get in contact with them today to see if they’re the partner your book needs!
When I began my own journey in publishing, I really sought out women as mentors. I wanted to connect with other women in this industry and see how they juggled it all. I can say that meeting Kathy Meis, the CEO of Bublish, was a stroke of luck that truly changed my path. Thanks to her mentorship, I grew in knowledge and confidence, and began to develop the business that has brought me here today.
In fact, in many ways, the Women in Publishing Summit was due to her – and to all the women who took the time out of their own career in writing and publishing to mentor me and share their knowledge. It gave me a passion to do the same for other women.
It’s why I founded the Women in Publishing Summit.
And it’s also why I am so pleased to announce that Bublish is joining us at the Women in Publishing Summit once more as a Bronze Sponsor.
What does Bublish do?
Bublish is a full service publishing platform with an important and innovative twist: it has the marketing built in!
So many self-publishing companies are fine on the technical side of things. They’ll help you get your book ready in a perfectly serviceable way. But then they’ll leave the complex challenge of marketing to you and cash their check.
Bublish offers what Kathy calls a “publisher in a box,” and that’s exactly what it is: a one-stop shop to access all the tools that a big publishing house has without sacrificing your creative control or your ownership of your work.
Combine that publisher know-how with some of the industry’s best marketing tools, and you have a powerhouse tool, backed up by a company full of publishing professionals and experts, to help you take your book to the next level. With strong meta-data, market research and dynamic tools like their patented “Book Bubbles,” Bublish gets results.
What kind of author is right for Bublish?
If you want to retain control of your book’s creative vision AND its rights, but you don’t want to sacrifice the quality that comes with traditional publishing, Bublish is a great partner.
Bublish is also a great solution if you want to have control over your book’s marketing vision. Using their Book Bubbles – which are aesthetically pleasing, endlessly customizable and easy to plug-and-play into the Bublish community to spread your book’s buzz – is just one of the ways Bublish integrates powerful marketing tools.
How can I learn more about Bublish?
You can find out more about Bublish and see if they’re right for YOUR book by joining us for a FREE webinar on book distribution on November 3, 2021. We’ll send a recording along to everyone who registers, so if you can’t make the live session, no worries! Just click right here to learn about Bublish AND how you can maximize your book’s potential and position it to succeed in wholesale and retail channels!
It’s with great thanks that I introduce our friends at Pub Site, the premiere website solution for authors, are again joining us as a Gold Sponsor for the 20222 Women in Publishing Summit! Their support for a space of our own, as women in this industry, is a reflection of their commitment to an inclusive, accessible publishing industry.
I’m looking forward to welcoming my friend Fauzia Burke and her husband, John Burke, back to our conference this year. Since the day I saw Fauzia speak at BookExpo, I’ve been a huge fan of her transformative take on how authors can use their websites to grow their writing career. I’ve been privileged to see that happen in real time for my clients and friends using Pub Site in the intervening years.
The ease and elegance of Pub Site, quite simply, just works.
And in a world where so much doesn’t, I’m glad to share more about them with you!
What does Pub Site do?
In short, Pub Site works with authors to build functional, beautiful, smart websites that move their career forward.
That can happen several ways, depending on each author’s unique needs and wants. A variety of proven and specialized templates are available, or Pub Site offers custom design to create the website of your dreams, so you don’t have to worry about it.
Authors need different things on their websites than baseball leagues or jewelry stores or news sites. They need functional e-commerce, clear space to share creative content, places for landing pages and more. They need to have strong visual language and branding that tells potential readers what this writer is all about. They need to connect to all the important social sites, of course. And they definitely need clear, strong calls to action to get on the newsletter list.
Pub Site understands that. Fauzia has spent her whole career in book publicity and marketing – she’s built her company around knowing what authors need. Pub Site isn’t trying to sell you a template made for a realtor or a stone mason or a teacher. They’re giving you the opportunity to build a custom website for a working author that will attract ideal readers, aid in your marketing and become your digital home.
What kind of author needs Pub Site?
It’s long been my opinion – and my clients can confirm this! – that every author needs a website.
And I also think that there are very few folks who are better served by mucking around learning a new technical skill set when they could be perfecting their book. Every spare minute we have as authors should go first to making sure our book is everything it should be, so that every step we take in marketing is a step towards a successful book.
So unless you love web design or are truly committed to an ultra-low cost process, spending some money on your website is a very smart bet.
Pub Site offers both a semi-DIY option for those who want to flex their creative muscles and get involved in the hands-on work of the website, AND a done-for-you option. I’ve had clients successfully use both, because Pub Site’s team is supportive and helpful at every turn.
How can I learn more about Pub Site?
Head on over to their website to see if Pub Site is the right online home for your writing career!
Miranda Lievers of Thinkific discusses the best way to get started, using expertise you already have.
Miranda Lievers is a Vancouver-based entrepreneur devoted to the intersection of small business and technology. As co-founder and COO of Thinkific, she's helped 36,000 business owners earn 100 million dollars with online courses over the last year, while educating millions of students around the globe.
We enable people to create, market, and sell their own courses online under their own brands, feeling confident they've got the easiest technology and the best support in the industry.
HOW DO AUTHORS USE THINKIFIC?
We’re excited to see authors using our platform. And our team is putting together a lot of content specifically designed for authors right now, as the features WRITERS look for can be different than other entrepreneurs. I’ll tell you about 3 ways we see authors using Thinkific to benefit their businesses:
Authors are creating FREE courses to start to build their Email Lists. By developing a Mini Course, you can easily get readers (and potential readers) to share their email address with you—in exchange for your knowledge and content.
Authors are creating COMMUNITY and two-way conversations. Your readers may follow you and read all your stuff, but you’re not hearing a lot back from them. Sometimes, it can feel like you’re just speaking to a dark room. We see authors using online courses to start a dialogue with existing or future readers. Online courses can help you create community and encourage the two-way conversation that ultimately makes us all better writers.
Authors are creating new REVENUE streams with online courses. By developing “next-level” content that comes with a bit of a price, you can monetize an additional income stream for your writing business. We often see authors using courses to build Membership Sites as they get more well-known and start to build a bigger audience.
HOW CAN I BEST “GET STARTED” WITH ONLINE COURSES?
I’ll tell you most authors I speak with immediately think they have to develop their big, giant, epic Signature Course. We don’t recommend that.
It’s actually the LAST thing we should be thinking about. I liken that approach to the cook who wants to begin entertaining. You don’t generally START with a huge dinner party for 80 guests. It’s better to ease into it, get your feet wet, and maybe start with tapas and a movie.
For authors, we recommend starting with a FREE MINI-COURSE as a “lead magnet.” It’s a short course that offers material you are going to exchange for your reader’s coveted email address, which we all want to capture. By getting their address up front, you’ll have a way to contact them as you’re writing your book, as you’re publishing your next piece of work, and as you’re looking to market your writings.
CREATING A MINI-COURSE IS REALLY QUITE SIMPLE.
Thinkific is a great way to begin offering simple online courses and to then build on your success. It’s a natural fit with someone who is writing (or aiming to write) for a living, because it creates a way to deliver content on an ongoing basis. Follow these steps to get started:
Use our FREE PLAN to build your Mini Course. At the very beginning, there’s not even a cash outlay required. Thinkific’s plan scales based on the features you add. Begin with a free account on Thinkific and literally just click and use the Mini Course template to get started.
Solve a very simple problem for your readers. It’s really just about figuring out the few tidbits of information that you can provide to solve a problem for your readers. Be sure to make the problem/solution compelling enough that someone will want to trade their email address for it.
Promote your class in your online content. If you are publishing regularly, and especially if you are publishing online, we suggest linking people directly to your Mini Course from your blogs, ads, or emails. It’s effective to come up with a “signature line” that wraps up your article and calls them to act, like “Want more tips like this? Check out my free course online!”
I sometimes refer to Mini Courses as the “Rip off the Band-Aid” course. It’s your opportunity to get your knowledge online, figure out what works and what doesn't, and determine what you enjoy about content creation. You’ll quickly see how the whole thing strings together; and then you can easily go and grow from there. To keep it easy on yourself, leverage information you already have, perhaps from a blog entry or a podcast or interview to get started. And remember, the biggest mistake that new course creators make is to think they need to provide a behemoth course. For now, think SMALL and focus on providing readers simple information that helps them solve a real problem. That way, they won’t hesitate to give YOU what you want: their email address.
