The Pitch that Launched a Business
Mansion 21 Press was conceived while Liz was enrolled in an entrepreneurship program at Ivy Tech Community College. Below, you can read her winning pitch that has allowed Mansion 21 Press to launch as a business.
When I began the entrepreneurship program here at Ivy Tech, I knew I wanted to create something I was passionate about. Something I could see myself pursuing as a full-time career. Something I could love. And I had an idea. The only problem was that I didn’t believe I could do it. I didn’t believe in myself, and the overbearing voice of self-doubt agreed. Afterall, it had been three years since I graduated from the Nasland-Mann Graduate School of Writing with a Master of Fine Arts in Writing for Children and Young Adults and I still didn’t have an agent, a publication, or even an industry connection.
That’s when, in a moment of frustration, I texted my friend Kate, a fellow MFA graduate, “maybe we should just start an editing and book coaching company?” Her response of “YES. YES. YEEEEEES” was what I needed to move forward and our company, Mansion 21 was born.
Mansion 21 is the community experience of a MFA Creative Writing Program paired with an Indie Publishing philosophy delivered through an online platform. In a world where the publishing industry can feel like an impenetrable fortress, Mansion 21 stands as a beacon, where stories are championed from first draft to publication.
While the publishing industry is notorious for its cutthroat nature, it has become just another pawn in the game of late-stage capitalism. So many incredible stories get left behind because traditional publishing has created such a narrow path for writers. Agents, editors, and publishing houses have become gatekeepers who decide which stories deserve to be told. Storytellers are forced to either play the game or risk the taboo nature of self-publishing.
Mansion 21 is here to disrupt this paradigm, making the craft of writing more accessible and inclusive, and creating a pipeline to publication.
Our guild-like community offers support and professional services for each stage of the storytelling process. For apprentice writers who don’t have a completed draft, they can workshop their stories in virtual residencies, attend virtual lectures, and gain access to creative writing resources. For journeyman writers who have a completed manuscript but one that still needs work, they can take advantage of individual coaching, group workshops, and professional editing services to polish their work. And finally, our master writers who have a manuscript ready to be published can network with other writers and industry professionals, use our formatting services, and submit to one of our publishing imprints. Mansion 21 offers a one stop shop for writers of all levels.
Our competition includes the “Big Five” publishing houses who have monopolized traditional publishing with 64% of the overall $28 billion industry. Unfortunately for authors, the odds of being traditionally published are between 1-2%. In contrast, the self-publishing industry has increased by 264% in the last five years. As the largest publisher of self-published ebooks, Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing, gives authors the opportunity to publish but doesn't provide the professional support needed to maintain quality work. Additional competition comes from free online platforms like Wattpad and Inkitt which are more aligned to amateur writers and unfinished or ongoing manuscripts. While each segment of our competition serves its purpose, none of them offers the combination of professional support and publishing pathways that Mansion 21 is offering to all. What’s more, unlike everyone else, Mansion 21 is created by writers for writers.
While both my co-founder, Kate Bustillos, and myself have MFAs in writing, both focusing in the same area, we bring other experiences to the table. I was an English teacher for eight years and have edited over 10 full-length manuscripts. Currently, I am a contributing editor for the Good River Review. Kate was a copy editor for Disney and Travel + Leisure and interned at the Stimola literary agency as an editorial assistant. She is currently working as a marketing editor at Wiley. Mansion 21’s team may be small now, but there will be future opportunities to expand the team as we grow.
At Mansion 21, we are focused on storytelling as a craft and storytelling as a business. While we are a pre-revenue company, we plan on having three main revenue streams: membership fees, professional service fees, and profit sharing. While members will self-select their specific tier based on where they are in the writing process, starting out, the membership fee is the same for all at $5 a month. As we grow and add more features and opportunities for our members, we could look at offering tiered pricing memberships. Our professional service fees are separated into coaching, editing, and formatting. In terms of publishing, instead of giving our authors advances and royalties, which is common in the industry, we will be implementing a profit sharing plan where after production expenses have been paid, the author will receive 75% of profits while Mansion 21 will receive 25%. This is a higher percentage than what authors would receive traditionally at 10-15% in royalties or self-publishing 35-70% in royalties.
As an online business, we have the advantage of saving on a brick and mortar location and having very little expenses beyond our time, but we still have start-up costs that need to be covered to get the basic business up and running. Those expenses include: Administrative tasks such as accounting and legal fees, insurance, and LLC registration. Operating costs such as domain name, website hosting, and formatting software. And the cost of services which is our labor. One thing that I would like to add is a website developer. While I have the capability to design a basic website, I don’t have the technical expertise needed to build our ideal publishing platform to rival Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited.
For financial projections as a pre-revenue company, I looked at the financial possibilities of success with the goal of making $5,000 a month with what we are able to accomplish at this moment. We would be successful if we registered 1,000 memberships or conducted 100 coaching sessions or had 3 manuscripts to edit or format a month. While focusing on just one metric might not be realistic, especially in the long-term, a combination of the three is achievable and sustainable.
