It Started With a Promise
Xist Publishing began with a promise between a mother and her child.
In 2011, founder Calee Lee’s four-year-old daughter wanted to hear a story on her new Kindle. When they tried to download illustrated ebooks, they discovered something surprising—the books didn’t work. The pictures were there, but the magic was missing. Instead of accepting that limitation, Calee made a promise—to create an ebook with pictures that would truly work for children.
That small moment became the beginning of Xist Publishing.
Built One Book at a Time
With a background in Dramatic Writing from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and years of experience as a corporate video producer and creative entrepreneur, Calee brought together storytelling, design, and technology to solve a problem no one else was addressing. Between video projects, she developed a proprietary process, making digital books readable and beautiful for young children.
She wrote the first Xist title, The Queen and the Cats, commissioned illustrator Turbo Qualls, and partnered with local creators to bring additional stories to life. Xist Publishing officially released its first book in July 2011. Ten titles followed that year. By 2012, as color e-reading devices like the Kindle Fire entered the market, demand for digital children’s books exploded. By its second year, Xist Publishing had released more than eighty new titles and positioned itself as a rapidly growing new publishing company.
Stories for Every Way Children Read
Xist Publishing was never built to chase trends. It was built to serve children.
While the company was founded with a digital-first vision, it quickly became clear that children connect with stories across every format. Quickly, print became just as essential as digital. Today, Xist Publishing releases new titles in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook editions. Our books are tucked into backpacks, wrapped as birthday gifts, listened to at bedtime, and swiped through on tablets and smartphones.
What sets Xist Publishing apart is simple:
We create books children choose for themselves.
We deeply value the parents, teachers, librarians, and caregivers who guide young readers. But our ultimate measure of success has always been whether a child reaches for one of our books on their own—whether a story sparks enough curiosity, joy, or laughter to compete with the many distractions of modern childhood.
That focus has shaped everything we publish.
Our books celebrate the essence of childhood. They encourage discovery. They invite delight. They help children build confidence as readers and curiosity as learners. Whether it’s a beginning reader, an illustrated joke book, or an engaging nonfiction title, every book we publish is created with the same goal:
To help children build a lifelong love of reading, no matter what form it takes.
From a single promise made in a living room to a global catalog reaching millions of children each year, Xist Publishing remains guided by the same belief that started it all:
When children love reading, everything grows from there.