Jesse Potash is the founder of PUBSLUSH Press (www.pubslush.com) – a social, full service publisher that lets readers decide what books get published, and for every book sold donates a book to a child in need. Jesse hails from a financial services background but has worked additionally across a wide array of industries including publishing, fashion, and advertising. Jesse also serves on the board of directors for the PUBSLUSH Foundation, which is committed to supporting children’s literacy initiatives worldwide. He is a native New Yorker, yogi, boxer, and avid traveler.
It's such a brilliant concept. How did PUBSLUSH begin?
Thank you! PUBSLUSH is a direct tribute to JK Rowling. After hearing of her trials and tribulations in the publishing world in her 2008 Harvard commencement speech, I felt compelled to impact the industry. The idea that 12 acquisition editors turned down her manuscript was appalling to me. This is a book that changed the world, that inspired an entire generation’s love of reading. The best selling book of all time, besides The Bible. I was sure that the talent discovery process could be improved. I thought introducing crowdsourcing would be a welcome addition to the publishing process, considering its proven success in other creative industries. Beyond that, I had worked previously with intellectual human rights development (which has a focus on education), so including a philanthropic component brought the concept full circle. The idea was to create a global book club with a cause, centered around giving: giving a voice to aspiring authors, giving the power to decide what books get published to readers, and giving books to children without access to literature. We like to think of PUBSLUSH s the publishing lovechild of American Idol and TOMS Shoes.
What has been the response from the public? What have been their criticisms?
The response has been overwhelmingly positive. We did receive cautious feedback initially from a specialized community of writers, but of course authors should be wary of any new publishing concept. We have made our process completely transparent and are eager to communicate with potential authors and readers. Many of our users have expressed ideas for enhanced functionality, which we will be implementing as we continue our growth.
Beginning a new entity is not easy. What have been some of the greatest challenges you've faced?
Our greatest challenge has been effectively communicating our model. We’ve taken the benefits of traditional publishing and self publishing and combined them into an entirely new type of publishing. One that cuts out the middleman, but still supports the author completely. Since the publishing industry is already in such flux, introducing a new concept isn’t exactly the easiest proposition. Authors are already consumed by an overabundance of choice, and the addition of another option (with no direct comparison) can be a bit overwhelming. A brief conversation in person is more than sufficient to explain PUBSLUSH. The difficulties arise in the online conversation, which of course lasts for 6 seconds, max.
How is PUBSLUSH different than other sites such as Wattpad?
PUBSLUSH is a full service publisher with a nonprofit extension. And by publisher, I mean that we are a discovery, cultivation, and distribution platform. We allow great new books to be uncovered and provide the support to bring those books to the masses. Sites like Wattpad, on the other hand, are online reading and writing communities. They are specialized social networks for literature lovers and allow like-minded individuals to engage with each other. While there is an important element of community to our site, our core function is publisher.
How many writers have signed up to use it so far?
At the moment we have around 30 aspiring authors that have submitted successfully to our site. We do have a standard vetting process that ensures the uniformity and integrity of the books uploaded. Also, we’ve limited the initial outreach since we are still in beta and focused on building a high quality platform for when we scale to a global level.
What are your goals for PUBSLUSH? Where do you see it in the next 5 years?
I hope we will become a global brand of literature recognized by our commitment to change the lives of aspiring writers and aspiring readers and reinvigorate the publishing process to be more democratic and philanthropic. We are aligning ourselves with a progressive new view of what it means to be a publisher in the 21st century: to facilitate the discovery of, nurture, and distribute quality content (in our case, as determined by readers).
In addition, we are expanding to support emerging publishing technologies and offer a well-rounded gamut of services. We will also likely embrace additional content mediums beyond books. I think the only way we’ll get there is by staying committed to our cause and showing people that this model really does work, that anyone can be involved and make a difference, and that this isn’t a fad; we’re genuinely passionate about what we do.
How did the charity aspect of it come about? Was it just a marketing ploy to get people to buy books?
Not in the slightest. The PUBSLUSH Cause is the core of our business and near and dear to my heart. The children I’ve worked have motivated me more than words could ever express. The Cause is a product of my experience with intellectual human rights activism, which has a primary focus on education. One of the largest barriers in that conversation is the lack of access to literature, especially for children. While developing the concept for PUBSLUSH, impacting literacy initiatives was at the forefront of the discussion; and as a huge fan of TOMS Shoes, using the one for one model seemed like a no-brainer. The statistics speak for themselves. Illiteracy is one of the leading causes of poverty. Today, close to 1 billion people are illiterate. Also today, over 100 million children don’t have access to literature, meaning they too will become illiterate. Fighting poverty is hopeless without books.
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