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Meet Your
PUBLISHING PARTNER
Wherever you are in your publishing process, our professional services are here to support you.
OUR STORY
Our Founder and Book Brain BETHANY KELLY
CHAPTER 1
ONCE UPON A TIME,
a little Bethany hung out in her family’s printshop. She listened to the sound the offset printer made as it clanked and chugged along. She smelled the scent of paper and wet ink. She marveled at the red light of the darkroom and wrinkled her nose at the chemical smell. She was fascinated by the hulking machines as they strained and thumped and collated, folded, stitched or stapled papers together to create books.
Before she had time to become a grown up herself, Bethany had her own daughter. A beautiful, shining bundle of joy that brought rays of sunshine into her life. Now that she was a mom and needed to provide for her daughter, she started working in the family business. She liked it. It was challenging and fun. She learned a lot.
Twenty years passed quickly and then one day, Bethany got sick. Very, very sick.
She couldn’t work anymore. Her body hurt all the time. She had no energy. She had to stay in bed for months. She went to doctors, but they couldn’t figure out what was wrong.
Bethany didn’t know if she was going to get better, but she promised herself and her daughter that if she did, she would make some big changes in her life. It was time for her to strike out on her own.
Bethany and her 15-year-old daughter arrived in San Diego on a beautiful July day in 2012. She didn’t have much money and she hardly knew anyone in the city, but she had a lot of determination and resilience. It took time and went very slowly, but book by book she built her own company, PUBLISHING PARTNER.
CHAPTER 2
Soon, PUBLISHING PARTNER had so many clients that Bethany needed help.
So she reached out to find others that were as enthusiastic about creating beautiful books as she was. She found really smart and really talented people to join her team. She had worked with some of them before, so they already had well-developed working relationships.
The team is a professional one, and they work to create a joyful, caring working environment. Bethany cares about paying her team well/fairly, making sure no one’s labor is exploited. We are intentional about having a well-rounded team with diversity in age, ability, gender, identity and race.
We extend care and curiosity to each of our clients as well. We strive to make sure they have a great experience becoming a published author. We care about the books our clients are publishing, and we care about the process necessary to end up with happy clients who are proud of their books. We are invested in our authors' successes.
BETHANY KELLY
Founder + Book Brain
Bethany is an author, editor, speaker and the founder of Publishing Partner. She’s been involved in production and publishing for over 20 years. Bethany is passionate about the written word and loves creating beautiful, brilliant books. In her spare time, she is an avid reader, loves puzzles and enjoys creating quote art, dot painting and mosaics. She has an adult daughter and lives in San Diego.
WHISPER JAMES
Operations Olympian
As Bethany’s right-hand woman, Whisper keeps all the plates spinning. She manages all manner of behind-the-scenes work, keeping things organized and moving forward. She has authored a chapter in a collaborative book. Whisper has been an indispensable part of Publishing Partner since 2018. She has four adult children and lives in San Diego.
FAQ
When it comes to books, we have the answers.
If you don't see your question here, just ask!
ARE YOU A HYBRID PUBLISHER?
Nope. We set YOU up as your own micro independent publisher. We bring the team, process, experience and expertise to the table so that you can publish a quality book. But you are the publisher. Not us.
DO WE SPLIT ROYALTIES?
Nope. As the publisher, you get 100% of all the royalties from the sales of your book.
CAN YOU FIND ME AN AGENT AND HELP ME WRITE A BOOK PROPOSAL?
Sorry, no. We provide services to those who are publishing independently or self publishing.
CAN YOU DO GHOSTWRITING?
Yep! Ghostwriting is a significant investment, and if it makes sense for you, and you have the budget for it, we can certainly do it.
HOW LONG DOES PRODUCTION AND LAUNCH TAKE?
We start the clock on production when the manuscript is finished and goes to the copyeditor. We plan for 12 weeks to get through the production process and a further 8 weeks to get through the launch. It’s reasonable to expect the process to take around 6 months in total.
CAN I BECOME A #1 AMAZON BESTSELLER?
Possibly! Positioning your book on Amazon for greatest visibility is our priority. We set your categories and keywords, set up your author account, and make sure your book page on Amazon is optimized for greatest effect.
Our goal is to have you rank (in the top 100) and stay there as long as possible so that the algorithms push your book out to potential sellers. Getting into the top ten or top five or even number one is a nice bonus. We don’t promise it, but it can and does happen because we are just that good!
CAN YOU HELP ME BECOME A NYT BESTSELLER?
Sadly, no. Being a NYT Bestseller is only available for traditionally published books.
WHAT KIND OF DISTRIBUTION DO YOU PROVIDE?
We typically use Amazon’s KDP platform to set you up for distribution to all of the Amazons (.com, .ca, .uk, .de, .mx, .jp, .es, etc.). Then we set you up with Ingram Spark, to make your book available to booksellers everywhere, as well as to non-Amazon online sites such as Barnes and Noble and bookshop.org.
ARE DISCOUNTS AVAILABLE?
Absolutely! We provide discounts to people of color or otherwise marginalized voices.
WHAT IS PRINT ON DEMAND AND HOW DOES IT WORK?
Print on demand does two things exceptionally well:
1) When a customer buys a book using any online platform you are set up on, the print-on-demand service will print a book and mail it to the customer. This eliminates the need for you or a warehouse to store quantities of your book, and you don’t have to be involved in either the printing or shipping. Very convenient.
2) If you, as the author, want to have a stock of books on hand, you can order books from the print-on-demand service, paying only for printing and shipping.
WHAT DOES IT COST TO WORK WITH YOU?
It depends on the services you need. We create custom quotes. We only want you paying for the services you do need and nothing that you don’t.
WHAT TYPE OF EDITING DO I NEED?
We can assess your work and give you recommendations, but here is a little cheat sheet:
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If you have finished your first draft, gotten it as far as you can but you know it still needs help, you may benefit from a developmental edit.
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If English is not your first language, or you struggle with writing, you may benefit from a developmental edit.
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If you are an accomplished writer, your work will always benefit from a copy edit.
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If your book has been through a copy edit and you need a final check, you’ll benefit from proofreading.
Both copyedit and proofread are included in our production package. If you need a higher level of edit, that is possible to include.
WHAT IF I CAN’T AFFORD THE COST OF A PRODUCTION PACKAGE?
No problem. Check out Pocket Publisher. Our “lite” service where you do the majority of the work, but you have an expert by your side giving you guidance and advice along the way.
FRANK STEELE
Accuracy Ace
Frank is a genius at spotting errors and where would we be without him? Our clients are grateful for Frank’s eyes on their manuscript. Frank does copyediting, indexing and fact-checking work for Publishing Partner and has been a reliable pillar on the team since the beginning. Frank lives in Texas.
STEFAN MEROUR
Design Dynamo
Stefan is Publishing Partner’s go-to designer and has been with us since the beginning. Book covers, book interiors, dust jackets, bookmarks and more, Stefan sprinkles his design magic on everything he touches. Stefan lives with his husband in Berlin, Germany.
ANAIK ALCASAS
Editor Extraordinaire
Anaik is an author and editor and has been part of the team since 2021. She brings twenty years of experience with her and specializes in developmental editing and copywriting. She lives in Australia with her husband and two children.
MEET OUR TEAM
HIKARU MATSUOKA
Exceptional ebook Formatter
Publishing Partner is known for their high-quality ebooks, and that is because Hikaru brings his talent and skill to every ebook that we publish. Hikaru lives in Canada with his wife and four children.