Igniting Literary Enthusiasm: Zibby Owens, the Unstoppable Book Messenger Extraordinaire, Author, Publisher, and Advocate
Zibby Owens is a champion of books, authors, and the joy of reading. As a book messenger, her multifaceted roles include author, publisher, podcast host, book store owner, magazine editor and Good Morning America television book correspondent. Owens has built an impressive book empire that continues to captivate readers worldwide and you can now join her for both retreats and classes! Stop by her bookstore on Montana to find your next favorite read!
Owens’ love for books and storytelling ignited at an early age, leading her on a path towards becoming an author and book enthusiast. Her memoir, BookEnds, details her personal experiences and the events that influenced her literary pursuits, her passion and her relentless determination to share stories that resonate with readers.
As an author, Zibby Owens has penned a children’s book, a memoir, two anthologies and in 2024, you can read her novel, BLANK! Beyond her own writing, Zibby Owens has played a pivotal role in amplifying the voices of other authors as a publisher and a podcaster who has now interviewed over 1600 authors on Moms Don’t Have Time To Read.
Zibby Owens, the inspiring book messenger, has not only created a significant impact on the literary world but has also touched the lives of countless readers. Owens has fostered a community of book lovers and empowered voices that deserve to be heard. Her journey serves as a testament to the transformative power of literature and the enduring influence of those who passionately champion its cause.
Enjoy our interview
Lisa Niver:
Good morning. This is Lisa Niver from We Said Go Travel and I am beyond thrilled and excited to be bringing you the New York publishing powerhouse Zibby Owens. Hi, Zibby.
Zibby Owens:
Hi, how are you?
Lisa Niver:
I am so honored to be here with you. You have really changed publishing and I just, I can’t thank you enough for being so committed to memoir and women’s books and being an incredible ambassador and book messenger.
Zibby Owens:
Oh, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. I have fun.
Lisa Niver:
You definitely do. And I know there is so much going on in your life, so thank you for taking this time. You’re in the middle of writing a new novel, Blank, right?
Zibby Owens:
Yes. It’s almost done but now we’ve been editing, copyediting, so very close to the finish line.
Lisa Niver:
Blank is coming out next year early 2024?
Zibby Owens:
It comes out March 5th.
Lisa Niver:
I love that it’s coming out during Women’s History Month.
Zibby Owens:
This year for Women’s History Month, our book, Women are the Fiercest Creatures, was timed to International Women’s Day.
Lisa Niver:
You are so much about empowerment, exercise and creating your own path. You decided== “I’m going to have a book publishing company.” And now you do! Tell us about Zibby Books.
Zibby Owens:
The industry itself is tricky to navigate as a new player, but we are a publishing company. Anne Messitte is our publisher and she used to run Viking and Anchor Books. She knows all the ins and outs of the business, and we have a great team. I started Zibby Books, because of my love of authors. I idolized authors my whole life as a huge reader. I’m still a huge reader and this business comes from a place of passion and fun. I read books all the time.
I read if I’m in a bad mood, in a good mood-it’s my go-to thing. Being able to publish other people’s books after I talked to so many authors on my podcast, Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books. I’ve had over 1,600 episodes. After talking to so many people, I realized everybody keeps complaining about all these things about publishing. And I thought–someone needs to do something about it and who is going to do it? So, I waited and waited and I thought could I be the one to do something? So, I decided to try.
Lisa Niver:
That’s very Jewish. We say that the person that saves one life saves a whole world. And I love that you talk about being a book messenger and that you’re bringing books to life is incredible.
Zibby Owens:
Thank you. I get so much satisfaction when I recommend a book, and somebody reads it and then they say that book changed my life or I never would’ve read that book without you and I loved it. I love hearing that, that’s like my favorite thing.
Lisa Niver:
I loved your memoir, Bookends.
Zibby Owens:
Thank you.
Lisa Niver:
And I noticed in your book you really write a lot about the books you are reading at that time. And I know for myself when I’ve been traveling it was so interesting to me how books appeared to me and I thought this book is perfect. It explains either how I’m feeling or where I am.
Zibby Owens:
It’s so funny how that happens. I started this book Everything All at Once by Steph Catudal, I started it in the month it came out in May and I just didn’t have the time to finish it. It wasn’t on the calendar soon enough in my podcast lineup and so I just never had a chance to read it. And I even packed it on a few trips, and I was going to skip the line because I really want to read this one, but then I never ended up being able to do it.
Until finally I read it, and I was literally in Japan with my kids on our first big family trip and it talks about how she was in Japan. And I thought what are the odds? It’s so crazy. Things happen for a reason, I believe that.
Lisa Niver:
When something like that happens to me, I think I’m in the right place. It is confirmation I was supposed to pick this book up now, and I was supposed to be here now or you know you are supposed to be here with your kids on their first trip to Japan reading this book. I believe it is the universe’s confirmation — check, good job.
Zibby Owens:
Yes. I like that.
Lisa Niver:
In your book, you talk about love and loss and literature. You really did have so much loss, and I appreciate that you truly share with people how hard it was.
Zibby Owens:
For anyone who has lost someone, as I’m sure most people have at some point, or they will at some point, you know it’s not something you easily get over. And if the people in your closest circle aren’t familiar with grieving or don’t grieve in the same way, that can also be really isolating. There are no strings you can pull. The person is gone, you can’t do anything, you can’t redo anything. I’m all about changing things, shifting things, even with the publishing company. If that’s not working, so let’s try this. Or I’m going to change this, I’m going to change that. Or let’s not go here, let’s go there.
But with loss, there is no changing. There is no backup, let’s redo it and find a better way. It is nonnegotiable and I hate that.
It’s very humbling to learn how fragile life was from my mid 20s, which is late compared to a lot of people who have lost parents or loved ones early. But, losing my college roommate on 9/11 in such a big dramatic way was life changing. I would never say anything positive about it, but I will say one thing that came from it is this heightened appreciation for life and death. I was always an old soul, very aware, but something like that blew the gates wide open.
Lisa Niver:
I can’t even imagine how hard it’d be to lose that kind of close friend. I appreciate when people are honest about how hard certain things are. And at the same time, a thing I loved about your book was that you really modeled, and set clear boundaries that your book is about these things and this book is not about certain things in your family. My first marriage and my kids is private, it’s not in this book. I thought that’s really great boundary setting and an example showing people they don’t have to tell everything in every book and some things are just for you.
Zibby Owens:
It’s so funny because so many people told me I had to put all of it in, that you have to include it, you can’t just skip over this. And I decided, well, I’m not going to include it and I’m going to do it anyway. And I’ve had so many people reach out, even just an email this morning, I love that. Saying thank you for doing that and thank you for not including that. So, it all works out.
Lisa Niver:
Well, I think that we get fed certain messages about what it’s like to be an author, or what it’s like to be a mom or how to be divorced. And certain human emotions are common, but even like you’re saying about grief, we have this imagination that it takes this long. I imagine on her birthday every year you still miss her, and maybe even every single day and that’s your path. And I just really appreciated you sharing about your family in your way. And I see your books behind you, I know in your memoir, Bookends, you talked about how after having COVID you rearranged all your books.
Zibby Owens:
I did do this shelf during COVID.
Lisa Niver:
So, speaking about being out in Long Island, your life changed because of tennis.
Zibby Owens:
It did! Hence my t-shirt I’m wearing “Love Tennis.” My life changed because of tennis. I met my now husband Kyle when he was subbing for a friend of his to teach my then 8-year-old son a tennis lesson. And my son hated tennis at the time and only wanted to play football and I forced him to play anyway because that’s just what I did. I was much stricter then and I said its good for you, you get to run around.
He went out on the court and Kyle told me, “Your son doesn’t like tennis.” I said, “I know that.” He said, “I don’t think he should be taking tennis lessons.” And I said, “Well I do.” And he said, “He’s not going to take tennis lessons with me.”
Anyway, I was furious. He wasn’t even supposed to be the teacher, right? This is supposed to be his favorite teacher, Fabio. Anyway, I was totally annoyed by the whole thing, but I had bought all these lessons for my son. And I loved tennis, and my tennis pro at that place had just left. And Kyle had been coaching on the WTA tour, and running tennis programs and had just gotten out to The Hamptons to teach. And I thought–maybe I’ll take some lessons this summer. And I didn’t see him again for six months, and things had changed in my life by that point, and we got to know each other and the rest is kind of history.
Lisa Niver:
And you just had a big anniversary.
Zibby Owens:
Yes. We’ve been married for six years and together more than that. So, it was not a rebound for anyone who thought it was.
Lisa Niver:
And again, people make a big deal about that, but who cares. You’re in love and you’re happy.
Zibby Owens:
Yes, exactly.
Lisa Niver:
You can call it whatever you want. But I loved when you were talking about him in the book and you said, “My life was filled with Desitin diaper cream not destiny,” but it was.
Zibby Owens:
Yeah, that’s right.
Lisa Niver:
And I also loved in your acknowledgements when you thanked Fabio for not showing up the day that you met Kyle.
Zibby Owens:
Yes. Well, thank you for the close read of the book. And we’re still in touch with Fabio. They’re still friends and he came to our wedding.
Lisa Niver:
I love those moments when it feels like that movie Sliding Doors. When — I made the train and my whole life changed.
Zibby Owens:
Yes.
Lisa Niver:
And so, tell us, your whole life probably changed when you decided to open a bookstore in Santa Monica.
Zibby Owens:
Yes. My life changed when I decided I should start a podcast. It changed everything. I can’t even imagine; I could never had gotten to do the things I’m doing now had I not started that. There was like no path at all. It’s even crazy that, that led to this, to begin with, but that was the most life-changing thing I’ve ever had happen.
Lisa Niver:
So, you said you’ve already interviewed 1,600 guests.
Zibby Owens:
Sixteen hundred authors.
Lisa Niver:
Sixteen hundred authors. And I know you interviewed Hillary Clinton, you’ve interviewed the royalty of book authors.
Zibby Owens:
I go to the bookstore in the airport now to look around and I know everyone. I know the authors who are coming out today because I get pitched new books and from my own reading. And I have interviewed people who don’t even have any books, but who I’ve always loved. Growing up, as much as I loved books, I didn’t associate them with the author. I knew the author’s name, but I didn’t think about who the author was or their author photo. I feel very comfortable now in any bookstore environment seeing my friends on the shelves. It’s nice.
Lisa Niver:
And your bookstore, Zibby’s Books, in Santa Monica feels like a living room. It’s so cozy. I love the feeling in there and I love the labels on the shelves. Your bookstore doesn’t have the books categorized by history, travel, science fiction. It’s much more carefully curated.
Zibby Owens:
It’s very carefully curated. I started it with two women I’ve been working with for all the other branded things from Zibby Media to Zibby Retreats, Sherri Puzey and Diana Tramontano. And one night in my kitchen when they were staying over in LA, we just charted out how we could make it so that it was a curated experience when we couldn’t be there ourselves to tell people what to buy or recommend things. And I had been in the habit of always doing roundups on TV for Mother’s Day with a book list for the best friend, a book for the aunt.
So, I think it was Sherri, I don’t remember, if it was Sherri or Diana who said, put those categories. And then we said, let’s do it by emotion. I like to shop by emotion. I love books that make me cry or books to make me laugh, so we did some by emotion. And then we stayed up all night brainstorming and those are exactly the way the shelves are from the original drawing, which I should really frame and put up at the store, now that I’m thinking of it, before I lose that piece of paper.
Lisa Niver:
I love that. And soon my book, Brave-ish, One Breakup, Six Continents and Feeling Fearless After Fifty, is coming out and my book is going to be on the strong women shelf. It’s already in the digital bookstore for Zibby’s for strong women.
Zibby Owens:
Yay!
Lisa Niver:
I’m so excited, thank you. So, tell us is there a favorite author that you finally got to interview on your podcast? Or is there someone you’re waiting to interview?
Zibby Owens:
I was really excited, recently, to interview Curtis Sittenfeld because I’ve been reading her books forever and had tried and tried to interview her and she was great.
Lisa Niver:
I love her new book.
Zibby Owens:
Yes, so good, Romantic Comedy. I really liked it.
Lisa Niver:
Your memoir, Bookends, is out, which I loved. Your novel, Blank, is coming out next year, but not everybody might know that you’re also a children’s book author.
Zibby Owens:
It’s true, I wrote a children’s book that was published by Penguin Random House called Princess Charming. Spoiler, it’s about Prince Charming’s little sister and how she feels like she just can’t measure up and find her thing, inspired by one of my kids, and so that was great. And then I actually edited two anthologies of essays written by authors that I did during the pandemic called Moms Don’t Have Time To and Moms Don’t Have Time To Have Kids.
Lisa Niver:
So, I have a feeling that people listening to this might be curious if you ever sleep.
Zibby Owens:
I really don’t sleep that much. I am not proud of that. I think it’s taking a toll. I do catch up every so often, but to be fair I am divorced and remarried and every other weekend I don’t have the kids from Thursday night to Tuesday morning. And so, I can theoretically catch up on non-kid interrupted sleep and have all that time to supercharge forward without.
Because when my kids are here, I’m very much with them. It’s the middle of the day, and I had back-to-back Zooms except for 30 minutes, and my daughter showed up in her tennis outfit and said, “Do you want to go play tennis?” And I said, let’s do it. I will stop what I’m doing. I will catch up later. My priority is always my kids. I stop work every day, I go pick them up, I drop them off. There are four of them, they’re my whole life. And they’re all so fun and different and so that is my main thing.
But no, I don’t sleep a lot. I have really given up a lot of other things. I’m not trying to glamorize what I’m doing. I went from not doing this and doing it slowly to now like running a company. I have 25 people within the bookstore and all the different branches, the publishing company, and the classes, and retreats and the magazine, Zibby Mag, which I love. There are things we have to deal with like 401k’s and I think- what on earth? This is not what I meant to happen. I never wanted to work in a company and now I’m running a company. What the heck?
Lisa Niver:
But you come from a long line of people running big companies. You went to school and studied and know about all of things too, so in a way you found a path to have a company like other people in your family have had.
Zibby Owens:
Yes.
Lisa Niver:
An established brand, but you made it yours.
Zibby Owens:
That’s true. Yes, my grandfather started a company that made trailer park window pieces back in the day and ended up taking that public in Dayton, Ohio. And my dad started a big financial services company called Blackstone. And even my grandfather on his side started this very nice dry goods store in Philadelphia. And my brother started a movie production company. My husband started a movie production company. So, basically my model has been entrepreneurship, and trying to think through problems differently, and contribute and create.
I stayed home with my kids for 11 years and I thought I’m just not going to do that, but I had all this pent-up energy. Sometimes I think maybe I have like an attention problem because I always need new stuff, so I love to launch things and I love going from thing to thing. And when people say you’re doing so many different things, that’s how I think best.
Lisa Niver:
It’s interesting to me because there’s the bookstore, and the publishing company, and you’re an author and obviously an incredible podcast host. The parts all fit together like a mosaic! It sounds like you started with incredible partners and hopefully everything doesn’t fall on you to do.
Zibby Owens:
Right. I have a whole team who I really respect a lot and enjoy being with so that’s good. I’m making it work, but do I exercise like I used to? No. Do I see friends as much as I want? No. But that could’ve been happening, I guess, anyway and I could’ve not started a company, so.
Lisa Niver:
That is an excellent point. You are making your dreams come true of helping authors and being a book messenger. And, you mentioned something about retreats. Does that mean that people can join you or learn from you?
Zibby Owens:
Yes. You should come.
Lisa Niver:
Okay, I’ll sign up.
Zibby Owens:
We have only three spots left for our retreat in the Santa Barbara wine country September 22-24. We have a mini retreat in The Hamptons July 15th and 16th. We are going to go Austin, Miami, and Northern California, and more places around the country and maybe even internationally.
It’s a readers retreat. So, we always bring a few authors and have panel discussions, but not necessarily on craft. There is some craft, so if you are a writer, it’s helpful, but if you’re a reader it’s interesting.
Lisa Niver:
Wow. Where would people find more information about that?
Zibby Owens:
That’s on zibbyretreats.com.
Lisa Niver:
And you also mentioned you have a magazine.
Zibby Owens:
Yes, that’s zibbymag.com. And soon, we’re going to have a website where everything is on site with Zibby Media and everything will be under it. But zibbymag.com just won the Webby Award for best arts and culture website. We were really excited about that. And it’s all author-focused content, fun stuff, like book covers, book cover trends today as well as author spotlights and personal essays by authors, and roundups of an author’s best eight books of the season, things like that. It has an author lens to it.
Lisa Niver:
So, are you the kind of person that like needs a piece of paper by your bed, and you wake up in the middle of night and think I’ve got the podcast, but now I need a magazine? Where do the ideas come from?
Zibby Owens:
I have so many more ideas. And I’ve tried things that have not worked as well, and then I scale back and decide not to do them. I like to test in small ways when I have an idea. Test it, talk to a few people, talk to a few more people, what do you think? What do you think? I have this like vision–what if I launch bookstores all over and I could curate Zibby tours where an author would just have to like sign up? I could have it be easy for authors.
Because part of what I’m trying to do is help authors be more successful selling books and standing out because it’s so hard. And as an author, I find it very hard. I’m also up against a ticking clock. I’m 46-years-old and how much can I do? Twenty years, 30 years of work? I do not want to retire, and –if not now, when? is of my attitude right now. Strike while the iron is hot!
Lisa Niver:
Yes, if not now, when?
I agree with you book tours is a challenge because as an author you want to share and meet people, but there’s a problem that a lot of places people don’t show up. So, I love that idea if you create it. My book comes out in September, and my idea is –could I meet with a local author and we work together in their city. You’re right it’s a lot of blood, sweat and tears, and each author has to figure it out on their own. I think that’s a great idea.
Zibby Owens:
There are so many things. There are a lot of different directions to go in and the hardest thing for me is not jumping into everything as soon as I think of it. Because I get very excited and want to start things right away. I have to learn to slow down, think it through logically.
Lisa Niver:
Or maybe you don’t– because think of all you’ve built. You have a magazine, you have retreats, you have a bookstore, you have…
Zibby Owens:
We have classes. We have classes that we offer like writing classes.
Lisa Niver:
You do?
Zibby Owens:
Yes at zibbyclasses.com. And we’re starting in-person classes as well, so we have one starting in the bookstore, but we are going to partner with other local places and have Zibby classes offered around in-person around the country in various spots.
Lisa Niver:
And is that something you’re teaching or who’s teaching the class?
Zibby Owens:
No, I’m not teaching it, although I probably should teach one at some point. Authors are teaching the classes.
Lisa Niver:
That’s amazing.
Now, I know you mentioned your brother and your husband have production companies, so are you thinking about getting into TV and movies?
Zibby Owens:
I’m excited to help people who are already in that. I’m excited to help find content. I already informally do this for a bunch of producers and if I read a great book, I mention it. A couple of things have come of it, which is exciting, but I am not doing it in a formalized way now. Although, who knows?!
Lisa Niver:
Before we close, tell everybody about your work with Good Morning America.
Zibby Owens:
I have been writing their book picks of the month column online since 2020. And I go on the show and do a segment where I recommend different books. I’ve been on for all of my books, and when I launched my publishing company. They’re great.
Lisa Niver:
That’s amazing. I want to read one quote from your book that I loved, which is:
“Books for me are lifesaving. They have been my companions, my teachers, my entertainment, my emotional outlets, my escape. They have taught me how to cook, how to love, how to mourn, how to cope and how to feel. Many books came at just the right time.”
I want to say thank you for the incredible mountain of work you’ve done to support authors. And I, again, I’m so honored that you took the time to come talk with me on my podcast. And I can’t wait to read Blank, I loved Bookends, I hope there’s more children’s books and congratulations!! You are truly a book messenger.
Zibby Owens:
Thank you, Lisa. This was so fun and congrats on your book. I’m really excited to read it.
Zibby Magazine
Zibby Retreats
Zibby’s Book Club
Stories are best when shared.
I love Zibby’s Bookstore! My video from World Book Day at the store
LISTEN on APPLE PODCAST: MAKE YOUR OWN MAP
Lisa’s book: Brave-ish, One Breakup, Six Continents and Feeling Fearless After Fifty
Please comment below and enjoy these related articles
