We recently connected with Dr. Nick Courtright and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Dr. Nick, thanks for joining us today. Looking back, what’s an important lesson you learned at a prior job?
It’s amazing how unexpected experiences can play a role in the future life. I was a college professor for years before I started Atmosphere Press, and everything in my life seemed to be pointing towards building a skillset for being a professor—that was where my attention was going. But it’s actually other strange skills that made the difference for me as a business owner. For example, in a low spot in my 20s I was a door-to-door salesman for AT&T, selling cable and internet services. Having to knock on every door, read the lay of the land, and be able to communicate and build rapport with whoever answered the door—that experience connecting with people regardless of their backgrounds or their eagerness or skepticism…it really made it much easier to build a company ready to connect to all manner of writers.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Atmosphere Press is the premier hybrid book publisher out there. We’re focused on serving authors, and providing them exceptional editorial, design, publication, and promotional services. We really want their book publication experience to be a remarkable one for them, one they’ll really cherish. I think that underlying desire is what sets us apart, because we really are dedicated to giving authors a meaningful and rewarding experience in publishing. It’s not just about pushing the book out into the world, but respecting the art and time the author put into creating the work. I’m the author of four books myself, so I know that writing a book isn’t for the faint of heart: it takes a lot of time, work, and dedication. We want to respect that, and the whole Atmosphere Press experience and the team we’ve built is constructed to validate and honor that author journey.
Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.
As a college literature and creative writing professor, I regularly came across opportunities to help writers with their work. Little did I know that that would end up being my life’s mission, and it came as a surprise. In fact, I had writers trying to work with me for years and I sort of put off the work because I was so focused on my teaching career; anything else seemed “beside the point.” The big surprise for me was that what was beside the point was actually *the* point, and that helping creators create and see their efforts take the next step…that was the real purpose, and where my expertise would have the greatest impact, not in the classroom. It started slowly—just one writer here and one writer there. The first Atmosphere book was published in 2015, and by 2017 we were still under twenty titles. But between 2018 and 2023 we published 1000 books, so things definitely took off starting in mid-2018, and they really hit their stride in 2020. The big difference was that I finally realized that Atmosphere Press and helping authors was not the side hustle…it was *the* major enterprise of my life.
Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?
I have to say that the best way to grow our clientele is to provide an excellent product and service. People often look for shortcuts in marketing and growth and ways to make a big splash, but we’ve learned again and again that our greatest impact for growth comes from referrals from existing authors—that’s where the best clients come from. If we do an excellent job for our authors, they’ll want to bring others along on the journey, and will connect us with author friends of theirs, so that they can have the same wonderful experience. If we focused only on new client acquisition and neglected to provide a great experience for our existing clients, certainly with time it would doom us. But by doing a great job and building rewarding lasting relationships? That’s where we can grow, and where everybody wins.
Contact Info:
- Website: atmospherepress.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/atmospherepress/
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/atmospherepress
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-courtright-40ab1034/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/atmospherepress
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@atmospherepress
- Other: nickcourtright.com