Liza Marie Garcia is the founder and Chief Operating Officer of NOW Publishing. Based in Tampa, Florida, she’s worked with hundreds of writers and authors. In the company’s first seven years, NOW reached important milestones, publishing more than 50 books across multi-media platforms and in various genres. Those early genres included business, leadership & entrepreneurship, mental health, health & wellness and faith-based storytelling. Growing amid the COVID-19 global pandemic, NOW publishes in more than 20 genres including business brand books, memoires, children’s books, fiction, cookbooks and poetry. NOW Publishing’s mission statement is “To Publish the Voice of Purpose”.
Liza Marie is a former tech CEO, out of Seattle, and a 5-time author herself. Her first book, “Never Drink Coffee During a Business Meeting”, was featured by Barnes & Noble in its 2016 West Coast book tour. She’s also co-authored “My Calendar is Written in Crayon” , “The 90 Day Author.” “Top 25 Changemakers”. In 2022 she was featured in the bestselling book “Wisdom Before Me”. For 2023 she is working on publishing two anthology book projects, called “Don’t Get Pickled” and a legacy book titled “Like To Be Remembered”.
FWM: Tell us about NOW Publishing and how you are helping authors get that book idea from your head to the page.
We primarily work with new soon-to-be authors. However, we have also worked with authors who have self-published their books but were not happy with the results. One of the most important things a writer must do when they have a great idea for a book is to take the time to develop it. This involves spending time writing and researching to ensure that the idea is well-constructed and has the potential to be a successful book. We help author organize their great idea(s) with our first step called a Mindmap/BookBuild Conference. Out of this we develop their book outline otherwise called their Table of Contents.
FWM: Was it difficult to change industries in your career from Tech to Publishing?
Initially the challenge between industries was that the publishing was very kluge. There were no industry standards to speak of in publishing. Eventually I used this to our advantage realizing we could create our publishing house with any of the benefits we wished. In fact with this second company, I’ve had the privilege to be a part of, I’ve realized the is very little difference between the two. In fact, NOW Publishing is really 99.9% the same as the first company I founded in tech. Both companies were and are professional services firm with our publishing house having a physical “widget” to sell being the only difference. I believe all my experience in tech in Seattle prepared me to lead this book publishing company in Tampa Bay.
FWM: NOW Publishing is a full-service publishing and promotion house. Take us through the process of working with you.
Our role is to lead the author/client what may be an extremely new process for them. We take this very seriously and provide full project management to get them from start to the finish line. This involves managing a writing schedule and also the team’s critical path milestone schedule. We also hold bi-weekly and sometimes weekly Author Check-In’s (ACI) zooms and provide unlimited author coaching. We provide complete author event planning, and our clients receive every item they need to become an successful published author.
FWM: What will people notice when working with you?
That we are experienced and professional in all that we do and work with our client as a fully functioning team. We can’t publish our authors books without them (we are not a ghost writing company) and our authors can’t bring their books to fruition without our team. We believe in positive teamwork 100%.
FWM: What does it take to be a successful author?
Credible content and authentic experience. With this our team can turn our authors published books can be successful far beyond what they may be able to create on their own.
FWM: What have you learned over the past 7-years?
We’ve learned that there is no specific “magic” in getting a book sold. It takes effort from both our authors and our promotion team. We have to be deliberate with the promotion strategy in order to get the book in front the appropriate demographic of readers. We need flexibility and willingness from our clients in order to take advantage of all the promotional opportunities. Finally in the end the book HAS to be of quality, engage the reader and be a book that is fully read to completion so it can be recommended to other potential readers.
To connect with NOW Publishing COO Liza Marie Garcia, visit
www.PublishWithNOW.com
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/lizamariegarcia/
Twitter/Instagram @lizagarciaceo or connect via email at
publish@nowscpress.com
