Zibby Mag

By Zibby Owens

They look like books from any other publishing house. Novels. Memoirs. Hardcovers. Paperbacks. Same basic size and shape, same basic fonts, fabulous covers. But our books are different. By their very existence, they are loudly heralding a mission: to celebrate authors, help readers, and make a difference in an established industry.

If you examine our books as a collection, you’ll see that there are common elements. They have the same style spine, a very (perhaps too) subtle Z underneath the text of the back cover, and a unique QR code logo inside (“Teasers, Trailers and More!”) which will transport you to a robust portal of bonus material. And the books all have a little circle badge on the front cover saying: “A Zibby Book.”

You also might notice that Zibby Books releases one new book every month. But as a frequent bookstore shopper or online book buyer, you probably wouldn’t notice that. Few book buyers pay attention — or care — which publishers release which books.

So if you just happen to pick up one of our books, you might not realize what the publishing company behind it stands for. But you should.

I decided to take on something almost impossible: entering an established industry that doesn’t exactly applaud innovation as a newcomer. Why did I do it? To help. Why? Because I’m first and foremost a reader — and a writer.

I fell in love with reading when I tore through Charlotte’s Web as a little girl and sobbed. Reading it made me want to be an author. When my grandparents published a miniature book of my short stories when I was nine years old, it really cemented my career path. It was a windy road to achieve that goal. Every few steps up, I was knocked back down.

Along the way at a friend’s suggestion, I started a podcast, using the name Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books as the title so I could interview authors directly. I could ask them for advice. With my entrepreneurial mind and marketing background, I focused on growing the podcast audience while I wrote. I launched an author salon series in my living room, started moderating events, hosted book fairs in my home.

All I kept hearing from the hundreds of authors I interviewed and many in the community was how troubled the publishing industry was. Authors were being treated poorly, only given a brief moment in the sun after decades of working on their books. Their debuts weren’t being discovered. Publishers were only touring certain authors or pushing certain books. Budgets were slashed.

Who was going to do something about it!? Why weren’t the authors being heralded as the greatest creators on earth?! They were the ones making all the content. Even most TV shows and movies were coming from authors’ ideas and IP and yet they were often summarily dismissed.

I jumped on a soap box to fight for authors to be treated like rock stars. Wait, I thought. Could I be the one to do something about the way authors were treated in publishing?

I came up with an idea: I would publish books myself treating every author like the big houses treated superstars like John Grisham. I would unite the authors as a tight-knit community (so obvious!), grow my own community, appoint Ambassadors to help spread the word. I would only publish one book a month so the whole company could be focused solely on one author at a time. And I would curate a year of reading for all those busy book lovers, releasing our books in an order that would sate the reading appetite in a measured, thoughtful way. Our books would be fabulous with a strong sense of voice and place, propulsive narratives and beautiful writing.

Could I really pull it off?

In my early calls with others in publishing, I was routinely and politely laughed at. Everyone told me not to do it. Publishing is really hard, they’d say.

Well, I’m not afraid of hard work, I’d reply.

I founded a company with a tote bag full of new ideas and teamed up with some industry veterans. I could change things! I’d have brand partnerships for every book! Unique user portals! Author community builders. I started hosting overnight team retreats, got celebrities to blurb or support the books, encouraged women I knew to turn their stories into memoirs. Our first book, My What If Year by Alisha Fernandez Miranda, encapsulated the entrepreneurial “what if” nature of the brand and got significant media attention.

Now, as our books come out, our authors are given the royal treatment with multi-city tours, social media guidance, input on covers, top-of-the-line marketing and publicity planning, ambassador outreach, podcast and book club coverage, and general heralding. I tell them that while we can’t control the market, we can control how they feel and how valued they are — that they’ll have fun in the process. And they love it! They’re happy! Energized. Fueled with a sense of purpose. Inspired! Our editors and authors spend weekends at each other’s homes. Many authors have spent the night in my apartment. My team works out of my dining room. We are, as a company, very personal, bringing our whole selves to everything we do, not some “professional” surface version.

But readers don’t necessarily see or appreciate what’s going on behind the scenes. To them, our books are just another book on the shelf.

Worse, because the big publishers have long-term pre-existing relationships with booksellers and enormous overall marketing budgets relative to ours, sometimes our books aren’t even being noticed. They might notice that in our authors’ acknowledgments, the authors are always thanking each other, which is unique. But otherwise, can they tell? And, do they even care?

So here’s what readers need to know.

When you see a book with the “a Zibby Book” seal on the cover, it means that the author of that book is being treated like royalty and with the respect of our entire publishing house and author community. It means that the team behind the book is trying new things, innovating, working with brands and authors in new ways to help books break out. It means that one woman, a former stay-at-home mom with big dreams, a huge heart, a curious mind and endless drive, really could enter an establishment industry and pull up a seat at the table.

Buying a Zibby Books title means endorsing entrepreneurship.

It means sending support to authors and showing how much you really see them and their years of hard work. It means applauding innovation and rewarding calculated risks. It means becoming immersed in the Zibby community which now includes retreats, classes, local book club chapters, and more. It means being a part of something bigger than yourself, getting an invitation to a tribe of like-minded book lovers who want to discuss the book with you, meet you, hear you, see you. It means endorsing new voices, supporting women, applauding creativity, and even supporting our made-in-the-USA printing and production.

Our books look like all the other books. But they’re made with love, emotion, feeling, fuel, fire, and force by a small but mighty team.

It is exceptionally hard to run a publishing business. Those naysayers weren’t wrong. It’s tough. We’ll see what happens in the long-run. But what makes it wonderful is having readers know our story. We aren’t in this to make a quick buck. We’re in it to make a difference. To make an impact.

So when you buy “a Zibby Book,” you aren’t just getting a story; you’re adding to the narrative yourself.

I’m not afraid of hard work. Are you?

Zibby Owens is the author of Bookends: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Literature, Princess Charming illustrated by Holly Hatam, and editor of two anthologies: Moms Don’t Have Time to Have Kids: A Timeless Anthology and Moms Don’t Have Time To: A Quarantine Anthology. Her novel Blank comes out in March 2024. She is the CEO and Founder of Zibby Media which includes a magazine, publishing house, retreats, classes, and more. She owns Zibby’s Bookshop, an indie bookstore in Santa Monica, CA. Follow her on Instagram and join her personal newsletter.