Author Videos

Tony Townsley, Mark St. Germain and April Willy

"The value of being a Thomas Nelson title is just incredible."

Thomas Nelson selected the first WestBow Press title, Three Cups, to be published and distributed through the traditional publishing company. The book offers a unique way to teach children the responsibility of spending, saving and donating their money.

Video Transcript

Tony: Three Cups is based upon the story of my family – my wife Susan, my son Jake and my daughter Emma – and how we taught them about the principles of money. When our children turned5, we thought that it was important that they start splitting their money up into the three cups – savings cup, spending cup and charity cup. We’ve had some great experiences with our kids and learning about saving, learning about spending responsibly and giving back charitably.

Mark: He said I really want to make a difference, and I want to find a way I can give back and have an impact. My wife and I had just started self-publishing children’s books and I said, “I know how to self-publish a children’s book so why don’t we go down that road?”

April: The message of Three Cups is such a wholesome message and so endearing and so important, honestly. To share with others and to try to teach children how to not only give back to charity but how to manage their money, which is obviously a problem that needs addressing.

Mark: Tony and I were meeting and we were at – I think I might have read it in The Wall Street Journal – I took it to the meeting I was having with Tony, and I said, “Look here. Author Solutions is now in some kind of partnership with Thomas Nelson through this third publishing arm called WestBow.” We had already had so much success with the market and Thomas Nelson via WestBow obviously saw that to be the case [and thought], “Hey this would be a kind of a low-risk book that we might bring on.” Well then the news got better that Thomas Nelson actually said, “We want to make this a title. We want to make this a Thomas Nelson title.” And I said to Tony, I said, “This is really like making it in the NBA. This is so rare that this happens.”

April: The value of being a Thomas Nelson title is just incredible. It gives validation to our title if nothing else. Just having the backing of the largest Christian publisher – I think they’re the sixth largest trade publisher – it’s just a great feeling to have that kind of backing and support.

Tony: So our hope is, as we work with Thomas Nelson, is that Three Cups will begin popping up on children’s dressers, in kitchen cabinets and all throughout the country. The idea here is that we can change children and we can change lives in a very powerful, meaningful way.

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