Community Highlights: Meet Bobby Dunaway of Indigo River Publishing

Today we’d like to introduce you to Bobby Dunaway.

Hi Bobby, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
When I was younger, my family moved to Nashville, Tennessee. I absolutely fell in love with the people and culture that Nashville had to offer. Through school, I found myself drawn to all things business. Many of my family members, including my father, owned their own companies, so naturally, I knew I wanted to do the same. After high school, I decided getting a degree in Business was the way to go. When I learned that The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga had a great business program, I moved there to obtain my degree.

In 2015, as I was preparing for graduation, I had planned to move back to Nashville to use my newly acquired knowledge to get a job and eventually break off on my own to do… something. I never really knew what I wanted to do, I just knew that I wanted to work for myself one day as my father did. By some stroke of luck, I had the inspiration to move to Pensacola, Florida which I had visited a few months before graduation. I told myself it was a temporary move, but after settling in, I met my future mentor who ended up guiding me on my path to success.

After becoming involved at several of his companies, I grew very interested in the publishing company he was co-founder of, Indigo River Publishing. I fell in love with how the world of publishing worked and how an author could take an idea and turn it into something tangible that could be shared with people from all over the world. After several years of working within the business, I became a Partner at Indigo River Publishing and eventually stepped into the role of CEO. Today, my partner Georgette Green and I oversee the company and are excited about the future. One of our accomplishments was signing a partnership with Simon & Schuster for our distribution and sales. We have published many well-known authors’ books, including A Little Me by TLC star Amy Roloff, the First Edition of Who’s In Your Room? by BNI Founder Ivan Misner, and the new release The Winning Playbook by former NFL player Jonathan Scott. We also publish many debut authors and are always looking to partner with writers who have something meaningful to share with the world.

I never would have made it to where I am without help from my parents or my mentors. We have many plans for Indigo River Publishing, including opening a second office in Nashville in the new future.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I don’t believe any entrepreneur can say their journey has been a smooth one! One important aspect of being an entrepreneur is failing. The trick is to not only fail but to fail FAST.

Your failures are a great way to learn how to better position yourself for future success. I recommend, especially if you are starting out on your journey, finding a mentor (or mentors) to learn how they not only succeeded but what failures they endured and how they pivoted and learned from them.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
We work with authors across all genres and have proudly published books from internationally recognized executives and celebrities as well as debut authors. We pride ourselves on identifying and shepherding new voices and rising talent while leading the evolution of the publishing industry’s business model.

Publishing a book can be an expensive undertaking. Traditionally, book publishers take on the financial risk of a book and, consequently, make all the decisions about how that book is published. As a hybrid book publisher, we partner with authors financially to ensure that everyone has a seat at the table. We offer expertise where it’s important and partnership in decision-making where it’s meaningful. Our authors receive expert-level editorial and marketing support, as well as sales distribution and production across all formats while having an equal voice when it comes to the publishing strategy, cover design, title, and book positioning.

How do you define success?
There are several definitions of success, but to me, success comes from more than just financial success.

You also have to remember that if you do not have joy in your life, you are not truly successful. Financial success is a part of overall success, but if you find that at the end of the day, you are not happy, you should reevaluate what you are doing so you can find ways to achieve true success.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.indigoriverpublishing.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/indigoriverpub/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IRPublishing
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobbydunaway88/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/indigoriverpub?lang=en