Last Fall when my first book, Honor Through Sacrifice, came up for renewal with my publisher, we discussed the options and agreed that I should retain the publishing rights going forward and transfer the book to Hold The Line Press, LLC, which is my writing company. We did that and brought along my third book, Best Year of Our Lives.
I thought about becoming an independent self-publisher or starting up a new publishing company. Both options posed formidable challenges. A third option would have been to sign up with another hybrid publisher, which didn’t appeal to me. While I have no complaints or issues to raise with my former publisher, it’s worth mentioning that he taught me a lot about the book publishing business and was very gracious to me throughout our business relationship that spanned three years. But, for me, it was time to move on.
After considering all three options and deciding on the independent path, I approached my good friend and author, David Smale, with the idea of starting our own publishing company. The simple question about where he would publish his next book sparked a conversation that led us to create our own company. David is a sportswriter who has written and published twenty-eight books, plus thousands of feature sports articles. So he has an extensive background in book publishing, covering more than thirty-five years. I’ve written and produced three books, primarily biographies and a history. After much discussion revealing that his area of concentration and mine do conceptually intersect, we proceeded to form Storyteller Publishing, LLC.
Looking at the writing projects each of us had underway at the time, we decided this was the best fork in the road to walk. Our first book release will be out later this year, just before Veterans Day. It is, appropriately enough, an autobiography by a decorated US Navy veteran of the USS Pueblo incident.
We continue to write under our own unique brand names, David Smale Books and Hold The Line Press. But our ultimate goal is to build the Storyteller Publishing brand into a boutique powerhouse of publishing for the author who can’t find an agent, the writer who needs guidance through the next step in the process, the writer who wants to become an author and is content to turn over production / distribution / marketing responsibilities to trusted friends who have experience with those functional areas.
Our Niche and Focus:
We have conversations underway with authors and writers concentrating on non-fiction biographies, history, Christian apologetics, environment, and of course, sports. More information will be forthcoming about those projects as they get closer to their release dates.
If you have a story to tell, we know how to help you get it done right and put it in the public domain for sale.
Our target audience is writers, although we will sell books through our website.
Through David’s vast background in writing and publishing and mine in both writing and business, program and project management, we’ve assembled a top-notch team able to focus on story acquisitions, writer coaching, ghost writing, editing, design, marketing, and sales.
The publishing industry is filled with deep competition on every step of the path.
What makes us unique?
What makes us think we can build a successful business against that backdrop?
Our faith in God, our families, our country, ourselves and our work sustains and speaks volumes about our identity.
We distinguish ourselves from traditional publishers through our personalized approach in guiding/helping authors to succeed. As their success equates to our own, this commitment encompasses aiding authors in crafting their narratives and producing refined, high-quality books while also ensuring the substantive content of their manuscripts is something their mothers would be thrilled to read. We also guide authors through the entire process from start to finish.
Our focus lifts up underrepresented writers, explores innovative formats, and addresses both the point and the purpose of their stories. We prioritize combat veterans with personal stories to share, sports celebrities seeking to tell their autobiographies, memoirs and historical works. A novel and a movie script are also in various stages of development.
We distinguish ourselves from self-publishing through our concentration on developing quality works and attention to detail. We know the publishing industry and have decades of experience in working with bookstore managers.
Storyteller Publishing will produce books with a conscience. While we have a lot of fun developing and producing these stories, there is no nonsense in our completed works.
We discover and nurture talented writers and bring their unique voices to America, developing high-quality, engaging books that resonate with our readers.
The Storyteller Publishing identity is a simple quill pen, an original writer’s implement. It’s simply creative and a profound symbol of the writer’s tool going back to Isidore of Seville in the 7th Century AD.
So, if you’re interested in learning more about our new venture, go to our Services page here.
Adapted from the blog on www.holdthelinepress.com, by Rob Lofthouse, CEO, Storyteller Publishing, LLC