The More Publishing Changes, the More the Author Matters

A 25th Anniversary Perspective from Morgan James Publishing

Twenty-five years ago, Morgan James Publishing began with a fairly simple idea:

There had to be a better way.

Authors deserved the credibility, editorial standards, distribution, and bookselling relationships of a traditional publisher. But they also deserved greater involvement, flexibility, entrepreneurial freedom, and a meaningful voice in what happened to the intellectual property they had worked so hard to create.

At the time, those ideas were unconventional. Today, they are part of an entirely new publishing landscape.

As Morgan James enters our 25th anniversary celebration, I have been thinking a lot about what has changed since we published our first six books, what has not changed, what we have learned along the way, and perhaps most importantly, what the next twenty-five years might look like.

There is plenty to be optimistic about.

People are still buying books. Print did not die. Bookstores did not disappear. Audiobooks exploded. Independent publishing became mainstream. Hybrid publishing grew from something few people could define into an established segment of the industry. Authors have more ways to reach readers than at any point in publishing history.

And despite countless predictions about its demise, publishing itself remains remarkably resilient.

But something else has changed.

Publishing a book has become easier than ever. Publishing a book that matters has not.

That distinction may define the next era of our industry.

Twenty-Five Years That Changed Publishing

Think about how much has happened in a single publishing generation. Amazon transformed bookselling. Ebooks moved from novelty to permanent format. Print-on-demand changed inventory economics. Social media changed discovery. Podcasts created new media channels. Newsletters gave authors direct access to readers. Audiobooks became a major publishing category. BookTok proved that readers could create enormous demand from their phones. Self-publishing removed barriers that once kept countless writers out of the marketplace.

Then came artificial intelligence, lowering yet another barrier: the time and effort required to produce words.

Each change arrived with predictions about what it would destroy. Yet books remain. Readers remain. Bookstores remain. Publishers remain.

The formats change. Discovery changes. Retail changes. Consumer behavior changes. But people continue to want stories, ideas, wisdom, entertainment, encouragement, and transformation.

That is very good news for authors.

The State of the Book Business Today

Publishing today is not a dying industry waiting to be rescued. It remains a multibillion-dollar business with print at its center, even as audio and digital formats continue expanding the ways readers consume books.

Perhaps the most interesting lesson of the past twenty-five years is that new formats have tended to expand reading rather than simply replace what came before. Ebooks did not eliminate print. Audiobooks did not eliminate either. Online retail did not make physical bookstores irrelevant.

Readers simply gained more choices.

That means the opportunity for authors is larger, but so is the competition for attention.

The Age of Infinite Content

There is a new force reshaping publishing that would have been difficult to imagine when Morgan James began.

Artificial intelligence has dramatically lowered the cost and time required to produce content. Anyone can now generate thousands of words in minutes.

That creates enormous possibilities. It also creates enormous amounts of noise.

And I believe that changes the value equation.

When content is scarce, producing content has value.

When content becomes virtually unlimited, trust has value.

Voice has value. Experience has value. Editorial judgment has value. Curation has value. Reputation has value. Human connection has tremendous value.

The question facing an author is rapidly changing from:

Can I publish a book?

to:

Why should someone choose my book?

That is a much more important question.

Publishing Is Easier. Publishing Something That Matters Is Not.

One of the great developments of the past twenty-five years is that the gatekeepers no longer control every path to publication. A writer with something to say has more options than ever before.

That democratization is worth celebrating.

But access and excellence are not synonyms.

A file can become a book very quickly. A book can appear online almost instantly. Neither fact guarantees that the book is ready, that readers want it, that booksellers can sell it, or that it will accomplish what the author hopes it will accomplish.

The easier publishing becomes, the more important judgment becomes: knowing what to publish, how to strengthen it, how to position it, how to package it, and how to connect it with the right readers.

A Publisher’s Role Is Changing Too

Publishers can no longer justify their existence simply because they know how to manufacture a book. Manufacturing is not the hard part anymore.

A publisher must help determine what deserves to be published, make it better, position it correctly, put it into the marketplace professionally, create genuine retail opportunities, protect the integrity of the work, and help the author understand how the book can accomplish something larger than selling copies.

We do not exist because authors cannot publish without us. We exist because the right partnership can help a good book accomplish more.

That has always been central to what we hoped Morgan James could become.

We never wanted to stand between an author and the reader. We wanted to help build the bridge.

From Six Books to Approximately 200 a Year

When Morgan James began, we published six books.

Today, we publish approximately 200 new titles each year and have built a backlist of thousands of titles.

Those numbers are gratifying, but they are not what make me proudest.

The authors do.

Over these years, we have watched authors use their books to build businesses, launch speaking careers, advance causes, strengthen ministries, enter new countries, open doors to media, teach ideas, change organizations, tell stories that needed telling, and sometimes change a single reader’s life.

That is when a book becomes more than a product.

It becomes an asset. And sometimes it becomes a legacy.

The Author Is Becoming a Media Company

One of the biggest changes of the past twenty-five years is that authors no longer have to wait for someone else to give them an audience.

An author can have a podcast, newsletter, YouTube channel, speaking platform, community, business, course, social following, and direct relationship with thousands or even millions of readers.

The book is increasingly the hub rather than the entire wheel.

This does not make publishers irrelevant. It changes what a good publisher should do.

The best publisher-author relationship today is not built around control. It is built around leverage.

The author brings expertise, relationships, ideas, energy, experience, and access to an audience. The publisher brings editorial expertise, credibility, production, metadata, distribution, bookseller relationships, rights opportunities, institutional knowledge, and accumulated experience.

Together, they can accomplish something neither could accomplish as effectively alone.

That was the theory behind Morgan James twenty-five years ago. Today, we have a few thousand books worth of evidence.

Traditional, Self-Publishing, and Hybrid: The Lines Have Moved

One of the least useful questions in publishing is, ‘Which publishing model is best?’

Traditional publishing can be an excellent path for the right author and the right project. Self-publishing can be an excellent path when speed, control, economics, or a highly targeted audience make it the best fit. Hybrid publishing can be an excellent path for authors who want professional publishing infrastructure and real distribution while remaining entrepreneurial participants in the life of their books.

The better question is: Which publishing model is best for this author, this book, and these goals?

Morgan James helped pioneer what became known as hybrid publishing because we believed entrepreneurial authors needed another legitimate path. In 2008, Publishers Weekly recognized Morgan James as the first hybrid publisher, helping give a name to a model we had already been building.

We did not set out to create a category. We set out to create a better way to publish for the kinds of authors we believed we could serve exceptionally well.

The Book Is No Longer the Finish Line

For an entrepreneurial author, publication day is not the end of the strategy. In many cases, it is the beginning.

A book can create speaking opportunities, consulting relationships, courses, media appearances, corporate sales, foreign rights, audio opportunities, community, film and television possibilities, and entirely new businesses.

That changes how authors should think about return on investment.

The value of a book cannot always be measured by multiplying copies sold by the royalty earned on each copy.

Stop asking only how to sell books. Start asking what you want the book to make possible.

That may be one of the most important shifts authors can make.

What Has Not Changed

For all the technology and disruption, some things remain stubbornly unchanged.

A great idea matters. A great title matters. A compelling cover matters. Good writing matters. Editing matters. Positioning matters. Booksellers matter. Distribution matters. Word of mouth matters. Authors showing up matters.

And most of all: the reader matters.

No technology has changed that. Nor do I believe one ever will.

25 Things We’ve Learned in 25 Years

A book is a terrible place to hide.
Marketing cannot save a book nobody wants, but nobody can buy a book they have never heard about.
Authors who show up tend to outperform authors who wait.
The launch matters. The next five years matter more.
Preorders are purchases, not applause.
Distribution and placement are not the same thing.
Booksellers still matter.
Backlist is where publishing gets interesting.
Your first book may sell your second book.
Sometimes your second book sells your first.
An author’s platform is not simply a follower count. It is the ability to get someone’s attention.
Readers do not care how hard a book was to write. They care whether it was worth reading.
A great cover gets a book picked up. A great book gets talked about.
Editing is not punishment. It is partnership.
Authors should begin marketing before they feel ready.
A book needs a clear reader before it needs a clever campaign.
Relationships compound.
Consistency usually beats intensity.
Retailers respond to consumer demand more than author enthusiasm.
Authors are often their book’s most important salesperson, even when they never think of themselves as salespeople.
Rights matter because a good idea can travel farther than one format or one country.
Audio is not an accessory anymore.
The best publishing relationships are long-term relationships.
Every author thinks their book should be in Costco.
One reader can still make the entire journey worthwhile.

What Authors Should Do Now

Build direct relationships with readers. Algorithms change. Platforms change. An email list, community, speaking audience, or other direct relationship gives an author something more durable.

Think beyond launch week. Publication day matters, but books can create opportunities for years. Build a strategy for the life of the book.

Own your audience where possible. Do not build your entire author platform on rented land.

Develop your speaking and media skills. Authors increasingly need to communicate the idea behind the book as effectively as they communicate it on the page.

Treat audio seriously. Readers are listening in the car, at the gym, on walks, and while doing everything else life requires.

Build preorder momentum. Early consumer demand sends signals throughout the bookselling ecosystem.

Think internationally. Ideas travel, and publishing technology and rights networks make global reach more possible than ever.

Create multiple paths of discovery. A reader may find you through a bookstore, podcast, social post, newsletter, conference, recommendation, search result, or another book.

Use AI as a tool without surrendering your voice. Efficiency can be helpful. Authenticity is irreplaceable.

Know what you want the book to make possible. Book sales matter, but the larger opportunity may be influence, business, speaking, service, legacy, or impact.

The Next 25 Years

I do not pretend to know exactly what publishing will look like twenty-five years from now. Anyone who says they do should probably write science fiction.

But I am confident about several things.

There will be more books. There will be more ways to consume them. Technology will continue lowering barriers to entry. Artificial intelligence will make average content easier to create. Readers will have more choices than ever.

And because of that, exceptional ideas, trusted voices, authentic stories, strong editorial judgment, and genuine human relationships will become even more valuable.

The winners will not necessarily be the people who produce the most content. They will be the people readers trust enough to pay attention to.

That is the opportunity ahead of us.

Here’s to the Next Twenty-Five

Twenty-five years ago, Morgan James set out to build a different kind of publishing company.

We believed authors deserved the editorial standards, credibility, distribution, bookseller relationships, and professional infrastructure of traditional publishing while retaining the entrepreneurial spirit that made many of them worth publishing in the first place.

Along the way, the industry eventually gave that approach a name: hybrid publishing.

We simply thought it was a better way to publish.

Twenty-five years later, I still do.

We have grown from six books to approximately 200 new titles a year. We have watched our authors become bestselling writers, speakers, entrepreneurs, thought leaders, advocates, teachers, and difference-makers.

We have also made mistakes.

We have learned.

We have adapted.

We have watched technologies arrive that were supposed to destroy publishing and instead expand it.

And through all of it, one thing has remained remarkably constant.

People need ideas. People need stories. People need hope. People need wisdom. People need to know they are not alone.

And sometimes a book delivers exactly the right words at exactly the right moment.

That is why, after twenty-five years, I remain as excited about publishing as I was when we started.

Maybe more so.

The tools are better. The reach is greater. The barriers are lower. The possibilities are bigger.

But so is the responsibility.

In an age when anyone can produce content, we need people willing to create something worth reading.

We need authors willing to tell the truth, do the work, develop their craft, serve their readers, and show up long after publication day.

And we need publishers willing to recognize those authors, invest in their ideas, challenge them when necessary, champion them when possible, and help their books travel farther than either could have managed alone.

At Morgan James, that remains our work.

And our promise remains much the same:

We will always publish good books, at a profit if we can, at a loss if we must, but we will always publish good books.

As we begin three years of celebrating Morgan James Publishing’s 25th anniversary, we are grateful for where we have been.

But we are even more interested in where authors are going next.

Because publishing has never really been about ink, paper, algorithms, platforms, formats, or technology.

It is about what happens when one person’s idea reaches another person at exactly the right time.

Twenty-five years in, I still cannot think of a better business to be in.

Here’s to the next twenty-five.

David L. Hancock
Founder, Morgan James Publishing