10/15/2025
After working 20+ years in the publishing industry, first in magazine publishing, then curriculum publishing and ultimately book publishing, David Welday decided to strike out on his own and formed HigherLife Development Services Inc, now known as HigherLife Publishing and Marketing. Here is how we came to develop our unique “Hybrid Publishing Model” that is distinct from both traditional publishing and self-publishing companies.
“I saw that the industry was changing. Traditional publishing where a would-be author has to find a literary agent who then “shops” their book idea to a publisher in the hopes that the publisher will agree to publish and fund their work, well that model still works but only for a very, very small market. Fact is, you can write a brilliant manuscript but if you are not well known and have a large, national following, the chances of getting picked up by a traditional publisher are almost non-existent.
You see, if a traditional publisher is going to take the risk of investing their money in getting your book published, they want to hedge their bets by publishing a book written by someone who is already famous, who already has a large fan base or following. You might have written an amazing business book, ministry book or personal growth book, but if you’re not already famous or a highly sought-after speaker, don’t waste your time trying to woo the attention of a traditional publisher.
What most people don’t know is that traditional publishers make most of their money on the top 15%-20% of their author line up. These are the authors who get all the attention and marketing budget. So even if you get a traditional publishing deal, chances are, you won’t be on your publisher’s A-list so you will have assigned your rights away, be paying too much for the books you buy back from your publisher to sell yourself and not see any substantive royalty income on your publisher’s sales.
With the invention of digital and on-demand printing, that opened the floodgates for a new type of publishing sometimes called vanity publishing or self publishing. There are a ton of small-time operators offering unsuspecting authors a self-publishing package for a fee. In addition, through Kindle Publishing Direct and other online services, authors can choose to go it alone and self-publish their own books. The problem with these self-publishing plans is that the authors don’t know what they don’t know. A company will sell you their “Gold Publishing Plan” or their “Platinum Plan” for a fee. It all sounds great. Problem is, these plans seldom include the level of editing, design and development skill or the marketing strategy and support necessary to have a book actually do well in the market. The author gets a book, but that book may not be well designed, may not be well edited, and while the author has illusions of becoming the next J.K. Rowling or John Grisham, in the vast majority of cases, the author winds up with an inferior book, little or no sales and marketing support and too many unanswered phone calls from their publisher who they assumed would make them a rising star. Sadly, the publishing world littered with disillusioned and disappointed authors who spent too much money and did not have a great publishing experience.
So in 2004 when I struck out on my own, leaving the corporate publishing world behind, I felt there had to be a better way, a different kind of publishing model – one where an author could get the kind of creative and professional development and marketing support that a traditional publisher could offer but where the author could be in control, could own their publishing rights, get their books developed for a modest fee and be able to order books as they need them at deep author discounts so they could actually make money on the books they sell themselves. They would have enough marketing support so that if they are willing to put in the effort, they can publish a book that pays for itself and generates contacts and revenue for the author that can lead to other types of business revenue and speaking engagements. This “new way” of doing business I call “collaborative publishing”. Others call it “hybrid publishing”. But whatever you call it, it’s a powerful publishing model that merges the best of both the traditional publishing and self-publishing models while avoiding some of the downsides of both models.
When I left my previous employment, I had 6-months severance. So I had six months to launch HigherLife and generate enough business to be able to support my family. By God’s grace and favor, that’s how HigherLife began and for the last 20+ years this is how we have had the joy of serving some truly incredible people – people with powerful stories and truly inspiring and helpful insights who each want to make the world a better place through the message they have to share.
This is HigherLife’s story and we invite you to become an amazing part of what we think is a wonderful story.
