A Publisher Built on Purpose: The God‑Led Journey of ITN Publishing

Hey all, I’m Jessica Hieb – AKA Jess – owner of In The Name Publishing. I'm so glad that you're here! This company was born out of my own experience publishing, or better put, the one I wish I would have had. When I published my first novel, Breaking Seven, back in 2019 I was promised the world by the publisher, and thousands of dollars later I was left disappointed in the book. The cover was nothing like I had requested (despite drawing out an exact mockup of what I wanted), the editing was proofreading at best, and even the size of the book was wrong for its genre. The whole process had me ready to quit writing for good, before my book had even hit the market. God had other plans.

Only a few short months later, the first lines of They Call Me Beauty started to play on repeat in my mind. “I learned from a young age what people wanted me to be: a charming, giggling, bright-eyed beauty.” At my desk working, the words were there. In the shower, the words were there. Reading, playing games, cleaning - nonstop, those lines rolled through my brain like a ticker tape. Finally, after weeks of this, I sat down and typed out twenty Word document pages, the words came pouring out. From the prologue through like chapter four. I read back over it and disappointedly thought to myself, dang… this is good… Why was I disappointed? Because I didn’t want to go through publishing again. So, I set it in my heart and mind that the story would be for me. Throughout the process I held onto the fact that it would not see the world.

As I continued to write and the story developed, I found myself writing to honor my grandmother – who had passed away in early 2019 – and the struggles she faced with mental health and very likely spiritual warfare her whole life. As someone who had also dealt with profound depression and a general feeling of oppression for most of my life, I needed to tell a dark and gritty story that was somehow also hopeful and redemptive at the same time. My grandmother’s story and my own merged in those pages.

Years later, when the book was finally finished, I sent it to a friend to read – he said, “You can’t keep this to yourself. You have to share it with the world.” I felt so stuck. I didn’t know what to do. I remember lamenting to God about the prior experience and how I didn’t want to go through that again, and in His wisdom, He said,

“Do it better.”

I didn’t understand (and honestly still sometimes don’t), but I decided to talk to a friend of mine about potentially doing my cover and she recommended a friend of hers (an acquaintance of mine) to do the editing. We set out to bring Beauty the world, and somewhere along the way the discussion shifted. Could we do the same thing for others?

Then in 2022 when the chaos of Covid was hitting hard and my 9 to 5 was at risk; I opened the LLC for In The Name Publishing. Then, only after I'd actually opened the LCC, I asked my designer and editor (who had now become a dear friend) to join me in the endeavor. To my surprise they both said YES, and in February 2023 we officially launched the company, with They Call Me Beauty and my first children’s book Ferdinand The Fox launching the same day.

Since then, the company has changed and grown as people have joined the team and some have had to step away for whatever reason or season of life they were in, but our focus has been the same: help tell the stories that God places on the hearts and minds of His children. We’ve expanded our repertoire a bit to include a broader range of the Christian creative community through publications like Power Magazine, but the compass is now and will always point back to Jesus!

We’ve been tremendously blessed to have incredible authors choose us and to be able to support them on their publishing journey, from small jobs like formatting, to full-scale publishing jobs. For our team of authors, editors, designers, and generally just creative people, we hope to provide our clients with the service that we would want to receive. By God’s grace, we’ll continue to do so!

If you are new to ITN Publishing, we want to welcome you to our little corner of the internet and invite you to follow our journey on social media, through Power Magazine, our podcast ITN Publishing Presents: Book Club, and the multitude of new and exciting endeavors we will be undertaking this year. If you’re looking for help in publishing your work, say hello and let us know how we can serve you. Stay tuned to learn about our team, their passions, hobbies, and heart for Jesus!

Jess