Meet Henry DeVries | CEO (chief encouragement officer) and acquisitions editor-in-chief

We had the good fortune of connecting with Henry DeVries and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Henry, how did you come up with the idea for your business?
When I was the assistant dean for continuing education at the University of California, I had a side hustle of ghostwriting client-attracting books for management consultants and professionals. Once the manuscript was finished I saw how frustrated these would-be authors were with getting happily published. So I took early retirement from the university to form Indie Books International, an independent publishing company, much like an indie record label or an indie film production company. Arguably I am the most prolific nonfiction writer in San Diego because in the last seven years I have helped as a ghostwriter, coauthor or editor for more than 125 published books.

What should our readers know about your business?
Unlike a typical indie book publisher, indie Books International is focused on what happens as a result of the book. Our motto: “Publishing the book is the starting line, not the finish line.” We work with consultants to write a book, publish a book, and then promote their practice by shining a spotlight on the book as a professional expert speaker.. Authors who follow our training achieve an ROI of 400% to 2,000%. Multiple authors have thanked us in writing for helping them earn an extra million dollars as a result of the book. Many authors publish multiple times with us. On a personal note, I am a baseball nut. I was a former Associated Press correspondent covering the San Deigo Padres and I worked as a marketing consultant for the Padres back in the Steve Garvey and Tony Gwynn days. I have visited fourty-four major league baseball parks and I have three to go before I touch them all.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
In Oceanside, the restaurants at Oceanside harbor are great spots for out-of-town visitors. In nearby Carlsbad, we like to take visitors to Norte, a great Mexican restaurant by the ocean. If they like baseball (I am a baseball nut), we would take them to Petco Park to see the Padres or to Anaheim Stadium to see the Angels. For dining when we go to Petco we love the Gaslamp Quarter in San Diego (Rockin’ Baja Lobster and the Spaghetti Factory are favorites) and in Anaheim, we like to go to the upscale food court that is the historic Anaheim Packing District. We are also Disney fans, so we love taking people to Disneyland, California Adventure, and Downtown Disney, with our favorite restaurant being Ralph Brennan’s Jaz Kitchen..

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My partner in publishing at Indie Books International is best-selling author and book coach Mark LeBlanc, who offered to be 50 percent investor from day one. Mark serves as chairman of the board of Indie Books. Together we have put on more than one hundred workshops around the country teaching independent consultants and professionals how to attract high-paying clients by marketing with a book and a speech. Together Mark and I have written and published three books on the subject: Building A Consulting Practice, Defining you, and the soon-tobe-published Rainmaker confidential. Mark is the author of the underground bestseller, Growing Your Business, which has 80,000 copies in print. (I have included a photo of the two of us)

Website: indiebooksintl.com

Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/henryjdevries

Twitter: @indiebooksintl

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/public/Henry-DeVries

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClaAkEQeaJZn6-P8pG4IwWQ

Other: Weekly marketing columnist, Forbes.com (www.forbes.com/sites/henrydevries)

Image Credits
Brown sports coat photos by Melissa Jacobs Blue sports coat photos by Jeff Emmerson