Earlier this year, independent publishers New Degree Press began presenting Pangea as a resource to their community of authors. Instead of turning to a pricey marketing or public relations firm, each author was given the ability to hire their own publishing assistants through Pangea for a fraction of the price.
Welby Broaddus, author of Leading Blind Without Vision, had a tough time choosing between all of the great candidates who applied to be his assistant. Speaking on his experience hiring through Pangea, Welby said, “For me, it was hard because you see so much everyone has to offer. It’s like, oh, this person is great. Wait, this person is great too!”
New Degree Press has disrupted the publishing industry by helping over 800 authors write their first books. In need of a cost effective way to help their community of writers launch their newly published works, NDP turned to Pangea’s network of college freelancers for assistance with:
With writing being such a personal experience, it was important for the authors to find someone on the same page who would be an accurate representation of their brand. Luisa Ramondo, author of Between the Cobblestones, found just that in Pangean Sam Riley. After narrowing it down to three candidates, Luisa said, “I just kept going back to Sam because she felt like the closest to me. When she answers questions on my social media accounts, I have to think, did I say that? Sometimes I can’t even tell if it was her who replied or if it was me.”
Whether a client is looking for a publishing assistant, digital marketer, or brand ambassador, what Luisa described here is key. The ability for Sam to take on the persona of her client and accurately represent Laura infront of her target audience is something that sets the quality of talent on Pangea apart from the competition.
When it came time for the Pangeans to get to work, the experiences varied based on each author’s needs. For Luisa and Sam, it was very much a collaborative effort. Speaking on her experience, Sam said, “I felt like I received a lot of respect for my work from this client. It didn’t feel like a boss/employee relationship, but rather as though we were colleagues.”
Another model Pangean, Lauren Murillo, actually ended up working with three NDP authors over the past few months. After reviewing Lauren’s wealth of experience with social media, the aforementioned author Welby Broaddus decided to choose her as his publishing assistant. “It was really great,” Welby said. “She even went through some local bookstores in my area to get my book on their shelves, set up speaking engagements at conferences, and booked me on podcasts.”
Author of Notice & Wonder, Mark Joy, also benefited from having Lauren as his publishing assistant. When talking about his plan to market his newly published book, Mark admits, “I actually didn’t know what I needed, and realized through working with Lauren I may have been a bit too ambitious. I was just reaching for the fruit at the very top, and she helped me see the low and medium hanging fruit on the way up.”
Beyond connecting NDP authors with talented publishing assistants, there are lots of other perks that go into hiring freelancers through Pangea. Working closely with NDP, Pangea’s Product Manager Kacie Galligan developed custom pricing packages the author’s could choose from. This made it easy to know exactly what these services would cost and entail. Kacie also did a lot of the legwork when it came to matching the right Pangeans with the right authors, and highlighted Pangea’s recommendations out of each author’s applicants. Mark Joy referred to Kacie as a “total rockstar,” and said that Pangea “offered lots of resources to tailor my specific needs around.”
Pangean Lauren Murillo, one of the top earners on the platform, referred to her experience on Pangea as “life changing.” When comparing Pangea to the competition, Lauren said, “I was on Fiverr and UpWork but now I’m strictly using Pangea because it is just so much easier.” By only working with college students, recent grads, and the companies who want to hire them, it gives these emerging talents a far more realistic shot at landing the roles they desire and deserve.
Pangea’s partnership with New Degree Press is just one of many examples as to what a powerful resource this platform can be. Pangea provides access to the largest network of college talent to date, offers stellar customer support, and monitors Pangean/client engagements from beginning to end to ensure all parties are successful, happy, and thriving.
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