SAE’s Sherry Nigam Grows Authors out of Engineers
Posted: July 12, 2024
SAE Books has no stereotypical author.
SAE authors aren’t professional writers, they are engineers. As Publisher of SAE Books, Sherry Nigam collaborates with engineers from around the world who have the technical knowledge and brings that to life.
Sherry developed a love of books while growing up in rural Kentucky with her mom working as a bookmobile librarian and her father working at a printing press. However, it wasn’t until college that she found her passion for publishing.
“I knew very early on that I wanted to do something with books, and I realized putting books together and helping other people get published is really what I found to be the most enjoyable and fulfilling for myself,” said Sherry. “As I’ve gone through my career my absolute passion is finding first-time authors and helping them get published.”
Since Sherry joined SAE in 2017, the SAE Books team has grown its author network extensively. Her team has a great understanding of how to work with first-time authors and provides assistance from concept to promotion. SAE Books is committed to supporting its authors with an assigned personal editor that will work with them for the entire length of their writing process, rather than being bounced around to different people throughout the process.
As part of a non-profit, SAE Books is not working to meet a certain number of units sold, but rather to serve the mobility community.
“If I have a book that is meaningful to our community, even if there’s only 1000 people that might read it, we have the freedom to publish as a non-profit,” said Sherry. “There are times when people come to us because the big guys have passed on them because their book won't meet high financial targets needed by 'for profit' publishers. However, we’re like ‘Okay, this is where you belong. This is our community.’”
That freedom has allowed authors to thrive. SAE Books and its authors have been continuously recognized for editorial excellence over the last several years, with nearly 30 awards in Sherry’s tenure with SAE. Most recently, SAE Books were honored with multiple awards from the Independent Book Publishers Association’s (IBPA) Benjamin Franklin Awards™ and the 2024 Independent Press Awards.
Together, SAE Books and its authors are working towards the same goal. Sherry offered this piece of advice for those considering publishing with SAE.
“Don’t be afraid. There is never ever going to be the right time to write your book and SAE knows that. We’re building publishing schedules two years out because that’s realistic,” said Sherry. “Life happens and we plan for that.”
Visit sae.org/PublishNow to learn more about how you can start your journey to publishing with SAE.