PTP Press

Tag: Published Books

  • How to Avoid the Top 5 Conversation Mistakes

    Many books and publications tackle subject matters that lead to hard conversations to have. This can often be awkward for some authors during readings and signings, or even during panel discussions and live videos.

    Difficult conversations are difficult because they are high-stakes conversations. At risk in this moment is the relationship with the other person, the individual’s personal sense of goodness, a need for validation, a sense of identity, and endemic fears of rejection and judgement.

    When difficult conversations become productive, they improve relationships and strengthen them. When they go wrong, though, relationships can be permanently damaged.

    That’s why it’s important to avoid the top 5 conversational mistakes most people make when trying to engage in difficult conversations:

    1. Seeking to change the other person’s view, rather than to expand their own view.
    2. Assuming their way of seeing things is the only way to see them and that anyone who doesn’t see it their way is wrong.
    3. Listening to respond rather than listening to understand the other person’s viewpoint.
    4. Failing to clarify what the other person means by what they say before responding to them.
    5. Assuming that the other person is driven by bad intentions or a flawed character, rather than by misguidance, misinformation, or lessons learned in childhood and never challenged since.

    While easy to make, when these mistakes are made, conversations inevitably break down and become counterproductive. It can even cause the parties involved to further entrench themselves in their beliefs rather than giving them the room they need to think through the new perspectives presented to them and incorporate those into their existing world view.

    Avoiding these five mistakes is part of the training Path To Publishing will be offering to contributors as we crowdfund our novel, The Price We Pay. That book, along with the training, is all part of our plan to equip our supporters and contributors with everything required to help open the door to these important conversations in a way that is respectful and productive.

    To discover more about our novel approach to changing the conversation around race relations, visit our crowdfunding campaign page at https://ptppress.com/taking-a-novel-approach-to-change. #JoinTheConversation.

    To learn more about the training we offer at Path To Publishing to help you navigate your role as an author, thought-leader, or change-agent, which includes having, moderating, and leading tough conversations, email info@pathtopublishing.com.

  • What Makes Difficult Conversations So Difficult…

    ..and What We Can Do About It

    It’s not hard to have a conversation about which color in a crayon box is the best. That’s because there are no emotional stakes to that conversation. It’s just one person’s opinion versus another’s. What’s being traded is of equal value but offers no emotional attachment.

    However, when the topic of conversation is about race, religion, gender, sexuality, or money, how the topic is viewed is not just an opinion. It’s a reflection of the participating individuals’ personal identities, a judgement of their worthiness to be loved. That’s why those conversations become so emotionally charged.

    Human beings intuitively understand that in order to be loved, they must be seen as good. That’s what drives the urge to justify and rationalize every negative behavior. Love is not a nicety. It is a necessity.

    Although Abraham Maslow posited that love was something that only became a driving need after our basic needs were met, Harry Harlow’s later experiments, presented in “The Nature of Love” in 1958, proved Maslow wrong. Love is such a fundamental need that without it, it doesn’t matter how much food, water, shelter, or reproductive access we have. We will simply lose our will to live.

    That’s where suicides and addictions creep in, as people drink or drug themselves to death trying to escape the pain of living without love. This was borne out again in Bruce Alexander’s infamous Rat Park experiments. Rats who were isolated and deprived of the social needs of love and affection would drug themselves to death. Rats re-introduced to the social environment native to them chose life rather than suicide by addiction.

    There are many contributing factors to the challenges involved in navigating difficult conversations:

    • Our personal limitations
    • Our need for validation of our personal experiences
    • Our ignorance of other people’s experiences
    • Our challenges in seeing ourselves or our beliefs in an objective light
    • Our personal biases and background/history
    • Our emotional attachment to our own ways of thinking and believing

    When all these things are on the line, it’s normal to be defensive and to seek to protect ourselves when we are challenged or feel our beliefs are under attack. That’s because we aren’t just defending our beliefs or opinions. We’re defending our sense of personal goodness and worthiness to be loved.

    Overcoming these difficulties requires training. That’s why we’re offering Magnetic Thought Leadership Training so that our contributors are equipped to lead these conversations in a way that creates an inviting, respectful space where all voices are recognized and seen as being of equal value.

    We are also offering lessons in how to hold difficult conversations that are productive and meaningful, where both sides can walk away feeling respected and heard, yet challenged and encouraged to find room for compromise. We feel these difficult conversations are necessary to clear the air and create space for positive momentum forward.

    Finally, we’re offering a Study Guide that will help people navigate the challenges of discussing sensitive topics in an inter-racial community. We are confident these three factors will open the door and allow everyone a space at the table to make themselves heard.

    This is just the first stage of our larger plan at Path To Publishing to take a novel approach to changing the conversation around race relations. Discover more about the movement, and the book at its heart, by visiting our crowdfunding campaign page at https://ptppress.com/taking-a-novel-approach-to-change. #JoinTheConversation.

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

    Do you need help leveraging your role as a leader, be it as an author, coach, consultant, or in your career or business? Visit https://www.pathtopublishing.com/ptp-certification-verification to learn more about our Magnetic Thought Leadership Training programs.

  • Why It’s So Hard to Talk to Each Other…

    …and How We Can Overcome That

    There’s an ancient Indian story about four blind men examining an elephant and attempting to define for each other what an elephant was based on this.

    One held the trunk and reported that an elephant was long and tubular with two holes at one end.

    One held the tail and disagreed, saying that an elephant was cone shaped and furry at the end.

    One held a leg and disagreed with the first two, saying it was a tree trunk.

    The fourth one held an ear and disagreed with the other three, saying it was a tent flap.

    All four men were convinced they knew the truth and could not be persuaded from it, no matter how ardent the argument.

    A fifth man came along and heard the four men arguing. Fortunately for them, he was not blind. He was able to help them see how they were all four correct and all four wrong at the same time. With the seeing man’s help, they were able to get to the bottom of what an elephant was, based on a more complete picture rather than on the limitations of their personal experiences.

    This story illustrates why conversations about beliefs are so difficult: they are based on an individual’s lived experiences. They know what they’ve seen, felt, heard, tasted, and touched. Their survival depends on their ability to trust their own experiences, and their brain will go to great lengths to protect them from information that threatens or challenges the beliefs formed based on those experiences.

    It also illustrates why beliefs need to be challenged: they aren’t always based on reality, but on the limitations of an individual’s perspective and what can be seen at the time of their experience. The more people that contribute to the conversation, the more perspectives that are available to use in assembling a complete picture.

    Path To Publishing is not just an author assistance and literary service provider. And PTP Press is not just another traditional publishing imprint. We are a change agent. Our novel, The Price We Pay, is a vehicle for our plans to open the door to a novel way of engaging in conversations about race relations.

    Our goal is to unite people who are willing to do the work required to assemble a more complete picture of one another, one free of the misperceptions that creep in when we view one another through the limitations of our perspectives rather than the realities of our lives.

    To discover more about our work to change the way difficult conversations are held, visit https://ptppress.com/taking-a-novel-approach-to-change. If you like what you see, we invite you to #JoinTheConversation.

    Do you have a thought, idea, concept, book, story, testimony, or message that you know deserves to have a movement behind it or some type of cause marketing? If you need help fleshing it out and/or building it out, visit https://app.10to8.com/book/gmerivvtrtwgsyuezivgt-free to schedule a paid 30-minute or 60-minute literary consulting call with one of our Verified Literary Consultants.

    If you need help building your crowdfunding campaign, email info@pathtopublishing.com and request a quote.

  • ‘The Price We Pay’ Is Where Our Plans to Address the Problems of Racial Divisions in America Begins.

    ‘The Price We Pay’ Is Where Our Plans to Address the Problems of Racial Divisions in America Begins.

    But We’re Not Stopping There.

    Path To Publishing has long recognized the power of books to be agents of change. We know that a book can unlock hearts and lead people to question the current culture and their role in it.

    Path To Publishing hopes to leverage the book from our traditional publishing imprint, PTP Press, The Price We Pay, as a tool to open the doors to honest, authentic conversations around race relations that will lead to lasting change. However, we recognize that those changes won’t happen overnight. They won’t happen without more than a book to guide them.

    That’s why this book is just the first step in our plans. Along with the book, we are offering Magnetic Thought Leadership Training that will help people from all walks of life uncover their power to become the kind of leaders capable of drawing people to them, inspiring them with a vision, and leading them to a positive future.

    We are also offering lessons in how to hold difficult conversations that are productive and meaningful, where both sides can walk away feeling respected and heard, yet challenged and encouraged to find room for compromise. We feel these difficult conversations are necessary to clear the air and create space for positive momentum forward.

    We intend to establish a publishing brand known for producing conversation starters that challenge the status quo and open the door to productive conversations around the issues that divide people.

    To discover more about Path To Publishing and our plans for The Price We Pay, visit our crowdfunding campaign at https://ptppress.com/taking-a-novel-approach-to-change. #JoinTheConversation and support the movement.

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

  • Why Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Matter…

    Why Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Matter…

    ..What They Mean to Us, and Why We’re Taking the Lead in Healing the Racial Divides

    Many people hear the words Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and automatically tense up. They either prepare for a fight or get ready to defend themselves. The assumption is that the only way that other voices can be included at the social table is for the majority of voices already there to be removed to make room for these new voices.

    At Path To Publishing, that’s never been our belief. We believe that the best way to make room for new voices isn’t to take chairs away from the people already at the table. It’s to build a bigger table. We believe there is ALWAYS room for one more voice – and if there isn’t, we’ll make room.

    When 2020 hit, many companies were scrambling to put together teams that reflected diversity because their investor funding, and their company’s survival, depended on it. That wasn’t true for us. Diversity was built into our DNA from the beginning, and it’s also built into our traditional publishing imprint, PTP Press.

    Our founder, Joylynn M. Ross, made sure to assemble an advisory team made up of diverse groups of authors from all walks of life. Rich and poor, Black and white, we trust one another and we value each other’s experiences.

    When Nikki T. Anthony’s book, The Price We Pay, came across our desk, our team was able to have an open, honest, and respectful conversation around the racial issues it presented without people becoming angry or walking out precisely because of this trust and the relationships we’d built with one another.

    This experience of being able to use the book as a starting point in a conversation about race that maintained respect while being open and honest about what we thought and felt allowed both sides to challenge themselves and see things in a new light. That gave us hope that this book could be more than just a book. It could be the beginning of something much bigger.

    We saw in it a novel way to conquer the fear around difficult social conversations like this and open the door to the kind of respectful dialogue that leads to insights and greater understanding. We may not have created the problems between the races or the system that perpetuates them, but we knew we could take the lead in doing something about it and become part of the solution.

    Of course, we also knew that we couldn’t do it alone. We would need to build a community of like-minded individuals who were willing to commit their time, energy, and money into the cause. That’s why we chose to crowdfund this movement.

    For more details about our book and our work to change the way difficult conversations are held, visit our crowdfunding campaign page at https://ptppress.com/taking-a-novel-approach-to-change. #JoinTheConversation.You can also visit www.ptppress.com to learn more about Path To Publishing’s traditional publishing imprint.

  • Partnering with Nikki T. Anthony to Make a Difference

    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

    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.

    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.

    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.