diff --git a/samples/mqtt5_pubsub.py b/samples/mqtt5_pubsub.py
index 1b0245bd..e05ab352 100644
--- a/samples/mqtt5_pubsub.py
+++ b/samples/mqtt5_pubsub.py
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
 import threading
 from concurrent.futures import Future
 import time
+import json
 
 TIMEOUT = 100
 topic_filter = "test/topic"
@@ -131,7 +132,7 @@ def on_lifecycle_connection_failure(lifecycle_connection_failure: mqtt5.Lifecycl
             print("Publishing message to topic '{}': {}".format(message_topic, message))
             publish_future = client.publish(mqtt5.PublishPacket(
                 topic=message_topic,
-                payload=message_string,
+                payload=json.dumps(message_string),
                 qos=mqtt5.QoS.AT_LEAST_ONCE
             ))
 
diff --git a/samples/mqtt5_shared_subscription.py b/samples/mqtt5_shared_subscription.py
index 2befcb83..3d0a85e6 100644
--- a/samples/mqtt5_shared_subscription.py
+++ b/samples/mqtt5_shared_subscription.py
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 import threading
 from concurrent.futures import Future
 import time
+import json
 
 # For the purposes of this sample, we need to associate certain variables with a particular MQTT5 client
 # and to do so we use this class to hold all the data for a particular client used in the sample.
@@ -199,7 +200,7 @@ def on_lifecycle_disconnection(self, disconnect_data: mqtt5.LifecycleDisconnectD
                 publish_message = f"{input_message} [{publish_count}]"
                 publish_future = publisher.client.publish(mqtt5.PublishPacket(
                     topic=input_topic,
-                    payload=publish_message,
+                    payload=json.dumps(publish_message),
                     qos=mqtt5.QoS.AT_LEAST_ONCE
                 ))
                 publish_completion_data = publish_future.result(60)