Niv Ovdat is a Co-Founder and the Chief Product Officer at Spines. He builds the product around one thing: what authors actually need. In practice, that means staying close to them, meeting with authors personally and listening long enough to tell the difference between what someone says they want and what will truly serve their book and their needs. More than anything else, those conversations are what influence and frame the product.
No two authors are the same. Every author is a different soul, with a different story and a different goal.
Niv came to publishing as an author first. He wrote and published his own book at twenty, then a second as the final project of his degree in writing, editing, and graphic design. Somewhere between a printing house and his first job designing and illustrating books, he fell into the world of publishing and never left.
What makes Niv rare is how many areas of that world he has actually done at a professional level. Over thirteen years, he has worked nearly every job in the industry: ghostwriter, editor, designer, illustrator, account manager, sales, and eventually CEO of a publishing company he helped build before Spines. He has sat at almost every desk a book passes across, which means he understands the work first hand from having done it himself.
Toward the end of 2015 he met Yehuda, who had an idea for a new publishing house. In the early days it was three people: Yehuda, Niv, and one graphic designer. Niv grew with the company and Spines grew around him. He built the account management division, then the sales department, he served as COO, and became CEO. When Yehuda brought him the concept for Spines, Niv quickly developed the idea, finding its footing and developing the operation, designing products born out of everything he already knew the work demanded.
Today Niv is responsible for almost the entire author journey. From the moment someone first hears about Spines, through publication, and into the marketing necessary to get a finished book in front of real readers. Every step was thought through and built by him and his team around a single question about the author: what do they want, and what do they actually need? He continues to meet with authors, because the product only gets better when the feedback comes straight from the people using it.
Most people who lead a product have never done the work it stands on. Niv has. He has ghostwritten and edited. Designed covers and formatted pages. Sat across from authors as an account manager and sat across from an account manager as author. He’s run the company from the top down and worked in publishing from the bottom up. When he builds a step in the Spines journey, he’s building something he’s done by hand, for authors he’s met in person. That’s why the product feels intuitive and supportive. Because it was made for authors rather than aimed at them.
For Niv, the work matters because he has seen what happens when an author finally takes ownership of their story. A book can turn pain into purpose, experience into legacy, and an idea into something readers can hold onto with their hands and hearts. That’s why he encourages every author to enjoy the journey. What matters most is that your book gets the chance to exist.