"Success is not just about writing books; it's about writing your future."
Welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine, where we bring you exclusive insights into the minds of visionary leaders shaping the business landscape. Today, we are honored to introduce you to a true trailblazer, Morgan Gist MacDonald, the driving force behind Paper Raven Books.
In this candid interview, Morgan shares her remarkable journey in the world of publishing, offering a unique perspective on author empowerment and the dynamic evolution of the literary industry. As the CEO and founder of Paper Raven Books, Morgan has forged a path that champions authors seeking to maintain creative control, legal rights, and maximize profits from their literary works.
Paper Raven Books stands as a testament to innovation in the publishing world. With a fully remote and distributed team, Morgan and her associates have harnessed the digital age to collaborate seamlessly with authors from diverse corners of the globe. Their mission is clear: to bring an author’s creative vision to life while fostering growth, thought leadership, and entrepreneurial success.
Join us as we delve into Morgan Gist MacDonald’s remarkable insights on navigating the literary landscape, her entrepreneurial journey, and her dedication to redefining the future of publishing.
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Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Morgan Gist MacDonald: It’s great to be here, Jed—thank you! Paper Raven Books is a publishing company that partners with authors to write, publish, and market their books in a way that the author retains the creative vision, legal rights, and profits from the book sales.
We tend to work with authors who are entrepreneurial, meaning that they want to retain control over their book because they’re using the book to grow their business, do more speaking, and become a thought leader in their industry, so having say in how the book is written, published, and marketed is important to our authors. We’re the team that comes in to help bring their vision of their book to reality.
We’re a fully remote and distributed team, and we have been since inception 15 years ago. We have our headquarters in Denver, CO, and our editors, designers, formatters, marketers, and project managers work all over the US. This helps us to work smoothly with authors from anywhere, as well, since so much of the book publishing world has moved to digital files, uploads, and emails. It’s an interesting time to publish a book!
What advice do you wish you had received when you started your business journey and what do you intend on improving in the next quarter?
Morgan Gist MacDonald: I wish someone had told me how much of my time would need to be devoted to sales and marketing, as a founder. I started this journey as a solo book coach and editor, and I grew a team around me as the business grew.
We only started to make significant strides in company growth when I was did less of the actual coaching and editing (we have a fantastic coaching and editorial team, now!) and focused large chunks of my week on sales and marketing.
This next quarter, we’re focusing on our partnership with the Professional Book Editors Association, where we offer certification to people who want to start or grow a career in book editing. We believe that if we can connect authors with the best book coaches and editors in the industry, we’ll have a 10x impact on the books that are being published every year.
Here is a two-fold question: What is the book that influenced you the most and how? Please share some life lessons you learned. Now what book have you gifted the most and why?
Morgan Gist MacDonald: The book that has influenced me the most is Steven Pressfield’s War of Art. Both when I was primarily a book coach and throughout the years of growing into a business owner and CEO, I’ve found new levels of “Resistance,” with a capital “R” in Pressfield’s book.
The book is filled with short, pithy, so-true-it-hurts miniature essays about how important our creative endeavors are, and his powerful language just lifts my soul in difficult seasons.
It reminds me that sometimes achieving something truly worthwhile in our lives may require us to take up a battle cry and go after what we want, with passion and persistence, even when it doesn’t make sense to the outside world. War of Art is also the book that I gift the most.
Christopher Hitchens, an American journalist, is quoted as saying that “everyone has a book in them” Have you written a book? If so, please share with us details about it. If you haven’t, what book would you like to write and how would you like it to benefit the readers?
Morgan Gist MacDonald: Yes, I wrote a book to capture the methods and lessons I’d learned from about a decade of working with writers and authors. The book is called “Start Writing Your Book Today: A step-by-step plan to write your nonfiction book, from first draft to finished manuscript.”
Most people I’ve worked with, now in 15 years in the book world, struggle to complete the first draft of their book. Once they write a first draft, which might be something like 30,000 to 60,000 words, they can usually find an editor to help them to refine the draft into a book they’re proud to publish.
It’s that first draft that’s the major stumbling block. So, my book focuses on methods for free writing, defining the scope of the book, developing a productive writing rhythm, and a timeline for writing 5,000 to 10,000 words a week, so that you can get that first draft finished and continue on the journey toward publishing a book.
In your experience, what tends to be the most underestimated part of running a company? Can you share an example?
Morgan Gist MacDonald : I think people underestimate how difficult it is to run a profitable company. One of my mentors, Ryan Levesque, always said to me, “Morgan, you have to fight for your margins.”
I’ve found that to be true at every level of revenue, from five-figures a month to multiple six-figures a month, regardless of how little or how much revenue is coming into the company, you have to constantly monitor expenses and efficiencies to make sure there’s a net profit before leveraging into the next phase of growth.
What does “success” in 2023 mean to you? It could be on a personal or business level, please share your vision.
Morgan Gist MacDonald: Success, to me, means growing a profitable company that connects authors, readers, and publishing professionals. We have always strived to help our authors get their books in front of their readers.
Now, we’re expanding into training and certifying book professionals, so that authors can find and work with the best book editors, designers, and marketers in the industry.
All of this is in service to improving the books that are being published, increasing our authors’ platforms, and giving readers the books they’re looking for. It’s a win-win-win, all the way around.
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Morgan Gist MacDonald for taking the time to do this interview and share her knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Morgan Gist MacDonald or her company, you can do it through her – Linkedin Page
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