Our Story

Launched in founder Adam Witty’s spare bedroom, Advantage|ForbesBooks was founded in 2005 under the name Advantage Media Group. Adam’s mission was to demystify and democratize book publishing. Given his passion for entrepreneurship, he quickly realized that business owners were the people that could benefit most from a book. By partnering with local writers and graphic designers at the time, he pioneered a done-for-you system that made publication an effortless experience, even within the demanding schedule of a business owner. 

Advantage could write, design and distribute books that told the stories of its authors—whom Adam warmly referred to as “Members” of the “Advantage family.” The process appealed to hundreds of entrepreneurs nationwide. The idea gained steam and spawned imitators. 

Adam Witty speaking to Advantage Team Members at AdvantageStock 2017.

After growing to a team of more than 20, Adam took note of something critical: once Members were armed with a published book, they still needed guidance on how to market and leverage the newfound “authority status” the authorship afforded. He adapted the company to meet this need. 

Adam understood that a published book amounts to a marketing tool. Every business owner who published suddenly had more clout in their industry. Some Members even became celebrities on the strength of their book. Many were able to beat out competitors, because their book “tipped the scale” in customers’ minds. 

He realized that a published book lends authority to its author. With a book, they can turn their name into a fully realized brand. Adam polished the foundational principles and processes of this idea and called it Authority Marketing®. Thereafter, Advantage would not only publish books, it would help authors use the book as the foundation to build authority. With authority status, authors leverage that currency to grow their business. 

Adam set out to build a world-class marketing team of strategists, writers and web developers, whose gold-plated credentials matched the writers and designers he already had on staff. Adam’s in-house marketing agency took on it’s own life. It is now staffed by a team of consummate Authority Marketing experts. The suite of marketing products that emerged became known as the Authority Marketing System.

As Advantage’s star rose, business media juggernaut Forbes took notice. Although Forbes had dominated the magazine market for decades, they had yet to make a foray into books. Advantage’s track record and entrepreneurial target market made Advantage Media Group the perfect match for Forbes’ budding ambitions for a book publishing imprint. In 2016, Forbes partnered with Advantage Media Group to launch ForbesBooks. Advantage dropped ‘Media Group’ from its name, and joined its new sister imprint to form a single company: Advantage|ForbesBooks. 

ForbesBooks is positioned as the company’s premium imprint, for leaders that truly are “The Best in Business.” Once their book is published, authors are given access to publish thought leadership content on Forbes.com, receive game-changing visibility in Forbes Magazine print ads and much more. The imprint publishes a distinct and selective list of business book titles each year. ForbesBooks Review, a supplement to Forbes Magazine, is mailed to Forbes massive subscriber audience twice a year. 

With ForbesBooks thriving, Forbes endeavored to launch another business venture with their partners at Advantage, with the same target market in mind. ForbesSpeakers launched in 2018, aiming to provide an all-in-one platform for speakers, including marketing, representation and coaching services. 

In 2019, Advantage partnered with the largest local business media company in the world, American City Business Journals, to launch the new imprint Business Journals Books. Buoyed by the strength of 43 weekly business journals in the top markets in America, American City Business Journals boasts a combined audience of 14.6M monthly online readers and 1.3M weekly print readers. Now, for the first time, Business Journals Books offers a un-rivaled publishing and authority building platform for local and regional business owners.

The Advantage Family has become the leader in Authority Marketing and offers publishing imprints and marketing products united by a singular core purpose: growing entrepreneurs and businesses to benefit all mankind.