Interview With BenBella Books Publisher Glenn Yeffeth

1. What are some of your recent successes as the publisher of BenBella --- and what are some of your big Fall books? 2013 was a great year for us – we grew by over 50% - and 2014 is off to a blazing start, with three New York Times bestsellers so far including our first e-book only bestseller, The Savage Murder of Skylar Neese. We’ve got some wonderful books coming this fall, including a very insightful business title, The Ultimate Competitive Advantage, from two executives at FranklinCovey, a hysterical humor book, Stuff You Should Know About Stuff, from YouTube sensations Tripp and Tyler, and Food Forensics, a cutting-edge look at what’s really in your food, by Mike Adams of naturalnews.com.

2. What are the rewards and challenges of working in publishing? There has never been a better time to be in publishing. Things are moving fast and always changing, so if you like variety and innovation, it’s a fantastic field to be in. But you have to be comfortable with change, and you have to love marketing, because marketing is at the core of successful publishing.

3. What can authors do to collaborate with a publisher to promote their book? At least in non-fiction, it’s very helpful if authors can adopt a marketing-mindset, which starts from the  very conception of the book through editorial, packaging and, of course, marketing. This can be challenging when the book is your passion, but in the end each book is a product competing against many other products. Defining your target market, your competition, and how your book can be the best available for its market is critical.

4. What type of books does BenBella publish and what do you look for in deciding whether to publish a particular book? We publish a broad range of non-fiction, and particularly like books that are unique, well-written, and have a strong point-of-view.

5. How are current trends in book publishing impacting your publishing house? In my mind, all the trends point to one basic idea – that publishers, first and foremost, have to be marketers, and have to integrate marketing thinking into all of their operations. This is something we’ve always been focused on and where we can never be satisfied. We work continually to improve our marketing because it’s at the heart of successful publishing.

6. Where do you see the industry heading in a few years? I have no idea. Fortunately, as a nimble independent publishing house we don’t have to predict the future. We just need to be alert and responsive to changes in the marketplace, while working to be the best at what we do.

For more information, consult: Visit the BenBella website. Congratulations to the authors of BenBella’s fourteen recent New York Times Bestsellers: The Savage Murder of Skylar Neese, The Bank on Yourself Revolution, Impact, Journey to Rainbow Island, Collapse of Dignity, Whole, Recover to Live, Custom Nation, Taming Your Alpha Bitch, Three Simple Steps, What Really Happened, Presumed Guilty, The Entrepreneur Equation, and Networking is a Contact Sport.

Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer, Media Connect, the nation’s largest book promoter. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2014