Category: Blog

Posts for our “Book Marks” blog.

Partnering with Nikki T. Anthony to Make a Difference

Author Nikki T. Anthony wrote her debut novel, The Price We Pay, based on her own experiences growing up as a Black girl living in a racially-divided America. Although the story is fiction, the events it describes ring true for many Black adults who have experienced the same things in their own communities.

That’s why Path To Publishing chose to pick up her book for our PTP Press traditional publishing imprint. We saw the book as an opportunity for us to engage in conversations that, while uncomfortable, are necessary to have if America is to bridge the gaps between the races and find a path to unity.

In partnering with this author, we hope to leverage her novel as the first of many endeavors ahead of us to open the doors of communication and change the conversation around race relations.

To discover more about Nikki T. Anthony and Path To Publishing’s novel approach to changing the way race relationships are discussed, visit our crowdfunding campaign page at https://ptppress.com/taking-a-novel-approach-to-change. Sign up and #JoinTheConversation.You can also visit www.ptppress.com to learn more about Path To Publishing’s traditional publishing imprint.

There’s a Price We Pay for Silence When It Comes to Race Relations

Zenetta Henchman lives in the small rural town of Buzzardville, Alabama, in the early 1990s. Like many small Southern towns, its residents are caught between the old-time ways of segregation and the more modern ways of integration.

When Zenetta experiences firsthand the dark side of the racial conflicts that bubble beneath the surface of her hometown, she chooses to keep silent out of fear for her family. The Price We Pay dives into the steep price her friends, her family, and even her community pay for that silence.

In what is being called a modern-era version of To Kill a Mockingbird told from a Black perspective, Nikki T. Anthony’s novel paints a painfully accurate picture of the challenges faced by many Black Americans today. Going a step further, it challenges all sides to examine the way their own silence contributes to this picture.

The reasons for that silence are many times the same as Zenetta’s: fear. Fear of not being heard. Fear that we’ll cause problems for ourselves or our families if we speak up.

Unfortunately, as in Zenetta’s case, the silence that we thought would protect us and those we love often becomes the instrument through which people are hurt. It can seem easier to stay silent than it is to speak up, but it isn’t safer.

Too often that silence becomes toxic. It leads to bottled-up anger that explodes out onto innocent people. That’s why we are committed to crowdfunding a movement that encourages people to engage in the conversations that can dispel the misunderstandings and equip Americans on all fronts to enter into open and honest conversations around the issues that matter most.

To discover more about Nikki T. Anthony, her book, and Path To Publishing’s novel approach to changing the conversation around race relations, visit our crowdfunding campaign’s page at https://ptppress.com/taking-a-novel-approach-to-change. Sign up to #JoinTheConversation.

You can also visit www.ptppress.com to learn more about Path To Publishing’s traditional publishing imprint.

Racial Divides Are Hurting Our Children. Here’s What We’re Doing About It.

There’s a price we pay for failing to address the growing divide between races. The highest price is not paid by adults, however, but by children.

That price is often emotional, mental, psychological, physical, and financial as they deal with divisions in their families, incarceration of parents, and growing up years spent bouncing from home to home or foster family to foster family.

Adverse Childhood Events are situations that children face which have been identified as so traumatic that the impact on the child not only lasts a lifetime, but can be passed down to the next generation. The more of these events that take place in a child’s life, the higher the risks are of poor mental and emotional outcomes — such as suicide or being drawn into criminal activity — later in life, and the higher the risk for their own children, as well.

Bullying and discrimination based on race or ethnicity are two of these events. When combined with other adverse events, such as a parent who is jailed, living in an unsafe neighborhood, experiencing food shortages, physical or emotional neglect, parental separation or divorce, it can create a lethal cocktail of mental, emotional, psychological, and physical health problems that leave families in financial ruin and poverty.

It doesn’t have to be this way. We can change things. First, though, we have to talk about it. We have to be willing to hold open and honest conversations about the issues surrounding race. The current ways of holding racial conversations, where we talk about each other rather than to each other, aren’t easy. The results won’t be immediate.

Human beings have a tough time changing because they first have to understand what they are doing to contribute to the problem, then see why the change that they’re being asked to make is essential to improving things, and then believe that making those changes is in their best interest. It can take many conversations before a breakthrough is made. Patience is required.

Path To Publishing isn’t content to sit on the sidelines waiting while the next generation of children pay the price for the silence, the divisions, and the failures of current leadership to step up and own responsibility for fixing the problems. We didn’t create the problems but we will take responsibility for doing our part to solve them.

That’s why we’re crowdfunding a movement designed to bridge the gap between the races. The money raised will be used to fund the publication of The Price We Pay,dubbed the To Kill a Mockingbird of the 21st Century but from the Black point of view, the debut novel of a young Black author. It is being published on our traditional publishing imprint, PTP Press.

Discover more about our novel approach to changing the conversation around race relations by visiting our crowdfunding campaign page: https://ptppress.com/taking-a-novel-approach-to-change. While you’re there, sign up to #JoinTheConversation and support our efforts to open the doors to honest, thoughtful conversations that can produce conversions of heart and mind.

Racial Divides Are Growing in America. We Have a Novel Approach to the Problem.

“If you always do what you’ve always done, you always get what you’ve always gotten.” – Jessie Porter, Woman to Woman Conference

According to a recent Gallup poll, 70% of the population of the United States reports being worried about race relations, and 68% reports being dissatisfied with the state of it.

While 60% of White Americans believe a solution will eventually be worked out, 59% of Black Americans have lost hope that things will improve.

It’s clear that despite America’s focus on racial healing for the past sixty years, many things still need to change. This kind of change is not something that can be legislated or mandated. It must begin with the heart and a sincere desire to connect with one another in a way that honors and recognizes the value our diverse viewpoints add to one another.

At Path To Publishing, diversity, equity, and inclusion are built into our DNA. And it’s built into the DNA of our traditional publishing imprint, PTP Press. It is the reason for our existence. Long before it became a corporate buzzword, we sought to bring greater diversity to the literary world by ensuring a path to publishing was available for all voices, regardless of race, gender, color, creed, or sexuality.

As leaders in literary excellence, we recognize that change begins with us. We may not have created the problem between the races, but we do our part to solve it. That’s why we’re launching a crowdfunding campaign designed to do just that starting with what we know best: books.

When Nikki T. Anthony’s book, The Price We Pay, came across the desk of PTP Press, we recognized in it a perfect opportunity to enact our plan to launch a movement to help bridge the gap between the races by encouraging and cultivating the kind of open, honest, and thoughtful discussions that lead to conversions of the heart and mind.

Discover more about our new book and our novel approach to opening the door to these sensitive conversations as part of our crowdfunding campaign: ​https://ptppress.com/taking-a-novel-approach-to-change​. Support the movement. #JoinTheConversation.

The Price We Pay Named Finalist for IBPA’s 2024 Benjamin Franklin Awards

2024 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards Finalist: The Price We Pay

Out of more than 1,800 entries across 57 categories, the IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards have narrowed it down to three books in each category. PTP Press, the traditional publishing imprint of Path To Publishing, and author Nikki T. Anthony are thrilled to announce that The Price We Pay has been named a finalist for the Bill Fisher Award for Best First Book: Fiction!

“IBPA has a long history of promoting excellence in independent publishing,” said IBPA CEO Andrea Fleck-Nisbet. “No program better showcases the quality of books that indie publishers produce than the IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award. We are proud of this award’s enduring and prestigious legacy and congratulate all of the finalists.”

The Price We Pay is a page-turner that will keep readers on the edge of their seats. The
Price We Pay is a coming-of-age story that will resonate with a wide audience, a timely
Young Adult novel filled with moments of fear and love, heartbreak and humor.

The Book Review Directory

PTP Press is thrilled to become part of this legacy with our first release. It’s a testament to the hard work and the passion of the author and the publishing team, as well as how powerful its message of diversity and the need for understanding each other in this world is.

We are excited to see where this book and its timely, and timeless, message go from here. Congratulations to all the finalists for the IBPA’s Benjamin Franklin awards, and our heartiest congratulations to Nikki T. Anthony!

Grab Your Copy Today

See what all the hype is about and grab your copy of The Price We Pay today.

TikTok Introducing 8th Note Press

The Social Media Company Is Looking To Give Amazon, and Traditional Publishing, A Run for Its Money…But Is That What’s Best for Authors?

TikTok, a social media app produced by Chinese-owned company ByteDance, is the sixth most popular social media outlet to date. Its 1.67 billion active users are located across 160 countries.

Almost half of America’s three hundred million citizens are on TikTok at any given time, making it a powerful tool for influence. In first quarter of 2023, it generated almost half-a-billion dollars in revenue for merchants.

It’s not surprising that book lovers carved out their own special niche on TikTok, known as BookTok. BookTok offers the largest social community for book lovers and generates nearly 30 billion views a day. Books that are featured on BookTok end up becoming such hot sellers that even big box retailers like Barnes & Nobles now watch their trending list to see what titles to stock.

Competing With The Giants

On April 20th, 2023, ByteDance filed a trademark for 8th Note Press. In addition to ebook, audio, and print book publishing, it also covered downloadable software designed to connect registered users to a virtual community offering discussions, book reviews, and social networking.

This could be a game changer for the publishing industry. Amazon offers the widest selection of books but people leave the moment the purchase is done. TikTok offers a social environment and a retail capability but doesn’t help authors publish their works. Good Reads, which Amazon bought, was supposed to help Amazon cross that bridge but it didn’t work out that way. Combining BookTok’s momentum with a full-scale publishing house could tip the scales in TikTok’s favor.

This, though, presents a problem. If TikTok controls the publishing, will they stop allowing books that aren’t published through 8th Note Press to be promoted? Will they skew the algorithm in favor of their books and bury the alternatives?

The Temptations Of Publishing Success

It’s hard to tell authors who are looking for their books to become a household name to avoid getting involved with something that could make their dreams come true with a single promotion. It’s easy to get caught up in the promise and not think through the potential consequences of what could happen.

Imagine, though, a scenario where there is only one publishing option and only one platform with the real power to promote an author. That is something that could happen if 8th Note Press gains power. Right now, BookTok is helping authors get past the normal gatekeepers. But imagine a future where 8th Note Press is the only gatekeeper, and authors must dance to their tune if they want their books to see the light of day.

That might sound like an unlikely, gloom-and-doom scenario, but the truth is that most publishing houses these days do not ever make more than they pay out in advances on royalties for 70% of the titles they produce. They rely on a few heavy hitters to keep them in the black. This is why we’ve gone from 20 big publishing houses prior to the 1980’s to just five major players.

Small and medium-sized publishing houses often face even thinner profit margins. They could never compete with a heavyweight like 8th Note Press in terms of capital and clout. Trying to might shutter their doors for good, leaving authors no option but 8th Note Press and no hope of getting published without them.

Tackling Minority Mental Health Issues

When we talk about mental health, we’re talking about something that includes our psychological, emotional, and social well-being. We’re talking about something that affects how we feel, how we think, and how we act.

These things are part of what determines how we make choices, relate to others, and handle stress. According to the CDC, one in five people live with mental illness. That’s why talking about and taking care of our mental health is so important.

However, racial and ethnic minorities can find more obstacles in finding and receiving care and accommodations for these conditions and difficulties.

This can be due to discrimination, cultural stigma around mental health care, cost and a lack of health insurance, or a lack of access to quality mental health care services. These groups can also face environmental challenges that negatively impact their emotional wellness, such as racial discrimination and racial violence leading to racial trauma.

That’s why July is Minority Mental Health Awareness month.

Both the CDC and the Department of Health & Human Services Office of Minority Health encourage everyone–individuals, public health organizations, educators, health care systems, and communities–to educate themselves on mental health and the specific impacts and challenges for racial and ethnic minority communities.

This is a topic close to our hearts at Path To Publishing, and it’s also a topic examined through the lens of a teenaged Black girl in the first release on our traditional publishing imprint, PTP Press: The Price We Pay by Nikki T. Anthony. The author recently had a chance to discuss this matter, as well as her experiences and book, on WLNS Channel 6 in Lansing, MI.

Please visit the websites for the CDC and HHS to find more resources about minority mental health awareness, and watch for the release of The Price We Pay by Nikki T. Anthony in September of 2023. You can preorder it now by clicking here.

Let’s start a conversation about mental health in minority communities, and #JoinTheConversation about race relations and well-being in the US by visiting our crowdfunding page.

Let’s Try Civil Discourse Rather Than Civil War

Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin in the early 1850’s. It was published in book form in 1852 to highlight the plight of slaves and bring attention to the mistreatment they received. That book wove its way into the tapestry of American public opinion and in less than 12 years, Stowe’s book was being read all over the nation.

Inspiring Others to See the World Through Different Eyes

Stowe’s deft ability to pour her heart out on the page and forge an emotional connection through her characters with her audience led many who might otherwise have been content to remain silent about slavery, uncertain about their right or need to take a stand, to rise up and decide it was time to do something about the situation.

The characters, all based on real people and real events, served the purpose of humanizing the plight of slaves and causing readers to feel it as if it were happening to them. Their conscience would no longer let them remain quiet.

Legislation That Divided a Nation

Stowe took an active hand in this, encouraging her growing followers to use their influence to collect petitions against slavery, spread information, and give lectures about it. Anti-slavery sentiment began to rise, inspired by her words and by the growing popularity of the movement to abolish it, but the result was a nation divided by Civil War.

Abraham Lincoln, upon greeting Stowe, is said to have joked, “You’re the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war.”

Less than 80 years after the Civil War began, Stowe achieved a part of her desired outcome: slavery is no longer legal. However, what remains in its wake is a nation that is racially divided. Attempts to pass laws to force the races to unify have only resulted in resentment and further divisions.

Growing Racial Divisions and Tensions

Like a dysfunctional family, the various races talk about one another rather than to one another. Tensions are mounting and there are threats on all sides being tossed out of another civil war.

The last Civil War cost America 620,000 lives, or nearly 2% of the population. If it were to take place in this day and age, that would be the equivalent of more than 6 million lives.  Moreover, it would solve nothing. Rather than closing the gap between the races, it would only serve to widen it.

There’s a price we pay for every action we take, and for our choices in how to handle the challenges of racial division. A book brought the issue of slavery to the forefront of the American mind and led people to take action. We know that a book can do that same thing again, but what we propose to do that Stowe did not do is equip our followers with tools for civil discourse.

Changing Hearts and Minds Rather Than Laws

Legislation will not change the human heart. Feelings or sentiments can’t be outlawed. It is impossible to mandate a change of perspective or viewpoint in a manner that respects freedom of speech. With the right tools, the right leadership, and the right conversations, though, people can be persuaded to change their minds. They can be shown a different perspective or viewpoint and be invited to explore it.

That’s why, at Path To Publishing, we are crowdfunding a movement that will leverage our upcoming novel, The Price We Pay, to help change the conversation around race relations. By allowing them to look at the world through the eyes of Zenetta Henchman, we hope to give them a taste of what life looks like from a different point of view and so expand their perspective.

Equipping People with the Training to Lead Conversations

We know that people will need training in how to lead the difficult conversations the novel will inspire, so we’re also providing the Magnetic Thought Leadership Training required. We know that these conversations will require navigating sensitive racial topics, so we’re preparing a Study Guide to help those who are bold enough to try get the guidance they need to be successful. And, finally, as Stowe herself did, we’re working to build a LEADERS community where those who participate can find the guidance and support they need to overcome the inevitable challenges.

A civil war won’t help our nation heal. It won’t end the racial divisions. But a novel approach to race relations just might. Discover more about our crowdfunding campaign by visiting the pre-launch page and sign up to #JoinTheConversation at https://bit.ly/3B3iY0g.