Lev David is a Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Spines. He previously served as the company’s Chief Marketing Officer, helping lead its growth and development throughout its first five years. His role shapes the direction of the company and maps out the plan to get there. His work covers the vision, partnerships, and growth decisions that determine what publishing with Spines looks like a year or five years from now. He tests each decision against the same question: will it serve what authors actually need?
Publishing is about getting the right book into the hands of the readers waiting for it.
Lev has spent his career learning how things grow. He came up through performance marketing and user acquisition, scaling companies across gaming, fintech, blockchain, and technology. The deeper he went, the more one truth stuck with him: even the best work in the world goes nowhere if no one can find it. This idea eventually led him to publishing, an industry rich with talent and creativity that was still running on processes built for a bygone era.
The experience that shaped his leadership came long before any of that. Before the startup world, Lev spent several years mentoring at-risk youth, and still points to it as the thing that taught him the most. In learning to listen before speaking, you’re able to see potential in others before they can see it in themselves. This became his approach to everything since.
This instinct carries into how he thinks about authors. It’s not a small thing when someone hands you their book. Most authors are entrusting you with something they have wanted their whole life. Lev has never forgotten what that kind of trust is worth.
At Spines, Lev leads strategy, partnerships, and expansion. The decisions he makes about technology, distribution, and company investments determine the experience of every author, whether or not they ever see the decision behind it. His larger work is defining what publishing looks like in the age of AI. Faster timelines, more transparency between publisher and author, and a platform that gets books to readers instead of watching them stall in an outdated systems.
Writing a great book is only half the work. The other half is reaching the readers it was meant for. That’s where most authors are left on their own. Lev spent his career finding the path to bridge good work to the audience waiting for it. That same instinct is built into how Spines works. Your book is not produced and left on a shelf. It’s positioned for the best chance to reach the readers looking for it. Authors are supported and advised from the early publishing stages all the way through book marketing.
Lev’s advice to first-time writers is simple: don’t wait for perfection. The manuscript you keep polishing in private can’t reach anyone. But the book you publish can change everything. Publishing opens doors that perfectionism never will.