Community Owned
PUBLISHING
Our Story
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As a community of writers and authors ourselves, we were created for authors who take writing and publishing seriously, wants to reach as many readers as possible, and drive impact through your book and your author-publishing business.
New Degree Press was founded in 2016 by a group of authors and writers as a platform specifically for creators and indie authors in the growing “Author as Owner” movement.
New Degree Press is an Independent Book Publisher Association recognized hybrid publishing house focused on empowering authors as owners. To date, New Degree Press has worked with more than 800 authors, many of whom recognized in media and press, including Newsweek, Washington Post, USA Today, and dozens of other media outlets and publications.
Operating as a public benefit corporation—B Corp (certification pending) —means we prioritize impact over profit. That impact starts with accessibility, education, community, and equity.
Accessibility
Everyone in the New Degree Press community is empowered to access book publishing and serve the greater publishing community. We embrace accessibility—financial, accommodations, and coaching—over self-interest.
Education
Originally founded as an evolution on the university press model, New Degree Press has ground our process in a “creation-based learning” pedagogy. Our goal is to provide the publishing experience by teaching all aspects of the publishing process (prelaunch, revisions, cover design, layout, marketing, and printing).
We make the experience rich and fulfilling for each author, giving them agency and autonomy over the decisions related to their book with the support of experienced professionals.
Community
We believe writing, storytelling, and publishing starts at the community level. Community is at the core of everything we do.
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We help each author build and activate their community through preselling their work.
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Our process is community-powered. We help authors engage directly with their audiences as they revise their manuscripts’ and publish their work.
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Authors have a community-powered launch and marketing effort when they release their work.
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Our active alumni network and post-launch community (800-plus authors to date) supports our authors after they publish.
Publishing a book does not happen in a vacuum. It impacts individual lives and the members of different communities.
Our authors develop a strategy that involves donating a portion of book profits or royalties to community organizations and local issues. Books can and should be a force for social good—both in the ideas they present and stories they tell and in the financial impact of profits and book sale royalties. Our authors have donated profits to food banks, community organizations, scholarship funds for schools, and more.
Equity
We welcome and value differences. We publish books that elevate stories, narratives, and issues of the under-represented.
We empower all creators and storytellers. New Degree Press has a diverse author community, and we hire editors, designers, and staff with diversity in mind.
More needs to be done to bring “true equity” to publishing and authorship. At New Degree Press, we embrace diversity in all its forms throughout the publishing process.
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How This Makes Us Different
A Reader-Centric Approach
Books are designed and published to help readers learn, imagine, dream, and so busy readers can find value in an author’s work and take immediate action.
Publishing with Readers in Mind
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Attention-Grabbing Big Ideas
From the front cover to the back cover, New Degree Press books are designed to get the book’s ideas directly and concisely across and to make for a more engaging read. Whether the book is fiction, poetry, memoir, or nonfiction, we want readers to understand your story and value the themes and insights explored in your book. -
Stories, Characters & People with Purpose.
We work with authors to develop books that matter — introducing them to people, characters, storylines, and words that impact readers in real and deep ways. We employ some of the world's best storytellers as editors and have developed a unique approach to editing support that blends the science of story and structure with the art of emotion. -
Theory & Practice
Independent of genre or topic, our books have a combination of big ideas, theory, practical application, and entertainment value so readers can take what they’ve read and apply it in their daily lives, careers, or relationships. -
"Just Right” Length
Every year, we look at books across bestseller lists, engage award finalists and winners, review platforms, and conduct market research on the ideal length, topics, and genres book buyers are reading. This approach allows us to help authors publish a book with just the right amount of words to support the big idea or relate the entire plot.“ -
Connecting Ideas and Communities
We have a range of titles to help our readers become agents of social change and impact their lives, networks, and organizations. Our authors share a passion for making the world a better place and for putting a “ding in the universe” (as Steve Jobs would say). We support authors in building a community as they publish, creating opportunities for their community to collaborate and actively participate in publishing each book. From helping decide on the design of the cover to reading sections of the book early and giving feedback, as well as virtual events, book readings, and author Q&A events bringing authors and their readership together, we are passionate about the success of each book.
At New Degree Press, our authors always own their work and all derivative rights. We help them produce, publish, and sell their books. As the owner of their work, our authors collect all royalties (and profits from book sales) when they publish. We also connect creators from all backgrounds worldwide and help give a voice to those who thought publishing their work was impossible.
Our publishing model starts with a presale campaign designed to help authors build an audience and offset production costs, so authors are profitable when they publish. If an author is unable to reach the presale goal, they are under no obligation to publish with New Degree Press. (We’ll refund the preorders.)
We bring a unique approach to the editorial process utilizing new approaches across neuroscience, big data, and machine learning to identify keys to a successful book for any authors and an award-winning editorial team in which each of our editorial departments has, on average, at least a decade of experience in publishing, writing, production and design, and marketing.