We Are An Independent Publisher That Helps Insightful Experts Publish Brilliant and Beautiful Business Books.
The problem with big publishers is they rarely offer the combination of quality expertise and personal attention that authors are hoping for. The problem with self publishing is that authors must handle time consuming logistics and struggle with perceptions that they haven't published a "real book."
We believe that an independent publisher can solve these problems.
Ideapress Publishing was founded by best-selling author Rohit Bhargava and his wife Chhavi Arya to offer a more personalized, higher quality and more human alternative to the big publishers. Our vision is to bring the distribution network of a big publisher together with a team of top talent on every project alongside personalized real time advice and coaching from Rohit, a multiple #1 Wall Street Journal + USA Today best selling author himself.
For the past four years, we have been on a quest to build relationships with the most talented and experienced independent professionals in the publishing industry. We engage them on a project by project basis, treat them with respect and enlist their talent to help us produce amazing business books.
In particular, there are six things that make our approach different and why authors choose to work with us:
1. World Class Design
Our covers are beautiful, well designed and reflect deep insight on the ideal positioning for each of our titles. They do not all look the same and we never put our own logo on the cover of your book.
2. Smart Marketing
3. Author-Centric $$
4. Beautiful Printing
The ease of publishing today means lots of bad books printed. To maintain our high standard of quality, we only use top quality printers are use print on demand options for our titles.
5. Innovative Approach
We are constantly disrupting our approach to publishing, printing and marketing. As a publisher, we are open minded, willing to experiment and always trying to be better than we were yesterday.
6. No Bullshit
Transparency is at the heart of our model and this means, we don't lie, exaggerate or act in sneaky ways. We care deeply about our authors and always give them the truth on our journey to making a great book.
In 2015, marketing expert and award winning author Rohit Bhargava decided to publish his third book independently. After working with large publishers on his first two books - he realized that many of the best people in the publishing industry were becoming freelancers and the industry itself was shifting.
For his new book Non-Obvious, he pulled together an expert team and published it under a new imprint he called Ideapress. The book quickly hit #1 book in the highly competitive Marketing category on Amazon, broke the Top 50 books on ALL of Amazon and hit the Wall Street Journal best seller list the week after.
Almost immediately, many of his fellow authors and colleagues began asking if they might benefit from the same model and Rohit started speaking with his wife Chhavi about how they might turn this ecosystem into something that might work for other authors ... and Ideapress was born the very next year.
Ideapress Publishing is an author-centric publishing company.
Our mission is to produce brilliant business books - and what this means to us is creating a solution that offers EVERYTHING that independent authors need to publish a successful book. We work with top experienced editors and writers. We engage the best design studios and independent designers. We take care of all the professional details from proofreading to indexing. We handle printing, logistics, project development, and we provide full distribution for all of our projects through Ingram Distribution.
Beyond professional services, though, we understand that a great publisher also needs to lend credibility to their projects. So we are extremely selective in the books that we take on and are laser focused on the reputation of Ideapress as a publisher. We don't take on vanity projects and we invest our time, attention, heart and soul into the projects we agree to publish. And we stand by them with pride.
Our books and our authors are indeed brilliant. We are proud to serve them.
The ultimate measure of our confidence in this model comes from the simple fact that we are also our own customers. Everything we do and offer is built from tools, relationships, tactics and lessons we have learned from launching our own books and publishing projects.
At the end of the day, our simple goal is to be a publisher that our authors would actually choose to work with more than once. That is sadly lacking in the publishing industry.
We aspire to put our money, time and love into creating a new kind of publishing company. And we invite you to join us.
Learn more about Ideapress ...
Listen: Interview on the Make Books Travel Podcast
Read: Interview on the Writing Without Bullshit Blog
Watch: Inside Our Unique Approach To Marketing Books
Download: Featured Article in Publisher's Weekly Magazine
Going on Offense
A Leader's Playbook for Perpetual Innovation
The latest work from best-selling author, award-winning teacher, scholar and global advisor, Behnam Tabrizi, is based on a seven year study at Stanford and is a
must-read for any organization looking to stay innovative and competitive in today's rapidly changing market.
Good Awkward
How to Embrace the Embarassing and Celebrate the Cringe to Become the Bravest You
Awkwardness isn’t a weakness - it’s your greatest asset. As TEDx Speaker and Executive Coach Henna Pryor shows, relishing your “Good Awkward” is essential to boosting your confidence and taking the risks that help you meet your true potential.
The Future Normal
How We Will Live, Work, and Thrive in the Next Decade
WSJ bestselling author Rohit Bhargava, along with fellow futurist Henry Coutinho-Mason, predict the future in this groundbreaking handbook for visionaries, launched on the Main Stage at SXSW 2023.
NEXT BIG IDEA CLUB MUST-READ BOOK FOR MARCH 2023
Beyond Diversity
12 Non-Obvious Ways To Build A More Inclusive World
Inspired by the groundbreaking event called "the world's most ambitious conversation about diversity," this book features 200+ leading experts on how we can all create a more inclusive world.
WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER
2022 AXIOM GOLD MEDAL WINNER!
Diversity At College
Real Stories of Students Conquering Bias and Making Higher Education More Inclusive
A unique collaborative book written by five students and one professor - sharing their stories of bringing more diversity to the world of higher education.
FOREWORD INDIES AWARD FINALIST!
(Best Multicultural Book)
The Amazon Management System
The Ultimate Digital Business Engine That Creates Extraordinary Value
The latest management book from the renowned consultant and NY Times bestselling co-author of Execution, Ram Charan.
#1 Wall Street Journal Bestseller
AXIOM BRONZE MEDAL WINNER!
(Best Business Technology Book)
Non-Obvious Guide To Event Planning
Create engaging and non-boring events that truly inspire people with this step by step guide from TEDx organizer and long-time event pro Andrea Driessen.
INTERNATIONAL BOOK AWARD
GOLD MEDAL WINNER!
(Best Communications/PR Book)
Non-Obvious Guide To Emotional Intelligence
(You Can Actually Use)
A practical and useful guide to a hot topic from expert Kerry Goyette - one every manager and leader should read to inspire their team!
IPPY GOLD MEDAL WINNER!
(Best Non-Fiction Series)
Non-Obvious Guide To Being More Creative
(No Matter Where You Work)
An indispensable guide to harnessing your inner creativity from Kathryn Haydon to help you come up with better ideas in any situation.
IPPY GOLD MEDAL WINNER!
(Best Non-Fiction Series)
From the founder of Ideapress comes an ideal graduation gift or FYE program book filled with all the advice no one ever tells you about what it really takes to get ahead and win at life.
FOREWORD INDIES AWARD
(Best Career Advice Book)
2022 EVERGREEN MEDAL WINNER!
(Best Personal Growth Book)
Frequently Asked Questions
What services do you offer in house versus using vendors?
The short answer is almost every service we recommend and use is done through freelance partnerships with some of the best people in the industry. The truth is, that's the better option for everyone. Rather than force you to use the same resource for every project, we can pull together the best team to work on your project. And then we lend our "in house" expertise to bringing it all together.
Do I have to pay to publish my book with you?
We are what is known in the industry as a hybrid publisher. This means that you as the author pay for our services and in exchange we work for you (instead of the other way around where traditional publishers acquire your book and then you essentially work as an employee to deliver a book for them).
Though you do pay up front, we are very transparent about costs and also help you to map out the financial commitment to help determine how you can make your money back. In addition, we have signed and committed to the industry standard IBPA Hybrid Publisher Criteria for quality, services and selectiveness.
How much does it cost and how do you make money?
As usual, that's a tough question to answer as it really depends on how much help authors need. We don't pay advances to authors - preferring to split royalties more evenly with them so we are all invested in making the book successful. A good estimate, if you consider an average sales price of between $25 to $20 (discounted) per hardcover book, is that most authors can break even on costs after selling around 3000-4000 copies.
We are very upfront about the costs required for each element, allow you to pick the services you really need, and not pay for those you don't, and we NEVER use artificial sales gimmicks like requiring you to buy back X number of books or guarantee a certain volume of sales. We make our money through a flat commission across all the services that we provide - usually between 15% and 20% ... and we work to earn that and deliver lots of value for it.
What if I only want to publish an eBook?
With the ease of online tools like Amazon's Kindle platform, and the fact that it is very difficult to tell a self published book from one published by a publisher in digital version - we usually don't publish books that are only available in digital format. Honestly, it's easier and cheaper for you to do that yourself without a publisher.
Is the pen really mightier than the sword?
While scholars have debated this question for many years - we believe in the power of writing to change culture. Swords don't inspire people. Unless of course they are written into stories where they are pulled out of stones by kings.
Can you get my book into bookstores?
Yes! Ideapress offers full retail distribution (not just Amazon!). Through our relationships, we typically not only see our books in retail stores, but often work with our authors to place books in airport bookstores and other retail venues as well.
How will you help me sell my book?
Candidly, we want our authors to know that the real effort to sell and promote their book will be up to them. We don't pretend that isn't true. Our role is to help advise our authors on tactics they might try and also to recommend proven resources they can hire such as top notch publicists, coaches, marketers and web developers for your project. Almost every resource we work with or recommend is someone that Rohit has worked with directly (and successfully!) in the past.
What is a "brilliant business book?"
We believe brilliant books offer a unique point of view of the world and offer valuable ideas that readers can act on. We cross the range of business books - from neuroscience to social media ... but our ongoing focus is to only take on valuable book projects that are contributing important and impactful ideas to the world.
Why don't you publish books in other genres?
Right now we are focused on business book publishing because we know what works best there and we are uniquely set up to handle projects in that space. Business books have multiple sales models, from large corporate bulk orders to conference or event based sales. These are the types of orders and situations we excel at - and our goal right now is to be the best at this one genre without expanding too fast or wide.
How Can I Submit My Project?
Currently, Ideapress is mainly accepting new projects on an invitation-only basis. Our calendar for 2023 is nearly full, but we ALWAYS remain interested in great ideas and are open to reviewing your book proposal or concept either for Ideapress or one of our other growing imprints (contact us to learn more about those too). To be considered or to get more information email chhavi@ideapresspublishing.com.
In a world where anyone can publish a book with ease - being an author is in danger of losing the credibility that it once had. Yet despite the overload of information, we believe the world is still hungry for unique ideas ... and we believe in the power of books to distribute them.
We exist to help insightful experts publish their valuable ideas with more credibility.
Ideapress Publishing
We Publish Brilliant Business Books.
For more information or if you would like to submit a manuscript - contact:
chhavi@ideapresspublishing.com