Leveraging Humanities Skills for Entrepreneurial Success in Publishing
A summary of my presentation from AWP
I am attending AWP in Los Angeles — the big conference run by the Association of Writers and Writing Programs.
It’s exciting to be at a big in-person event, and also kind of… weird? For people who work alone in our home offices, all these people and all these workshops, and all these events is a change of pace for sure!
I have the great honor of hosting a group of 15 Author Accelerator book coaches and students for lunch today — chocolate cake will be happening! — and I get to host a similar lunch in London in May. How lucky we are to be able to feel the tangible presence of our virtual community!
I am not presenting live at AWP, but I recorded a panel that is being shared through the virtual portal. If you are eligible (signed up for AWP and the conference), you can watch it, and dozens of other presentations. You can access the recording HERE.
I wanted to share a summary of this presentation because I found it so inspiring. The name of our panel is:
Leveraging Humanities Skills for Entrepreneurial Success in Publishing
The panelists are:
Dan Blank, owner of wegrowmedia.com, a company that teaches writers a human-centered approach to marketing their books. Dan is a graduate of a School of Communication, Information, and Library Science
Nick Courtright, founder of atmospherepress.com, an ethics-forward hybrid publisher that is dedicated to author rights, and which has published more than 1,200 books for diverse authors. Nick has a PhD in literature.
Cathy Mazak Scholar’s Voice, a company on a mission to help women in academia get their papers published and their voices heard. Cathy has a Ph.D in Critical Studies in the Teaching of English.
Me, Jennie Nash, founder of Author Accelerator, a company on a mission to lead the emerging book coaching industry by setting the standard for excellence. I have a B.A. in English.
We were also supposed to chat with Kathleen Schmidt, a publicist, and the force behind Publishing Confidential. Kathleen has a BA in English and MBA — but she had the flu the day of our scheduled recording! We missed her wisdom!
Unique Skills and Talents
This is the overview of our panel topic:
In this challenging job market, starting your own business can be a viable alternative to waiting for opportunities from institutions. Individuals with a background in the humanities possess unique skills and talents that are invaluable for running a business in the publishing space. These include telling compelling stories, communicating authentically, and understanding what drives people. In this event, entrepreneurs share how they use their humanities training to help them succeed in business.
When we recorded this conversation at the end of 2024, we had no idea how relevant this topic would be just a few months later, as so many people in academia have lost their funding or their jobs.
We started by asking ourselves: What are the benefits and opportunities in starting your own business?
Here is how we broke it down:
Running your own business gives you a sense of agency. You are not dependent on the whims of organizations and institutions who could cut jobs, lay people off, cap your salary, or fire you are a moment’s notice.
Running your own business gives you a sense of freedom. You are the person calling all the shots. You get to decide when you work, where you work, how often you work, and with whom you work.
Building a business is a creative act. You get to design and build the exact learning experience your customers want or need rather than just doing what an institution says you have to do — in other words, you don’t have to fit the curriculum into a specific shape or container.
The pleasure of problem-solving. When you run your own business, there is always a new challenge, always something new to think about. You are never just repeating something you’ve done a dozen or a hundred times before. It’s intellectually stimulating
The problems are of your own making. « That was a phrase Cathy said which sums it up so well. You are choosing the problems you would most enjoy solving, which gives a business deep meaning and resonance.
You can make money.
Can you actually make any money as a small business owner in the publishing space?
Our advice was not to leave your day job just yet because it can take time to build a business. Make sure you have a runway before you leap. That being said, all of us are making good money and we know many other entrepreneurs like us who are making money, too.
Cathy came from academia and surpassed her $85,000 salary quite fast. She says, “It’s actually not that hard to earn money if you have expertise to share.” She feels more financially secure than when she worked at a university because she now knows how to make money.
Dan came from a corporate career and is the sole provider for his family. He sees making money differently than he did when he was someone else’s employee. He knows he can make money if he needs to — echoing the thoughts Cathy shared.
Nick also came from academia and he talks about how there is no limit to the upside in terms of how much money you can make as an entrepreneur. He was talking to us from a condo his company bought on the beach in Costa Rica for writing residencies. “If everything went to hell,” he said, “I could still earn money.”
I shared how I had a goal of making a lot of money as a book coach so I could show others in this new industry that it’s possible. So much of what I do at Author Accelerator is coach women entrepreneurs on their money mindset, teaching them that making money is a skill they can master.
What are the skills people in the humanities have that you can leverage as an entrepreneur?
There are so many! Coming from the humanities is great training for being an entrepreneur. We talked about:
The ability to do deep analysis — to understand text and subtext. This is a skill so many entrepreneurs use in marketing and sales emails
The ability to put yourself in another person’s perspective — which is the key to understanding your customer.
The ability to convince people of the value of your ideas — something Nick says he was constantly doing when working at a university. If you are trying to get funding, or get tenure, or get your courses approved, you have experience selling.
The ability to use your imagination to invent new products and processes. You can dream things up and bring them to life!
The ability to communicate both in person and in written form — which is a cornerstone of being a good businessperson.
We asked: What is hard about becoming an entrepreneur?
There is obviously a lot that is hard. Anything that is worthwhile is going to involve some challenges. These are the ones we discussed:
The make-or-break pressure can feel intense at times. The responsibility for the success of the business is all on you.
You are going to experience failure and rejection — there’s no way around that.
You can get strange social judgments from family/friends who don’t understand what you’re doing — or if your success challenges their assumptions about work or money.
It can be isolating, especially if your business is small and virtual. That’s why it’s so important to have a community of peers to help you through hard times.
Would we do it again?
All of us said with complete confidence that we would never go back to “regular” work. Once we tasted what it was like to be an entrepreneur, we were all in. We’d never go back.
Are you intrigued about starting your own business?
If you are interested in learning about starting your own book coaching business, I am doing a live webinar on April 2 at 5 pm PST/ 8 EST.
I’m doing this one a little later in the day than normal to reach folks who have responsibilities during the day. It will be too late for people in Europe, but Author Accelerator has a lot of students and coaches in Europe and the structure of the coaching in our program works well for that time zone.
» Click HERE to sign up for the live event. A replay will be available.
💰What I’ll be teaching in this webinar are the three keys to running a successful book coaching business. I’ll show you exactly what our most successful coaches have done.
🎯 I’ll also be talking about Author Accelerator’s year-long book coach certification program, which teaches you what you need to become an efficient and excellent book coach.
If you are thinking about starting other kinds of business, I recommend the following resources for learning more:
The $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau — a fantastic beginner’s guide to being an entrepreneur
Two Week’s Notice by Amy Porterfield — a strategic plan for leaving your 9-5 job
We Should All Be Millionaires by Rachel Rodgers — a call to action for women, especially women of color, to take a bet on themselves.
Love seeing all these English majors! There are times throughout my career I've wondered if I should have picked another undergrad major but I'm glad I stuck with it. I still love analyzing stories 30 years later!