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MindStir Media is an award-winning self-publishing company that last year landed on the coveted Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies. MindStir Media is world-famous in 2024, but that wasn’t always the case. Before MindStir Media found fame in the publishing industry, MindStir started from humble beginnings.
The founder and CEO of MindStir Media, J.J. Hebert — whose own authored books have garnered literary awards and bestseller status — has been quoted in various outlets such as Yahoo Life as saying that he launched MindStir with a mere $700. It’s mind-boggling to think that a publishing company generating millions of dollars per year these days was launched with less than $1,000.
“I started MindStir Media to help authors, including myself, find an audience,” said Hebert when asked for comment. “I had written my debut novel, Unconventional, and published it on my own in 2009. I made a lot of money from the book sales, and that surely helped for a while after getting laid off from my day job at the time … But I wanted my future to include helping other authors, and I believed establishing myself as a publisher could help accomplish that goal, so I took the $700 remaining in my bank account and invested it into MindStir Media.”
The small investment paid off for J.J. Hebert and MindStir Media. Hebert stated that from 2010 to 2019, the company published hundreds of titles for authors throughout the nation and established itself as one of the best self-publishers. In 2020, MindStir Media teamed up with Shark Tank’s Kevin Harrington. Harrington endorsed MindStir Media and became a partner, playing a major role in growing revenue at MindStir exponentially. Nowadays, MindStir Media has published over 1,000 titles, including award-winners and bestsellers on lists such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and USA Today. MindStir’s latest partnerships are with celebrities Mariel Hemingway, an Oscar nominated actor and author, and Jesse Metcalfe from Desperate Housewives. MindStir Media also received praise from the website Kev’s Best, rating MindStir the no. 1 self-publishing company.
MindStir Media offers a variety of self-publishing and book marketing services, all hand-picked by Hebert himself from his perspective as a bestselling author. The company’s publishing offerings are set up as packages from which authors choose. Each package consists of book cover design, interior layout and formatting, ISBN assignment, mentoring from Hebert, printing, and marketing. Some of the company’s packages include more marketing and publicity than others for its authors. Depending on the package tier selected by an author, MindStir will provide website design, press release creation and distribution, book reviews, social media management, and a virtual book tour, among other book marketing items.
MindStir also touts its book distribution services that help authors reach over 40,000 retailers in over 190 countries. Some well-known retailers that MindStir works with are Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target, and Walmart. MindStir books are printed on demand to match demand perfectly. Authors at MindStir receive royalties up to 100% of the profits for each book sold. MindStir also works with its authors on a non-exclusive basis, thus MindStir authors can keep their exclusive rights while receiving author-friendly royalty payouts. This means that MindStir Media’s authors retain their rights as well as keep creative control.
J.J. Hebert’s initial goal of helping authors find an audience has certainly come to fruition. He has turned MindStir Media into a company that authors can count on to bring their books into the world. Authors would be hard-pressed to find a self-publishing company with more comprehensive offerings. MindStir can even connect an author to Mariel Hemingway, Jesse Metcalfe or Kevin Harrington to have any of them write a foreword for a book and film a promotional video to help sell copies. Due to MindStir’s 15-year long track record and its top rating from Kev’s Best, it has become abundantly clear that MindStir Media is the top self-publishing company in the US, a terrific choice for authors at any stage in their writing career.
Authors interested in self-publishing a book and marketing it should go to the official MindStir Media website and schedule a free 15-minute consultation with an expert.
