Building The Future Show - Radio / TV / Podcast

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Kevin Horek: Welcome back to the show. Today we have Nick Portwright. He's the founder and CEO of atmosphere Press. Nick, welcome to the show.

Nick Courtright: Yeah, thanks for having me.

Kevin Horek: Yeah, I'm excited to have you on the show. I think what you guys are doing is actually really innovative and cool. And I actually wrote a book, like, ten years ago, so I've been through the process before, and it's interesting. But before we get into all that, let's get to know you a little bit better and start off with where you grew up.

Nick Courtright: Yeah, so I grew up south of Cleveland, Ohio. So I have been born into a long legacy of sports disappointment, and I feel like that sort of, you know, that ingrained generational sorrow about Cleveland sports has, you know, made me a very loyal person. I think that's definitely a trademark of the northeastern Ohio. Grit is loyalty through thick and thin. So that's where I grew up, you know, and then I moved to Austin about 20 years ago. So I've been based in Austin, Texas, ever since. And, yeah, it's a good mix of places.

Kevin Horek: Very cool. Well, you have the Rock and Roll hall of Fame in Cleveland. That's good.

Nick Courtright: Yeah. Yeah, definitely. It's a great city. I mean, I absolutely love it up there. I I go back and visit, like, you know, pretty much at this point, whenever I can. Of course, when I was younger, you know, and had just moved away, I was like, oh, I hate that place. Whatever, mom. You know, but now that I'm older, you know, I. It really is a great city. It's super fun and, wow, wonderful. And obviously, unlike Austin, it's not 105 degrees in the summer, so it definitely has that going for it.

Kevin Horek: No, that's fair. I've been to Cleveland and to the Rock and Roll hall of Fame, actually. And I've been to Austin in the summer, so I understand what you mean by, like, insanely hot, so very cool.

Nick Courtright: Yeah. Yeah, it's definitely not getting either.

Kevin Horek: Very cool. So let's. How about you went to university? What did you take and why?

Nick Courtright: Yeah, so I went to a lot of universities. So before I founded Atmosphere Press, which is, you know, a hybrid book publisher and we publish books in all genres. I was a college literature and creative writing professor, so I did that for a dozen years. I got my undergrad at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, and then I got my masters in creative writing at Texas State. And then I got my PhD in literature at University of Texas in Austin, where I actually wrote my dissertation was a 300 page analysis of a single eight line Walt Whitman poem. So if you talk about just unilateral, sort of obsessive devotion to a single endeavor, I really enjoyed that kind of work.

Nick Courtright: And that's one thing that I think is really beautiful and amazing just about the creative act, is that there are so many meanings that you can bring out of anything. There's depth. There's the history. There's the situation in which you encounter it. There's always deeper that you can go. And I think that's one thing that's interesting, both about literature and about business, is that there is no real sort of ascending the mountain where you have the answer. There's always another rock to turn over, and there's always more interesting things to find.

Kevin Horek: Yeah, no, that's fascinating. I totally agree with you. It's totally interesting. So you were teaching for a while or a long time. Walk us through that. And then why did you decide to found your own company? And then let's dive into that.

Nick Courtright: Yeah. Yeah. So I taught a lot. I taught all sorts of different classes, like poetry classes, analysis classes, philosophy classes on literature and film, and, of course, piles and piles of those freshmen composition classes that everybody is forced to take against their will. You know, I graded so many just terrible essays, but that was all part of it. And, you know, honestly, like, I thought that was my journey. That's what I was going to be, was a college professor. It's a very frustrating industry to be in. You know, like, there's a lot of job uncertainty. I was teaching at a lot of different institutions, trying to make ends meet, just trying to grind and hustle and, you know, get as many teaching gigs as I could to try to, you know, patch a life together.

Nick Courtright: And I was doing it, and it was really satisfying. But then one thing sort of led to another. So I had a couple people who I was working with on the side as a writing coach. So, also, I've had a number of my books published. Personally, I'm a poet by trade, and I was helping some authors try to get their work refined and polished up, and one of them just asked me, hey, can you help me publish my book? And this was back in 2015. And I was like, oh, you know, I sort of blew them off for a little while, you know, and then was like, okay, yeah, sure, I'll help you publish your book.

Nick Courtright: And he didn't want to go submit and try to find an agent and do all that stuff that takes, like, a decade, and you're probably just going to get rejected, and it's going to be really frustrating. So I was like, okay, we'll just publish your book for you. So his book was about the cosmos and the meaning of life. So I was trying to think, what would be a good name for a press to publish this book? And I was like, oh, Cosmos Press. Like, oh, universe publishers or atmosphere Press? And I typed in atmosphere press, the URL was available, and I was like, bingo, there it is. And that became the first atmosphere book, totally accidentally. I had no intention of starting a company. But now, here we are nine years later, and we've published about 1200 books.

Kevin Horek: Wow, congrats, man. That's huge. That's a lot.

Nick Courtright: Thank you. Yeah, it's a few. It's a few.

Kevin Horek: Okay, so walk us through, how does somebody like myself work with you and, like, walk us through the journey.

Nick Courtright: Yeah. So, you know, one thing that's always interesting is we get a lot of people who want to work with us. They're like, oh, I really want to publish a book. Like our Google Ads, for example. Like, if we have a keyword, like, publish my book, that thing lights up, you know, like a slot machine. Like, everybody wants to publish their book, right? But a lot of people haven't actually done the work of writing the book. So that's the first thing that somebody needs to do. There are a lot of, you know, dubious characters out there in the literary world who will want to, you know, tell your story and, you know, try to give you ghost writing services for exorbitant fees, and they're just going to run it through AI.

Nick Courtright: So if you're going to do that, you might as well just run it through AI yourself, right? So you have to have written a book, you know, and then, you know, you reach out to us. Even if it's something that's still in a drafty phase, you know, it's like, still a little bit. Just got the bones a little bit. And then you reach out to us, we check and see if you might be a good partner for us. Then you have a call with one of our acquisitions editors to see if it's going to be a good partnership, discuss contract terms, and if we come to agreement, then we're on the road. And as part of the actual publication journey, we're not a self publishing place. We're not a vanity that's going to accept everybody.

Nick Courtright: But we're also not a traditional press where we only take one out of every 5000 books that gets submitted to us. That's how we can do more volume. We do editorial meetings with everybody. Every author gets two editorial meetings as part of their standard contract. We give you a lot of different possible examples of what your cover could look like. We work really directly with authors on cover design. It's super fun. We always ask them, like art director, you know, finds out like, what's your aesthetic, has you send in book covers that you like, ideas that you have.

Nick Courtright: We give you a bunch of different options, work to come up with a great cover, proofreading, interior design, you know, and then we hit the publication phase where we talk about distribution, pricing, like getting the book out there, what sort of publicity efforts can be made to help, you know, increase your reach and build a platform and all of that. So it's definitely not just clicking, okay, it's done kind of process. It's an intimate relationship that takes time, but it ends up being really rewarding. And for entrepreneurs, for business people, there's still, even in this era, even in 2024, there are few things more legitimizing than having a book under your belt.

Kevin Horek: Yeah, it's interesting because like I told you earlier, like, I, I did it. I wrote like a tech book on a web framework like a decade or so ago. And you could argue, like, you can make the case whether I'm a subject matter expert or not. But the reality is people just assume you are because you did it, right, and you made that commitment because it least shows, you know, the content well enough to put it into a, like a book, right. And it was interesting just like going through that process and then kind of realizing that. And it is a lot of validation as somebody that's done it. I can very much say that it's definitely helped my career a ton.

Nick Courtright: Yeah, I mean, it totally does. And that's really hilarious what you say about, like, you don't really even have to be an expert. If you write the book, people will assume you are, you know, and there is something about that. You know, we get a lot of authors, and it's completely normal for authors to have a bit of that, you know, imposter syndrome where they're like, oh, am I actually qualified to be talking about this? Or telling a story or even, you know, writing this novel or this collection of poems. Am I just a phony? And it's like, well, you know, who cares if you are, you know, like, all sorts of people, you know, everybody has sort of a right to say their piece, and then, you know, they can ultimately be judged by the readers.

Nick Courtright: But, you know, really, like, from our perspective, we just really try to validate the role of the writer because, you know, everybody's got something to say, you know, and we're going to try to help, you know, refine that something and, like, put it in position to be, you know, sort of a good microphone for whoever it is who wrote it.

Kevin Horek: That makes sense. Okay, so walk us through the books written, the designs done. I have a physical copy in my hand, or, you know, I'm uploading it to the Amazons of the world to send to my kindle. Walk us through, like, how. How does that process play out, and how do you help kind of get. Get the word out there?

Nick Courtright: Yeah. Yeah. So, as you can imagine, like, none of it is easy.

Kevin Horek: No, it's incredibly.

Nick Courtright: Yeah, we definitely do wide distribution through places like Amazon and through Ingram, which is one of the biggest distributors in the world, to get the book out into all sorts of different online venues and then also available for bookstores to order. And then in terms of publicizing the books, yeah, we've got, obviously, social media. We do author websites that are search engine optimized. We do paid ads. We do a lot of work to try to get reviews for authors because reviews are obviously, like, a legitimizing force if you have testimonials from objective outside figures that are going to help prop your book up. So we'll do that. Try to land them on podcasts or interviews, get them Kirkus reviews. There's a whole lot of things, but honestly, one of the biggest things that.

Nick Courtright: That we do that I think moves the needle probably more than any of that stuff is just author education. Right. Like, a lot of times, authors, they don't necessarily know, like, what they're supposed to be doing to try to promote their book, even on their side. Like things like, you know, building a newsletter list. Right. Like having a newsletter, like building your email list. Like walking people through the journey. Like, a lot of times, authors will be very shy. They're very happy to have written the book, but they're very hesitant to shout from the rooftops about it. So one thing that we try to help authors do is just get over that hump and actually realize that the work of publicizing their book starts months before the book is actually available and starting to build interest over time.

Nick Courtright: You know, share the news about updates of the book and really try to rattle, you know, like, get that grassroots audience sort of, like, revved up so their, like, credit card is in hand before it's even time to buy. So, yeah, education is a huge piece of the puzzle.

Kevin Horek: No, that makes sense. And I get my next question is probably really dependent on the author a bit, but roughly how long should the process take? Obviously, like, it might take me years to write the book, but from when it's done ish to, like, actually going kind of live and people can get it in their hands. How. What's that process kind of typically look like?

Nick Courtright: Yeah, and I think this is honestly like, one of the big differentiators for atmosphere press versus some of the other places out there, because you'll have, you know, a traditional publisher, like, you know, like a penguin or a Rutledge or, you know, Macmillan or Harper Collins or whatever, like, you're looking at years, you know, like years of process before your book is actually out there in the world. And with us, the typical turnaround from, you know, you starting the process with us to you having your proof copy in hand is about six months.

Kevin Horek: Wow, that's actually insanely quick.

Nick Courtright: There are. Yeah, there are authors that fly through it more quickly. It's really like the two editorial meetings, like, in authors working through revisions resulting from those meetings. That's the. The major differentiator, because, like, some authors will just fly through that process, like, super quickly. They're, like, crank out their edits. Their work was really polished to begin with. They crank it out, do the two meetings, boom, they're under proofreading, and it's really quick. And we've seen people get a proof copy in hand within even three or four months. Then there are other people who, they take more time to review the results of their proofread. They're, like, mulling over interior design choices, cover design choices, stuff like that. And we have a number of people, they'll take longer than a year.

Nick Courtright: But that's one thing that we sort of pride ourselves on, is that our timeline is author driven. So if an author says, hey, I need more time to get this ready, we're like, okay, take the time you need. We'll keep checking in on you, and we'll be ready to make it happen when it's time. But, yeah, it does vary. And then in terms of the actual launch idea of when the book is going to come out and be available.

Nick Courtright: We do recommend that authors take some time between getting that proof copy in hand and then the book coming out because we want them to be able to sort of, like, build that interest, make a plan, set up some events, you know, things like that so that it's not just like, my book is out and it's all just a big rush and they weren't, like, actually, like, ready for it. That's one thing we have to try to, you know, at times pump the brakes on with people because they'll be so excited to get the book out, they forget to, you know, do the legwork it takes to actually make the book have an impact. So. But we work with them, you know, very strategically on trying to find a date that works that's going to line up well for them.

Kevin Horek: No, that makes a lot of sense. It's interesting. So I'm curious then the book's out, it's getting published, it's kind of early stages after the thing's ready to go, walk us through kind of the ongoing relationship with atmosphere.

Nick Courtright: Yeah. So we really, you know, make a big deal out of this. Wanting us wanting this to be like a lifelong partnership. Right. Like, with a lot of presses, you know, there's kind of a one and done vibe. You know, it's like the author, like, they have their, you know, big success. They have their big, like, first book comes out and then it's like, maybe we'll take the next one, you know, kind of thing. We, if we have a good, like, positive working relationship, then we're going to want to work with you again and we're going to stay in touch. So in sort of our ideal vision of things, the author goes in the process with us with one book. And then, right, as soon as their book is out in the world, they've done their sort of initial pr blitz.

Nick Courtright: They've been blasting about it a bunch that then it's like, okay, you know, circle back and start talking about what's next. How deep into the follow up are you? Right. And some authors, obviously some authors, you know, they are really diligent that it's like writing is their love and they're like, cranking the work out. They, before they even, you know, met us, they already had four books written, you know, and then other people, you know, they're like, you know, I'm working on it. It's going to take a while. And I respect that because, you know, I've taken years and years to write a book. So sometimes it does, like, take a long time to be ready for that next one.

Nick Courtright: But we do always try to, you know, if it's a good partnership, if, like, they're having a good time, if we're having a good time, like, we want to keep that, you know, partnership going and, you know, try to have sort of a familial approach with the people we're working with. And I think that's really, really worked out well because the number of repeat authors that we have is extremely high. We work with the same people, like, again and have, you know, these really positive, lasting relationships.

Kevin Horek: Sure makes sense. So this is probably depending on a bunch of different factors, but is there kind of like a rough range I should expect it to cost me and then what's kind of an average return on that investment? I get that there's a million factors, though, so maybe that's like a hard question to really answer.

Nick Courtright: Yeah, so I can say in terms of on the price side, like, one thing that we pride ourselves on is just like, just crazy amounts of transparency. So if you actually go to atmospherepress.com, you can read the entire contract right there on the website. That's really rare. Like, you don't see that with like any other presses. Like, I don't know, any presses where you just like, go to their website and the whole thing is right there because we're really all about it being on the up and up. Right. So in the contract, authors, you know, maintain, you know, 100% rights to their work. They get 90% of the royalties return. They get final say on content. So we're not like publishing the work without their approval. Like, those are things that are actually guaranteed in the contract terms.

Nick Courtright: Also on the website, very clear are the different publishing packages that we offer. There are three levels. So the sort of essential one that's going to get you absolutely everything you need to have a successful book out in the world. That one starts at three installments of 1900. So that is just, you pay 1900, and then you're on your way. You go through editorial, you front cover design, all of that. And then the next 1900 is due when we hit interior design. And then the following, the final one is due when we are going to be printing the first copy of the book. And then there are the next two sort of levels up, and the main differentiators with those, and they're at the three payments of 2900, three installments of 3900. Those are the price points there for those.

Nick Courtright: The key differentiators in those is they come with things like hardcover edition, like merchandise packages, additional cold reading, additional reviews. And the biggest difference of all is just more publicity done by us as opposed to you taking more of it on your shoulders. So those are the price points. And in terms of the service that we actually provide with the editorial meetings, the COVID design, all the publicity, like, we're actually sort of on the more affordable side of things compared to some places that do less and charge more, especially in the entrepreneurial space.

Nick Courtright: That's actually a huge sort of message because there are lots of places out there that if you're in the business world, they're going to try to gouge you and they're going to make all sorts of promises like, oh, we can get you this best seller status here and this thing here. A lot of those things are just things that we also do. We just don't charge 10,000 extra dollars for it. So I always caution authors, whether they work with us or whether they don't work with us, to just read the contracts, you know, like really know what you're doing because the industry is rife with bad actors. So that's sort of on that side in terms of the return on investment, you know, as you can imagine, you know, that does vary widely.

Nick Courtright: Like, some people, you know, honestly don't really care too much about selling copies of their book. It's not a real motivator for them. Their motivator is awesome. Cover design, editorial meetings, having an artifact that's going to be a legacy piece for them and their family, that's their goal. What we found is that the authors who are motivated to sell copies. They're out there, they're doing readings, they're blogging, they're making a name for themselves, and those people are moving product, they're getting out there. And a lot of times with book sales, and this is across the board, you know, even with, you know, like big five, big four New York traditional publishers, is that a lot of times the money? The big money isn't in book sales themselves. It's in opportunities that are created by book sales.

Nick Courtright: So for example, you know, having an author, they sell, you know, 1000 or $2,000 worth of books, but then they end up landing some speaking gigs. In each of the speaking gigs is paying 1000, 2000, $3,000. And that's where they're getting their ROI or job promotions. They do keep the rights to their work. So we've had a couple authors that then landed agented advanced based contracts for future books, things like that come out of it. We also just had an author of ours won the North Street Book prize, which is a $10,000 award. And there were more than, you know, 2000 entries into that prize. It's for all, like, independently published authors, and out of all the entrants, like, one of our books won it. So there are lots of different ways.

Nick Courtright: Yeah, it was really exciting for us and for that author and, yeah, like, we're definitely having a lot of books, you know, get traction, be successful, and the ROI shows up in a lot of different ways.

Kevin Horek: No, makes a lot of sense. So I'm curious. You kind of covered it early on, but I want to kind of reiterate. So do you have specific book kind of genres you go after, or it's kind of all over the map, or do you specialize on a few, but you'll do anything or walk us through that a little bit?

Nick Courtright: Yeah. Yeah. So we've since the very beginning. So one of the things that were founded on was this, in a sense, like, an idea of being non exclusionary, right? Like, so much of traditional publishing was so exclusionary, right? It was like either you're one of the thousand that's getting picked or you're just, like, wallowing in the abyss alone forever, right? And maybe if you want, then you go, like, roll the dice on self publishing, which, you know, people have been very successful self publishing.

Nick Courtright: But I can tell you as a writer myself, it's definitely helpful to, like, have outside editors, professional assistance and as opposed to a self publishing person where they're buying a lot of times, super a la carte, you know, we're all just under one roof with the legitimacy of an award winning label, you know, that can help, you know, get you into bookstores and things like that you wouldn't be able to do as a self published author. So those are all, you know, things that are, you know, that are part of it. And because of that being non exclusionary, we are open in all genres. You know, we publish a lot of fiction. You know, you novelists out there, you know, we love you guys. You know, we publish a lot of fiction, obviously.

Nick Courtright: Like, I have a poetry background, so we publish a decent amount of poetry. You know, a lot of memoir. Memoir is something that's. That's really meaningful to us because we have such a service and author focused base. It really works well with Menwar because those tend to be very close to people's hearts, and they're very, like, you know, dedicated and concerned about them being treated fairly. So that's something that we find to be really important. We do children's books, and we also, of course, do, you know, business books, self help, you know, things like that as well. We've worked with entrepreneurs, business owners to get their vision out there, to act as sort of a legitimizing business card, to help them in their fundraising enterprises, things like that. So, yeah, we're definitely, and we've got the editorial staff to handle all those genres, too.

Nick Courtright: We have editorial specialists for all of those different fields.

Kevin Horek: Got it. Okay. So you kind of touched on it early in our conversation, but how do you feel about the AI kind of revolution in the space? Because in a lot of cases, I think with what you're doing and who you partner with, it could actually be a really good thing. Do you agree with that or what are your thoughts around that?

Nick Courtright: Yeah, I mean, obviously, everybody's sort of like, you know, about AI right now. And in the literary world, there is a lot of concern and teeth gnashing about, you know, like, plagiarism of canonical works because, you know, Stephen King's novels were used to train the large language model and, you know, all of these kinds of things. And obviously, there's a lot of concern out there, like, in the publishing industry, there's a couple different concerns. Like, one is that, you know, the market's just gonna be so flooded with AI work that there's not gonna be as much space for, like, authentic voices. So that's one thing that people are worried about. Another that affects us more because we're a writer focused press is, are people still going to want to write if AI makes it so easy?

Nick Courtright: So that's something that we've been sort of thinking about and sort of where I've ended up coming down on it is I think, if anything, it's going to excite people. I think that people before, especially like, busy business people, whereas before they might have been like, oh, I'd really love to write my book, but I don't have time to spend, like, 200 hours, like, writing my magnum opus. And now using AI, the AI can help them determine how to structure it. They can help set up ways to break down chapters. They can help with first drafts of ideas. You can feed things into it and get stuff out of it that's going to actually facilitate the writing process. Obviously, you don't want to publish a book that's just 100% AI, because it's honestly just not that good at this point.

Nick Courtright: It's going to feel generic. It's going to feel repetitive and redundant. But as a tool, I think there's a lot that can be done there that can facilitate writing, especially for people who are busy, people who have a vision, people who have something big to say. And obviously, from our perspective, like, we're keeping a close eye on all of this and trying to make sure that we stay on top of it, that we understand what's going on, what the capabilities are, and making sure that we, as a pressure, are, you know, leveraging new technology to help enhance the success of our own authors.

Kevin Horek: No, that makes a lot of sense. It is, it is definitely interesting. I think the nice thing about it, too, and you alluded to it, is, like, whether you're busy or not, even, or if you're not confident in your writing abilities, it can get you that first kind of draft, and then you can, it, like, gets you started. Right? And, and then obviously, yeah, you edit it and add to it. But where I think before, you would just be like, nah, I'm not going to bother touching that. Right, because it's just too complicated. It's too much of a, like, hurdle, right?

Nick Courtright: Yeah, absolutely. Because it is, it takes a long time to write a book. You know, it's definitely a labor of love. And I think that with AI, there is going to be a little bit of a democratization of the book writing process. Just because you're going to be able to get people into it that maybe before the time hurdle would have been, you know, just too, just a bridge too far for them. So I think that's going to be interesting, obviously.

Nick Courtright: Like, we hope that doesn't discourage, you know, like the, you know, the dyed in the wool, like, real writers out there who are grinding away one sentence at a time, because still, as we've proven through literary history, that's where we're going to find the most authentic work, some of the greatest innovations, some of the most novel ideas, because one thing about a large language model is they're absolutely amazing, but they are trained on the work of the past. That does create some limitations on potentially the novelty of new ideas that they can bring to the table.

Kevin Horek: No, that makes a lot of sense. So other than maybe using AI or some other tools, what about, what advice do you give to people about that are maybe thinking about it? They don't know whether they want to write a book, whether it's fiction, nonfiction, or something else. Like, walk us through that. And how do you, what recommendations you get for people trying to maybe, like, generate ideas.

Nick Courtright: Yeah. Yeah, man. Like, back when I was a college professor, like, I always used to harp on this because we'd have so many people who just, you know, they've got the blank page in front of them, they have that clicking cursor, and they're like, You know, and it's, like, terrible. And they're trying to, they're just frozen. Right. You know, so my first piece of advice is always, just stop thinking and start typing. Right? Like, it's okay if it's bad. Like, nobody's gonna yell at you if it's bad. Like, it's fine. Like, just create content. So I always would say, like, the writer's block is not real. Writer's block is nothing more than a failure to type and, you know, just starting to crank out content. It's fine if you run off pages that are ultimately going to end up in the chopping block.

Nick Courtright: That happens for every writer. Every writer ends up throwing away a good percentage of what they create. You know, you just gotta, you know, go into it, like, knowing that's gonna happen. But here's the thing. It's like, you gotta have a little bit of faith also, that if you keep clicking away on the keyboard or recording your voice notes or your talk to text, or however you're generating content, that if you keep doing it, the diamonds are going to emerge. The good stuff is going to come out as long as you keep making content. A lot of people, they'll write two sentences. They'll be like, oh, this is garbage. They get discouraged and they quit. Whereas maybe the fifth sentence that they would have written would have been the first sentence in a seven page flurry of genius.

Nick Courtright: It's just a matter of continuing to push through that uncomfortable part. It's the same thing they say about running, right? Like, people who run marathons, they're like, it's always, like, the first 3 miles are always terrible, and it's like, so a lot of people, they just quit when they're in that beginning bit before it actually gets easier, you know? So just fight through that, you know, keep clicking away, and eventually you're going to hit your stride.

Kevin Horek: No, I think that's really good advice, and I think I'm just, I'm curious to see, because things I think are getting a lot quicker that, and there's so many, like, something simple as, like, Grammarly is great for just helping. Like, even getting through some of that writer's block. And then AI, like, you put a few of these tools together, you know, it should give you a bit more confidence to actually get through, you know, a few pages. Right?

Nick Courtright: Yeah. I mean, I think really, like, writing a book is easier today than it has ever been. Right? That doesn't mean it's easy. It's easier than it's ever been. Like, you think about people writing a book 200 years ago, they were handwriting this thing, and then if they wanted to do a revision, they were handwriting the entire thing over again. And then I remember when they invented. I don't remember, but the anecdotes, when they invented the typewriter, you know, it was like, oh, the typewriter is going to destroy writers. It's going to like, you know, they're all just going to be mechanistic and it's not going to be authentic anymore. Like, people, like, literally thought the typewriter was going to, like, ruin writing. And it's like, no, it did not ruin writing.

Nick Courtright: It actually in some ways led to, like, a huge revolution because more intelligent people were able to create writing because it was easier to get stuff on the page. And I think we're going to see that happen now is that you're really high achieving, very intelligent, super motivated individuals who now are, who historically might have been spread too thin and they never would have had the time to put their great ideas actually down into a book. Now, with all these additional tools, they're going to have the bandwidth to be able to take that step.

Nick Courtright: And then once that manuscript is created, then to connect with a place, you know, like atmosphere press, where we're going to be able to help you refine it, professionalize it, you know, turn it into a real, like, actual artifact that's going to be, you know, a lasting piece of your legacy.

Kevin Horek: No, that's. Yeah, I agree. I think. I think it makes sense. And especially, like, to your point, with the typewriter, it's like, it's almost like AI is the new typewriter of today. Right. Which is interesting in itself. So I'm curious, do you have any other advice or things you've learned over the years doing this that you'd like to kind of pass on to the listener?

Nick Courtright: Yeah, well, I think, you know, I think the big one is just, you know, being confident about just generating content, you know, because I think one thing that's definitely true is that regardless of who you are writing down, your ideas is going to sharpen your ideas, just sort of having them floating around in your head. It's always going to be disorderly. There's nothing like writing, to actually codify your thoughts into a replicable pattern that's going to be orderly and therefore more useful to you in the future. Like, back when I was teaching, it would always be like, no matter what the subject matter was, I could think about it all I wanted. I could read. I could be as much of an expert as I want, but I never knew anything well until I taught it to somebody else.

Nick Courtright: And in a way, writing stuff down is you teaching the paper what you're thinking. So it's a great way. Like, if you're a business person, like, it is just a great way to start actually, like, codifying your systems, like, documenting your thinking. Like, building models that are going to be, like, useful for you in the future. And then the more of those models you construct, then the better off you're going to be to create a real statement for yourself that could be turned into a book and an audiobook and future differentiated content and website content and all these other things so that then you can, you know, have something that's going to be a statement to your own thought.

Kevin Horek: Yeah, okay. No, that. That makes a lot of sense. I'm curious about your thoughts around taking LinkedIn posts or blog posts or a bunch of content that you've published out just on other mediums in the past about kind of combining all that together, obviously, maybe adding it and putting it into more of, like, a book friendly type, you know, paragraphs and pages and whatnot. What are your thoughts around going about it with some of the previous content that I've created in the past?

Nick Courtright: Oh, I love it. I love that idea. Like, I mean, I encourage that a lot. I've done that myself, you know, like, I think that, you know, sort of excavating the archive of your prior content is an amazing way to make a book, you know? So a lot of times, you know, it's like, if you've got stuff that you've already written, you know, a lot of times you can repurpose that content for a book. You know, obviously, sometimes, you know, you might need to change the voice. Maybe you make a joke about, you know, the pandemic in the beginning of some LinkedIn article you wrote in 2020. It was like, I should probably edit that part out, you know, and sort of, you know, make it fit the model.

Nick Courtright: But a lot of business writers in particular have written a lot of long form content on LinkedIn, on medium, on substack things like this, and then turned around and repurposed it for a book. And I think that's absolutely fantastic. Whenever you're able to get multiple purposes out of a work, you should do it. It's just like in social media, like using the same piece of content on multiple platforms. And the thing is that about having it in a book is that platform is obviously a lot less ephemeral than social media. It's more lasting and more legitimate because of that.

Kevin Horek: Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense. And I've seen where, like, people will kind of crap on people that do that, but it's like, well, then don't buy the book. If you read all the blog posts, like, don't buy the book then if you're gonna hate that. But I think totally makes sense, right? And a lot of people want all the ideas, especially if they're new and have never heard of you before your business. They want all your ideas in like, a put together kind of package that happens to be a book or, you know. Right.

Nick Courtright: Yeah, yeah. And I think it's just a matter of audience, right. Because it's like, yeah, if somebody's been, like, assiduously reading every single post that you've done for four years, and then you're, like, repurposing those for a book, they're gonna be like, oh, I've read this before. Well, it's okay. Like, sometimes, like, I read a book and then I read the same book again. Okay, fine. But the thing is that a lot of times, like, that book that they did that with, that's going to get a lot going to give them access to a completely different audience, because there are a lot of people maybe who want that content who aren't hanging out on LinkedIn all the time. And maybe those are the people that stand most to benefit from having that work pulled together.

Kevin Horek: No, that makes a lot of sense. So we're coming into the show, but is there anything else that you want to talk about? That atmosphere press can help people with or advice or how do you want to close the show?

Nick Courtright: Yeah, yeah, definitely. So there are a couple things I think would be really awesome for your listeners to check out. So one, if you've got a book already, you know, we'd love to have a conversation with you. You know, obviously, you know, who knows whether we would want it to be a good partnership for us and a good partnership for you. But, you know, if you go to atmospherepress.com, you'll see right on there's a submit my manuscript link. You can just sort of send us a note and we would be in conversation with you about it. You'd be able to have a call with us to see if this is going to be a good partnership. And definitely mention the podcast in there because that of course, will give you some extra attention because of that. That's one thing.

Nick Courtright: If you're unsure if you're still on the fence or you have a work in progress, you're just getting started. One super awesome resource that we have on there is just a publishing potential quiz. It's just in the top menu on atmospherepress.com and it just sort of walks you through just a number of questions. There's ten questions just about any project that you're working on, what thoughts you might have about COVID design, what thoughts you might have about promoting your book. Then based on the answers you give to the quiz, we'll send you very specific feedback and some actionable tips on how to do things like if you're still early stage, create content.

Nick Courtright: If you're somebody where it's like you've got a book ready to go, but maybe you aren't a good fit for us, we'll give you advice on self publishing or traditional publishing, seeking an agent. So that quiz is a really great resource. And then if you're just like, hey, I'm not really interested in writing a book at all, but I do like to read. If you go on our website, we actually do a free book giveaway on there too. So that's really plainly obvious on our website. So anyone who goes on there, if you are interested in that, there's a free book giveaway and you just click the genre you're interested in. We would send you something in that genre and then, you know, hope that it's something that fulfills you as a reader.

Kevin Horek: Very cool. No, I think that's awesome. And just like, for people that are listening that are maybe still on the fence, like, I didn't, I still don't consider myself a good writer. And I got to do it. I got, I get it was a pretty niche kind of subject matter. But I think now with the tools and the help of like, you know, people on your team, you can actually do it. And you don't have to be like the greatest writer, especially now, to get to do this thing. And there's ways to, you know, kind of make yourself not sound stupid either when it actually does get published. And, you know, the writing will be good. Just, you know, you'll be editors and AI and a bunch of stuff can help you these days. You agree with that, I guess.

Nick Courtright: Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's what we're here to do, right? Like, we definitely are an ethics forward, author based press. Like, that's what we are. You know, like we want our authors to be successful. You know, we don't move forward with publication unless the authors are satisfied with the product. Right. So it's definitely something where we, you know, work very much hand in hand with them to try to improve the work, you know, educate them, set them up for a success so that when that book comes out, you know, they're going to be proud of it and they're going to be able to, you know, leverage it, you know, for whatever purposes they're looking for, whether it's to be taken seriously as a novelist or a poet or to something that they can leverage for lead acquisition for their own business.

Nick Courtright: You know, these are all different types of goals that we've worked with in the past with authors, and we're excited to keep doing it because we're only getting better at this.

Kevin Horek: Very cool. Well, Nick, how about we close with mentioning where people can get more information again about you and atmosphere and any other links you want to mention?

Nick Courtright: Yeah, so just the website that's the main joint is atmospherepress.com. You can, of course, also find us on all the various social media platforms. And there's, like, me personally, we didn't really talk about, you know, my books, but I've had four books of mine published. Those are on nickcourtwright.com. So that's something you can check out as well. And, you know, feel free to reach out to us, to reach out to me personally if you want. And I can, you know, help point you in the right direction with anything because, you know, we're here to help.

Kevin Horek: Perfect. Nick. Well, I really appreciate you taking the time out of your day to be on the show, and I look forward to keeping in touch with you and have a good ester daynet. Thank you.

Nick Courtright: All right, thanks. Appreciate it.

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