In our early days, we lived and worked together in Bali and Peru. These days, Publishizer is headquartered in Amsterdam, with offices in New York and Michigan.
Co-founder & CEO
Lee has spent the past six years merging technology with book publishing as a literary agent and entrepreneur. His recent book deals include The Business of Influence by marketing podcaster Neal Schaffer (HarperCollins), That One Cigarette by award-winning Hollywood screenwriter Stu Krieger (Harvard Square Editions), Live Big by investor and business coach Ajit Nawalkha (BenBella Books), and Arthritis Foodie by Instagram influencer Emily Johnson (Hachette).
Co-founder & CTO
Tobias is a book and music lover. And he loves great and reliable solutions on the web, that’s why he built the Publishizer app right from the beginning. Being a full stack developer and project lead for over a decade now he’s always looking for the right technologies to push Publishizer forward.
Literary Agent
Ben thinks some of the best conversations revolve around books. A recent deal of his is Polar Exposure by Felicity Aston (Charlesbridge). He enjoys reading aloud The Chronicles of Narnia to his daughter. He loves reading fantasy because it reminds him of the magic and beauty in this world. Ben comes from a background in the magazine industry, coffee, and photography. One of his favorite books is The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien.
Literary Agent
Julia works with history, philosophy, and literary fiction. A recent deal of hers is IKIGAI by Chiemi Souen (Brandylane). Since early age, she collects Russian classics and gets mesmerized by Japanese fiction touch, while enjoying satirical books such as A Confederacy of Dunces by J. K. Toole. Julia comes from the Project Management industry and she’s a polyglot: Spanish and Catalan are both her native languages, though she’s also fluent in English, French, Russian and Italian. You can either find her digging around in a record store or at a library in the foreign authors section. Favorite book: The Egyptian by Mika Waltari.
Sales Agent
Caner spent his last 2 years practicing and learning new coaching and communication techniques. As a photographer, he nourishes his soul by reading and capturing beautiful photos in nature. He sees books as a portal and he marvels at the tales of ancient times and of the fantasy world. His favorite book is 1984 by George Orwell.
Editorial Assistant
Clara is a student and deputy editor for the University of San Francisco literary magazine, the Ignatian. They edit and publish poetry, non-fiction, and fiction stories. She is studying English literature and pursuing a minor in journalism, and is fluent in both English and Spanish. Clara’s favorite short story is Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin and her current favorite fiction novel is Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. She believes stories and books have the power to change the world. In her free time, she loves to play the piano and garden.
Partner
Jesse sits squarely at the intersection of publishing and promotion – having signed two publishing deals on two different continents and navigated the world of becoming a best-selling author twice. It has been his honor to publish 100+ books during his 6-year tenure as founder & publisher of Lifestyle Entrepreneurs Press. His role is to help manage payments and finances as an outsourced partner.
Back Office
Hemant ensures our authors are paid and workflows from campaign to funds transfer runs smoothly. His work is non-client-facing and his day-to-day is made up of payment settlements, record maintenance, compliance, bookkeeping, and keeping our numbers in line. His favorite book is Dune by Frank Herbert.
Data Specialist
Faisal is obsessed with the idea of ‘portable careers’ and digital marketing. He started learning the ABC’s of digital marketing and then working on different projects related to it from early 2013. Slowly he became a passionate follower of this advanced sphere of the marketing industry. He is a bookworm, kind of a workaholic, and a coffee snob. As he is a science fiction lover, his favorite book is The Martian by Andy Weir.
Publishizer started as a crowdfunding platform for books, and was soon accepted into the 500 Startups accelerator in Mountain View, California. Publishizer, Inc. was born on May 22, 2015.
We realised early on that authors were stuck between a rock and a hard place: traditional publishing rejected 96% of book ideas, but self-publishing was both insanely expensive and didn’t help great books get discovered. Publishers started taking notice of our authors, who were raising substantial amounts of money through pre-orders, and were able to offer authors a fairer deal. Our New York City office was opened in Brooklyn in 2017.
In 2018, Publishizer started landing traditional publishing deals for authors. With an injection of funding from Rockstart and Arches Capital in Netherlands, we opened our Amsterdam office. Publishizer BV was incorporated in March 2019.
Today, Publishizer is revolutionizing how books get published. We crowdfund books, negotiate publishing deals, and help authors bring their books to market. Through our team of literary scouts and agents, we identify great book ideas, enable them through crowdfunding, and spread them by negotiating traditional and independent publishing deals that reach the most readers.
As a crowdfunding literary agency and non-traditional approach to publishing deals, Publishizer gives up royalties to focus on technology and pre-orders. We are avid book lovers who live by three values:
Innovate - Use technology to improve the way books get discovered by traditional publishers.
Educate - Share information and content about the publishing industry and what it takes to gain exposure.
Support - Provide amazing author customer service on proposals, pre-order campaigns, and contracts.