In late 2009, social entrepreneur and businessman Farrah Gray approached Peter Vegso, the president of HCI, which published Gray's first book, Reallionaire: Nine Steps to Becoming Rich from the Inside Out, about starting his own publishing company. A few months later, Farrah Gray Publishing's first title, Dear Dad by Ky-Mani Marley, the son of Bob Marley, was published, with HCI serving as FGP's distributor. Now, a little less than 18 months after releasing its first title, FGP has its first bestseller, Priceless Inspirations by Antonia "Toya" Carter. "It has been beyond a joy, and I've been dancing ever since I got the news," said Gray, who is publisher of the new house. "It took a lot of hard work—most publishers won't admit that there isn't one magic thing you must do to make a book a bestseller."
FGP is one of Gray's many pursuits, which include founding New Early Entrepreneur Wonders (NE2W), starting the Farrah Gray Foundation, serving on the United Way's board of directors, and consulting for JP Morgan Chase. Despite his different ventures, the 26-year-old has a very direct goal in mind for FGP.
"FGP aims to be known as a premier, 100% celebrity book publishing house and one of the largest African-American–owned book publishing companies in the country," Gray said. To get there, Gray plans to "leverage the celebrity's notoriety and platform to bring timeless, bold, and ambitiously contributive messages to an ever-expanding audience base of self-development seekers."
Priceless Inspirations, which now has 72,000 copies in print, is the ideal FGP title. Carter, the reality TV star and ex-wife of rapper Lil Wayne, tells the story of her life as a teenage mother without the guidance of her own mother. Gray first heard about Inspirations from FGP president Shannon Leon, after it had been turned down by a number of publishers.
FGP, which has released six titles since its launch, has 10 to 12 titles in development, including a book from reality star Kim Zolciak and an account of the Knight family's 50-year career in the music business which most recently culminated in Gladys Knight's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Gray is also pushing his company into going a decidedly electronic route. All of FGP's titles are available on digital platforms, and digital sales account for 60% of FGP's total. "Our focus is to publish e-book titles to cater to the microwave mentality, the ‘I want it now' generation of tech-savvy readers," Gray said.