Like a lot of moms, Zibby Owens was feeling overwhelmed, stressed and worried that she wasn’t spending enough quality time with her four kids.
She decided to write an essay in the Huffington Post about the challenges of motherhood, but then she ended up writing several more and, before long, she was considering writing a book, cleverly titled, “Moms Don’t Have Time To Read Books.”
However, the title didn’t appeal to publishers, and neither did Owens’ lack of a major following.
So instead of writing a book, Owens launched the “Moms Don’t Have Time To Read Books” podcast in March 2018. Every episode features an interview with an author about what’s important to them, and gives busy readers the back story to both popular and undiscovered essays and books.
Today, the podcast has been downloaded millions of times, and its long list of guests includes big names like singer Alicia Keys, actress Lena Dunham and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden.
The success of the podcast allowed Owens to finally become a published author earlier this year. Her newest book, “Moms Don’t Have Time To Have Kids,” was released in November. But she’ll be doing something even bigger in 2023 when she launches her own publishing company, Zibby Books.
“After interviewing about 900 authors and having experience with three publishers myself, I could see what the common issues were in the publishing industry,” Owens said. “I didn’t think authors were being treated as well as they should be, so I wanted to flip everything around and make it all about the author and the reader.”
Zibby Books will publish 12 books a year, one per month, and to reflect the importance of collaboration, the company will have a profit-sharing bonus program, in which 75 percent of the profits each year will be divided equally among employees of the company and its published authors.
“Every single person plays a role,” Owens said. “You can’t point to just the marketing director, the publicist, or the editor. Everybody plays a crucial role in this team effort in getting a book onto a bookshelf.”
