It was out of a struggle to find faith-based publishing services that led female entrepreneur Crystal Daye to set up her company DayeLight Publishers Limited some six years ago. This, after also penning her first book and upon noticing a gap in the market as it relates to the publication of certain content.

“When I wrote my first book in 2016, I struggled to find a Christian publisher locally and the ones I found internationally didn’t offer much support during the publishing process. Based on the content of the book, I preferred working with a faith-based publisher. This was what would have ultimately inspired me a few months later to study the ins and outs of the publishing industry and armed with a master’s degree in business administration, shortly afterwards by about January 2017 the company was launched,” she told the Jamaica Observer.

The local publishing entity prides itself as a faith-based publishing and marketing consultancy company established to help new and aspiring authors to write, publish, market and monetise their books.

Mostly targeting devotional and other empowering content for publishing, DayeLight, outside of its standard publishing services, also provides coaching and tutelage for authors which is delivered through its heavily demanded ‘Reach Millions Author Accelerator’— a book coaching programme. Through the accelerator, the company teaches authors how to sell more books, grow their brands globally as they impact lives with their writings.

“DayeLight supports aspiring non-fiction authors from taking the book idea from their heads to having a professionally published book in their hands, while also teaching them how to market the book and to entice their readers.

“We publish self-help books, devotionals, journals, poetry books, business and career oriented books among others. Our specialty, however, are non-fiction books that empower, impact and educate readers. Our main targets are therefore faith-based, non-fiction writers, impact-driven entrepreneurs and leaders who desire to leave a legacy through writing. To ensure that we only deliver on quality, we have from day one made sure to engage some of the best editors and designers in order to have our products stand out and ranked about some of the best in the market,” Daye said, noting that since inception DayeLight has catered to over 150 authors with many bestsellers.

“We are not here for ownership so when clients publish with us, they keep 100 per cent of their royalty,” she further said to Sunday Finance.

Now operating from the comfort of Daye’s home, the company staffed with just about two full-time employees also works with a network of contracted writers, editors and formatters which the CEO said has been instrumental in helping to service a growing clientèle spread across some ten countries worldwide.

With most of its operations transitioned online since the novel coronavirus pandemic, Daye said the virtual set up of the business has provided it a huge platform through which it can connect with hundreds of clients and global publishing giants including Kindle, Amazon and Barnes and Noble among others.

Looking forward to upcoming events such as the company’s seventh anniversary next year and the second staging of its Kingdom Author Success Book Fair & Awards Conference scheduled take place from June 30-July 1 this year, the CEO said she is super excited to further the mission of providing a marketplace for faith-based authors to gain more exposure/visibility and to increase sales.

Awarded a multiple bestselling author for pieces that she has written, Daye as an international book and marketing coach wants to in the next five years imprint her mark on not just the pages of the work she produces, but also as a solid brand in the global industry. This, while her clients, likewise continue to make a name for themselves and to host global book signing events and grow income drastically.

“Over the short to medium term our vision is to become the number one faith-based publishing company in the Caribbean. We are now working on building a stronger presence in more Caribbean countries in order to serve more authors across the region. Another of our future objective is to expand the coaching aspect of the business, as we move to offer more done-for-you services to new and aspiring authors who desire to build a profitable business from their book.

“Other desires in consideration include the launching of a podcast to educate new and aspiring authors and also possibly to produce a magazine and maybe launch a bookstore at some point in the future…honestly, as I pray I go as the Lord leads,” Daye said smiling.