Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Nick Courtright
Hi Dr. Courtright, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I was a college professor, and taught literature and creative writing at UT, St. Edward’s, Concordia, ACC, Huston-Tillotson, Southwestern…if there was a place you could teach college English in the Austin area, I taught at it! I’d done that for a dozen years, and really enjoyed it, but it was always unsteady as a career path. I also did a little book coaching on the side, as I was a published author and my background was in small press publishing and literary editing.
In 2015 I was a book coach for a talented poet who didn’t want to pursue traditional publishing, and that’s how the first Atmosphere Press book happened. His book was about the universe and philosophy, so I needed an ethereal name for the press that would publish it, and hence I made up the name “Atmosphere Press” to fit it; as soon as I saw that that domain name was available, I grabbed it, and we published his book. It was a really fortuitous accident that it ended up being a good name for the long haul.
But at the time I didn’t think too much of being an entrepreneur, though, because I was busy teaching, so it wasn’t until 2018 when some of my classes fell through—a common occurrence in higher ed—and I wondered what would happen if I tried to promote Atmosphere Press a bit. And as soon as I did, authors just started showing up! It was miraculous, and it’s amazing how little pieces of “luck” like having a job fall through can make a huge difference.
And now, we’ve published nearly 1000 authors, and I have a team of 35 people who do wonderful editorial, design, publication, and promotion services. We even do author websites and audiobooks. It’s pretty amazing, and we’ve stayed true to what I wanted even from the beginning: to be a press that serves authors well.
Was it a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It’s been tricky at times. We never took investment capital, and we’ve never taken on any debt, so it’s always been important to run a financially clean operation. No shortcuts; we had to be sustainable from the start. And, of course, because my background was in academia, I needed formal training on how to run a business. I just knew from my own experience as an author, and as someone who knew many authors, what authors wanted and how they often weren’t treated well by publishers. I knew I wanted us to do right by people. As long as I stuck to those things, all the other little hiccups—struggles with a printer or distributor, a troublesome client, the difficulty of being in a tough industry with a lot of entrenched opinions on the “right” way to do things—have tended to work themselves out.
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about Atmosphere Press?
Atmosphere Press provides exceptional book publication services to writers. We believe that writers who are serious about their craft deserve the opportunity to work with dedicated professionals to see their book through the complicated editorial, design, and publication process. We hire for both skill and personality, and have a really amazing team of well-credentialed MFAs, PhDs, and published authors. Our award-winning cover design team makes author aesthetics come alive, while staying on point with current trends. And our distribution and publicity teams consistently get glowing reviews for our books and excellent sales for our authors.
As an ethical and author-friendly hybrid book publisher, Atmosphere Press was built on the principles of Honesty, Transparency, Professionalism, Kindness, and Making Your Book Awesome. We stay true to that founding mission today. We’ve published nearly 1000 books, our authors have won dozens of awards, and our books have reached the hands of tens of thousands of readers.
And it’s not just that we’ve done this, but how we’ve done it, that’s important. We’re the only publisher that puts Rewarding and Meaningful author experiences above all else, and we use that as our guiding principle. If an author publishes with us, they’re going to have a great experience.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
Patient common sense has actually been a major contributor. And perseverance. It’s easy to get frustrated when trying to build something great, but experience has shown me that most all problems can be resolved with some deep breaths and pragmatism. I try to be thoughtful in my approach, and of course, I also just love to work, so effort has never been a problem. If I don’t have projects to complete, I aim to innovate new problems to solve. From one to the next, always moving forward.
Pricing:
- $5500 is the standard price for a complete publication contract, which includes editorial, proofreading, cover design, interior design, publication, layout, distribution, promotion, expert consultations, and everything you need to have a successful book publishing experience.
- We have a bunch of other bespoke offerings, from a la carte cover design to author websites to audiobook production to book merchandise and publicity. Reach out for more info!
Contact Info:
- Website: atmospherepress.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/atmospherepress/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/atmospherepress/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/18841598/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/atmospherepress
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@atmospherepress
- Other: nickcourtright.com
Image Credits
Photo of Nick Courtright by Lisa Courtright, FYI that the photo of me with the older fellow, that is Bill Guest, the very first Atmosphere Author
