My interview with Amplify CEO Naren Aryal and Greenleaf CEO Tanya Hall

Today, I’m sharing something a little different and special — a video interview.

We learned last week that BlackBern Partners, a private equity company, had acquired two of the most prominent companies in the hybrid publishing space: Greenleaf Book Group and Amplify Publishing. I’m familiar with both companies, having in the past published books with each of them and helped authors working with them. They’re both solid, excellent publishing partners.

Hybrid publishing is a model in which publishers pay to have books edited, produced, and distributed. It’s similar to traditional publishing in the quality of the result, but the economics are different: authors pay tens of thousands of dollars up-front, then receive a higher royalty percentage on each copy.

Here’s what I learned in the interview:

• Both companies will continue as divisions of the PE-backed holding company, Civica Media. Both have notable partnership imprints: for example, Greenleaf is partnered with Inc. and Fast Company, while Amplify is partnered with RealClearPolitics.
• The companies will combine some operations for efficiency, such as accounting (important for royalty payments) and distribution. But they’ll continue to compete for authors, both with each other and with other hybrid publishers like Forbes Books.
• Tanya and Naren wouldn’t confirm that taking on Forbes Books is a significant goal. (I don’t believe them — of course it is!)
• This is likely the beginning of additional rollups by the holding company, including other hybrid publishers and other components of the publishing business.
• The new company should add to the credibility of hybrid, a business that’s been marred by disastrous events like the implosion of Scribe Media. It will also make a stronger case to differentiate from the many small and lower-quality self-publishing operations out there.
• Print-on-demand publishing on platforms like Amazon will be a bigger part of this business moving forward, because it significantly reduces costs for authors.

I admire both of these CEOs for what they’ve done with their businesses to get to this point. I have high hopes for the future of the combined company, but it’s a very complicated time for the publishing business. I still believe hybrid is where much of the innovation in this business comes from, so this is a combination well worth watching.