About Chad Prevost
Ph.D. Author. Coach. Publisher. TEDx Speaker. Founder of Crossroads Publishing Group.
I've spent two decades in the publishing world — as a writer, editor, publisher, professor, and eventually the person who had to figure out what all of it was actually for.
I co-founded C&R Press in late 2006, an independent literary publisher, and built it into a catalog of over 50 titles before selling it in 2015. I hold a PhD and in Creative Writing from Georgia State University (and MA in Literature), and an MDiv (and BA in English) from Baylor. I've taught at the university level, spoken at TEDx (on having a "courageous conversation" with yourself), edited and developed more books than I can comfortably fit on one shelf, and written a few of my own.
Somewhere in the middle of all that, I burned out. Not the dramatic kind, the slow kind, where you wake up one morning and realize you've been running someone else's version of your life for a very long time.
So, during the shock point year of 2020 I started the process of becoming a coach. I got ICF-certified. I trained in the Enneagram, LCP360, and mindfulness. I co-founded Big Self School and spent years sitting across from people in burnout, midlife transition, and the particular terror of realizing the life you've built isn't the life you want, which more people go through than you might realize. Hundreds of hours of coaching. I got pretty good at helping people find their own answers.
Then I had to find mine.
What I'm building now
Right now my writing focus is on interactive fiction, books where the reader makes the decisions and lives with the consequences. But I would say I spend just as much energy figuring out strategies for promotion and distribution. The IF/THEN Books catalog spans mystery adventures for middle schoolers, genre-crossing fiction for high schoolers, and classic adventure retellings reimagined with branching paths. Eight titles are releasing in 2026, starting with Iris Blackwood and the Curse of Hemlock Island on May 8.
I publish through Crossroads Publishing Group, which I founded as the home for IF/THEN Books and eventually for Ouroboros Editions, a literary imprint opening in 2027.
I coach writers who are stuck. Not beginners, but people who already know how to write and need to get out of their own way. I use the Enneagram as a diagnostic tool, not a party trick. If you want to know more about that, visit the Coaching for Writers page.
And I write about all of it: the creative process, the courage it takes to bet on yourself, the decisions that shape a life — in The IF/THEN Letter, my newsletter.
The short version
Writer. Publisher. Coach. Chattanooga, Tennessee and (increasingly) New York City.
I believe stories are how we rehearse for the choices that define us. I believe "the difficulty in life is the choice," as George Moore famously said. And I believe crazier things have happened than someone deciding to live into their actual goals and turning that into a modest living.
That's what I'm doing here.
Get in touch
IF/THEN Books →
Coaching for Writers →
For Teachers & Schools →
A full press kit including author photo, biography in multiple lengths, and imprint fact sheets is available on request.