Interview With Inspirational Author Bob Violino

1. What inspired you to write this book? I’d been thinking of writing some sort of self-help book for a while, but what pushed me to start writing it was a few life-threatening experienced that reminded me about my mortality. One of these was a cardiac arrest that left me clinically dead for nearly 10 minutes. Another was going into heart and respiratory failure following an operation to amputate my left foot because of a vascular blockage. Following such close brushes with death, I was gripped with a sense of urgency to put my words down so that others might benefit from what I’ve learned over the years.  

2. What exactly is it about — and who is it written for? The book, Life Lessons—How I’ve Learned to Embrace Gratitude, Positivity, Resilience, and Joy, includes 25 valuable lessons for life. Topics such as gratitude, positivity, resilience, living in the moment, patience, overcoming fear, setting goals—to name a few. Each “lesson” includes relevant, in many cases deeply heartfelt, anecdotes from my life. Many of the lessons also include science-based facts to back up concepts. I write this book for anyone who is feeling overwhelmed by life events, for those looking for inspiration during a touch time, or really for people who are looking to read about someone who has lived through some difficult experiences and taken away some vital insights. There are some serious topics, but I try to inject warmth and humor throughout, 

3. What do you hope readers will get out of reading your book? Maybe a new perspective on their own lives and what they are facing in the way of challenges or disappointments, and how to better cope. Many readers and reviewers have commented on the book being “transformative”, “powerful”, and “heartfelt”. Some have told me the book is on their nightstand so they can read a chapter now and then for some inspiration. Others have said the book fell into their hands exactly when they needed it. These comments make me feel like all the hard work of writing, producing, and publishing the book was well worth it.  

4. How did you decide on your book’s title and cover design? I wanted the title to be brief and work off the subtitle. The cover design is meant to convey positive, upbeat feelings as well as the idea of a life journey—reflecting the content within the book. I hired a professional book designer to create the cover. It was a collaborative effort. 

5. What advice or words of wisdom do you have for fellow writers – other than run!? Be persistent. Whether it’s writing, editing, publishing, decision making, marketing, etc., you have to stick with it. It’s easy to want to quit at every stage of producing a book. But if you do, you might regret for the rest of your life that you didn’t share your story.  

6. What trends in the book world do you see -- and where do you think the book publishing industry is heading?  Clearly self-publishing continues to rise, as it should be. If traditional publishers have made it so difficult to publish a book, many writers have no choice but to self-publish. Fortunately, technology has made this much easier to do than it was even a few years ago. Another big trend is the ongoing growth and development of AI, and how that impacts publishing in various ways.  

7. Were there experiences in your personal life or career that came in handy when writing this book?  Yes! The book is filled with personal and professional experiences from throughout my life. It’s really part self-help and part memoir. In every chapter I try to include personal events to make the points. As for career, I’ve been a business and technology journalist for more than 40 years and I had written two previous books, so I’m accustomed to writing. 

8. How would you describe your writing style? Which writers or books is your writing similar to? I would describe it as conversational and personal, as well as straightforward in terms of offering actionable insights. A few readers have said they felt as if they were chatting with me in a coffee shop, offering friendly advice or support. I include humor in the book because we should never take ourselves too seriously, and having a sense of humor is extremely important. I would like to think the style is similar to that of James Clear, Brené Brown, and Wayne Dyer.  

9. What challenges did you overcome in the writing of this book? The challenges related to being a self-published author: handling not just the writing but also the decision making in hiring a skilled copy editor, designer, proofreader, and marketing specialist. The marketing part is by far the hardest. It requires skills that I didn’t necessarily have to begin with, but have had to learn in a hurry. It takes a lot of persistence.  

10. If people can buy or read one book this week or month, why should it be yours? Because it will deliver some insights they might not have been expecting in areas they might not give a lot of thought to. The book is honest; sometimes brutally so. One of the reviewers said she normally doesn’t read self-help books, but that this one is different. I’m not writing from the perspective of someone who is describing hypothetical things. I’ve actually experienced them. Even if someone thinks the book is not for them, it most certainly could be for someone they love who needs a burst of positive energy.

About The Author: Bob Violino has covered some the most momentous events in the information technology field, including the emergence of the personal computer, the growth of mobile communications, and the rise of artificial intelligence, over a career spanning more than 40 years. Since 2002, he has worked as a freelance writer, producing articles, newsletters, and other content for print and online publications and clients in a variety of industries. His writings have appeared in CIO magazine, CNBC, ComputerWorld, Forbes, Fortune, CBS Interactive, InfoWorld, Newsday, and Business Insider. In addition to his personal blog, Embracing Gratitude and Positivity, Violino has authored the books, New Life: Lessons in Faith and Courage from Transplant Recipients and Children of the Light. He lives in Massapequa Park, New York, with his wife Reneé, and enjoys reading, blogging, travel, painting, and experiencing the wonders of nature.

 

About Brian Feinblum

This award-winning blog has generated over 5,850,000 page views. With 5,600+ posts over the past 14 years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs  by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.”  Copyright 2026.

 

For the past three decades, Brian Feinblum has helped thousands of authors. He formed his own book publicity firm in 2020. Prior to that, for 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and as the director of publicity at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler.

 

His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/whats-needed-to-promote-a-book-successfully). He was recently interviewed by the IBPA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0BhO9m8jbs

 

He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, Morgan James Publishing, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. He served as a judge for the 2024 IBPA Book Awards.

 

His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.

 

Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog.

 

You can connect with him at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum/ or https://www.facebook.com/brian.feinblum

Should Authors Pretend Their Books Are Wanted?

Book marketing and public relations, to be highly effective, often involve a certain level of manipulation, embellishment, trickery, omissions, and distraction. Somewhere in there are truths and facts, but everything is presented in a distorted and carefully manicured way.  Of course, some of this crosses into lies and things like fake book reviews, and that is illegal, unethical, and often ineffective. 

But, how far should or could an author go to stage their book for mass consumption?

Should authors make up testimonials or endorsements for their books? 

One famous food brand did.

 

“When Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs first opened in 1916, the owner hired people to dress as doctors and eat hot dogs outside his shop, to convince people his hot dogs were healthy.”

 

I read this on Instagram, but in order to make sure it was not another Instascam lie, I looked into it. According to AI and Reddit, it is true. A Google search stated:

 

“The Reason: Nathan’s slashed the price of his hot dogs to five cents—half the price of competitors—which made customers suspicious that the meat was unsafe or low-quality.

 

The Strategy: To build trust, Nathan’s hired people to wear white medical coats and stethoscopes to act as "doctors" enjoying his food.

“The Result: Passersby saw the "doctors" enjoying the food, assumed the food was safe and healthy, and flocked to the stand, launching a successful business.”

 

Is what Nathan’s did a legitimate practice?  Hiring actors to consume a product happens all of the time on television, but we are told they are commercials and understand these are actors or paid endorsers.

When you don’t tell people that what they see is fake and a dramatization, you have crossed a line. In this case, Nathan’s did not just plant fake out customers to give the illusion of a high demand for their product; they clearly pulled off a hoax, in essence, presenting false health claims by impersonating doctors. 

 

Authors can do a lot of things today that are as bad, or worse than what Nathan’s did. For instance, authors can blatantly lie about the merits of their book. They can hire people to post fake Amazon reviews. They can orchestrate hitting a bestseller list by buying up copies of their own book. They can pay for testimonials and forewords and are not required to identify the pay-for-play. They can buy fake followers to bloat their social media numbers.

The marketing industry lives on lies, false assumptions, opinions presented as if fact, unprovable claims, and a lot of other BS deception and trickery. The question for all authors is: How much of the game will they play?

About Brian Feinblum

This award-winning blog has generated over 5,850,000 page views. With 5,600+ posts over the past 14 years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs  by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.”  Copyright 2026.

 

For the past three decades, Brian Feinblum has helped thousands of authors. He formed his own book publicity firm in 2020. Prior to that, for 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and as the director of publicity at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler.

 

His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/whats-needed-to-promote-a-book-successfully). He was recently interviewed by the IBPA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0BhO9m8jbs

 

He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, Morgan James Publishing, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. He served as a judge for the 2024 IBPA Book Awards.

 

His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.

 

Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog.

 

You can connect with him at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum/ or https://www.facebook.com/brian.feinblum

 

 

 

 

Interview With An E-Book Pioneer & One Of Publishing’s Leading Literary Agents, Richard Curtis, On His New Book About The Digital Book Revolution

  

1. Digital Inc. your new book, is considered one of the most important chronicles of 21^st century publishing. As you look back, what role do you claim in the e-book revolution? While everyone else was dedicated to developing the technology, I focused on content, inspired by Bill Gates’s famous dictum “Content is King.” I cleared digital rights to numerous out of print books and warehoused them in anticipation of the coming e-book revolution. Though we lost money for several years, I kept saying to myself “They’re going to need books.” I had them, lots and lots of them, and they were the kinds of books that early adopters were hungry for: science fiction, thrillers, horror, romance. When the Kindle, Nook and iPod were at last released (2007-2010), everyone clamored for our content, and my e-book company, E-Reads, prospered.

 

2. You were one of the first commercial e-book publishers who launched a business seven years before e-readers like kindle were invented. You are seen as an e-book pioneer. What do you say in your new book, Digital, Inc., about the inside story of how the book industry was transformed?  Science fiction master Arthur C. Clarke famously said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” The last decades of the 20^th century produced so many technological miracles, you couldn’t be sure if they were science or magic: The Internet, microprocessing, circuit integration and miniaturization, electromatic ink, wireless communication, HTML, personal websites, word processing programs, desktop publishing and many more breakthroughs set the stage for a new way to read books.  I had been tracking these developments since 1985, and when all of them came together at last in 1998, I realized the time had come for me to launch what turned out to be one of the very first commercial e-book publishers in the world.

 

3. What inspired you to write it now? Two things motivated me to write Digital Inc. In the more than 20 years since the paradigm shifted, no one had satisfactorily explained how the book industry transformed from a mechanical, analog operation to a virtual, digital one. People took for granted that one day they were reading paper books and the next they were scanning e-books.  I wanted to demonstrate that evolution step by step.  How had digitization transformed writers?  How had it transformed readers? The other motivation was the advent of AI.  Though it is being promoted as revolutionary, I recognized numerous similarities to the way the digital revolution was promoted, and I wanted readers to keep things in perspective. In many ways, AI is old wine in new bottles.

 

4. You were ahead of Jeff Bezos in recognizing the coming technological earthquake and began converting printed books into digital ones. Why were you so quick to embrace a paradigm shift in publishing? I saw it all in a single light-bulb moment.  One day in 1985 as I was listening to music on a Walkman music player, I had this fantasy of inserting a book cartridge into a device and reading it on the screen. Obviously, a primitive concept, but I nevertheless foresaw that something like it could upend everything we take for granted about the acts of writing and reading books.  But there was no paradigm shift to embrace until until the Kindle was released in 2007, and then the whole world embraced it.  And yes, I humbly confirm I was ahead of Jeff Bezos. But once he recognized it was happening he threw all of his mighty resources into developing his e-book reader.  Not only did he have the money, he had the content – millions and millions of books. I had a thousand, but it was enough.

 

5. A few decades ago, clinging to a 500-year tradition of books printed on paper, the publishing industry was suddenly confronted by digital upheaval. E-books, print-on-demand, piracy, desktop printing, online commerce and dozens of other bewildering challenges transformed a cottage industry into a high-tech enterprise almost overnight. What were those colossal disruptions like?  The disruptions manifested themselves in many ways. The first was failure of imagination. The print way of life was so deeply embedded in the hearts and souls of publishing people that they could not imagine an alternative, no matter how thoroughly it was explained to them and how efficient, elegant and profitable digital technology promised to be.  Another was a stubborn clinging to tradition. “The old ways are the best ways” was a phrase I heard often.  Still another was arrogant snobbery.  “E-books aren’t real books. The only book is a bound volume printed in ink on paper and sold in a bookshop.” Many authors and agents thought of e-books as a form of slumming and refused to tarnish their dignity with electronic editions of their masterpieces.

 

6. What happened in the book industry was a microcosm of a vast paradigm shift impacting every business large and small in the new century. Who were the winners and losers in the book world? When you boil down (as I did) publishing to its essence, it’s simply a writer, a reader, and a delivery system.  The old delivery system for books was impossibly complex – destruction of millions of trees, manufacture of bound paper volumes, delivery by fossil fuel vehicles to brick-and-mortar stores. Digital technology wiped that system clean and replaced it with simple, instant, frictionless delivery of content by means of a computer (my publishing company was the server under my desk). Publishers that couldn’t grasp the change went out of business, but in time, every commercial enterprise recognized they must employ digital delivery of their products or they too would die. And die they did, as witness all the retail shops shuttered when shoppers chose to buy their products online.

 

7. Digital technology disintermediated every obstacle between producer and consumer. That is why travel agencies, employment agencies and stock brokers, to name just a few, were hammered or driven out of business altogether. Above all, brick and mortar retail stores were shoved aside in favor of direct relationships between manufacturers and customers.  Did the book industry come through this revolution better or worse than other industries and businesses? Because of economic forces, the book industry had been shrinking long before the digital revolution. By the time e-books arrived, the number of viable trade book publishers had dwindled from hundreds to half a dozen, with another handful of underfinanced presses struggling to stay alive. Brick and mortar bookstores were sustained by giant chains like Barnes & Noble.  The advent of digital delivery of books radically changed the game. Authors realized they could deliver their books directly – that is, via the simple and transparent Amazon KDP delivery system.  Suddenly there was a viable alternative to the Big Six trade publisher titans and the chain bookstores. Now we had independent (indie) authors and publishers like my own company, E-Reads.

 

8. E-book sales growth has stalled. Printed books still account for the majority of publishing revenues, and now audio books are the second most common form of book consumption. Why do you think that is so? The e-book phenomenon began to peak around 2013. A whole generation that grew up reading printed books with their parents or at the library, matured, and their preference for print carried over to adult reading. Older readers who had originally embraced e-books revisited the many pleasures and benefits of printed books. Today, e-books have taken their place as an option rather than a necessity, good for some kinds of reading but not the device of choice for settling in with an immersive story. Audiobooks use has soared as publishers recognized that commuters and travelers – and of course drivers – prefer to listen to books rather than read them.

 

9. You served as the first president of the Independent Literary Agents Association and subsequently as president of the Association of Authors’ Representatives. How have literary agents fared in a digital revolution that saw an enormous explosion in the number of books published, who did the publishing, an alteration in a book’s format, and changes in who sells the books? Unfortunately, even with me goading them to recognize that the ground was violently shifting beneath their feet, most literary agents – out of fear, indolence, arrogance or denial - were fatally slow to get with the program. As early as 1993 I published articles in the agents’ newsletter and Publishers Weekly urging fellow agents to aggressively get the rights back to their clients’ out of print books, so they would have content ready for the e-book revolution when it hit. To no avail. In the absence of strong resistance by the agents, publishers seized the high ground, forcing authors and agents to accept a 25% cut of e-book income instead of the 50% I had advocated.

 

10. Richard, you are a leading New York literary agent, a publishing authority, an e-book pioneer, and an authors’ advocate. What impact do you see AI having on the writing, editing, researching, and publishing of books? AI has already had a tremendous impact on authors and publishers, almost all of it negative. It started with the blatant and unlawful “scraping” of copyrighted books in order to train AI systems to function effectively. Authors have discovered AI’s astounding capability to produce a novel in moments, but unfortunately, some publishers have been duped into believing that AI-authored books were created by humans. What concerns me most of all is that a generation of students who think nothing of cheating on their term papers and theses are entering the work force. Some of them will become authors. The harm to literature will be incalculable.

 

11. What trends are you seeing in the book publishing world today? Which ones concern or even alarm you?  The biggest threat by far is AI, not just for the damage it does to the publishing process but for its ruin of authorial integrity. Consider this analogy: You can gaze for hours at a painting by Rembrandt, but as soon as you are told it’s fake you will scarcely glance at it. By the same token, if you believe a book has been written by an artificial source, you will be completely disinclined to read it or anything else by that author. I am also gravely concerned about censorship.  Our government’s violations of first amendment rights is distressing enough, but it is also causing authors to self-censor, inhibiting them from writing truthfully out of fear they will offend their government or politically correct interest groups.

 

About The Author: Richard Curtis is a leading New York literary agent who has brought over 10,000 books to publication. He is a leading publishing authority, an e-book pioneer, and an authors’ advocate. He was the first president of the Independent Literary Agents Association and subsequently president of the Association of Authors’ Representatives. Publishers Weekly called him “the poet laureate of book publishing” https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/96670-four-decades-of-book-publishing-history-in-poetry.html.. Curtis’s fascination with emerging media and technology led to his founding one of the first commercial e-book publishers – seven years prior to the introduction of the Kindle. He developed e-book business and royalty accounting models that are still used today. His popular blog, Publishing in The Twenty-First Century, describing the wonders and challenges of the digital paradigm, was followed by professionals and lay audiences. Curtis is also the author of dozens of works of fiction and nonfiction. For more information, please consult: https://richard-curtis.com/media/

 

 

Do You Need Book Marketing Help?

Brian Feinblum can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com  He is available to help authors like you to promote your story, sell your book, and grow your brand. He has over 30 years of experience in successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres. Let him be your advocate, teacher, and motivator! 

 

About Brian Feinblum

This award-winning blog has generated over 5,850,000 page views. With 5,600+ posts over the past 14 years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs  by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.”  Copyright 2026.

 

For the past three decades, Brian Feinblum has helped thousands of authors. He formed his own book publicity firm in 2020. Prior to that, for 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and as the director of publicity at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler.

 

His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/whats-needed-to-promote-a-book-successfully). He was recently interviewed by the IBPA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0BhO9m8jbs

 

He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, Morgan James Publishing, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. He served as a judge for the 2024 IBPA Book Awards.

 

His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.

 

Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog.

 

You can connect with him at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum/ or https://www.facebook.com/brian.feinblum

 

 

 

Lingering Questions On Language Addressed By A Crafty Book

 

 

Are you fascinated by the science of language?  

If you love the English language, but have questions about it, read Why Is This A Question? Everything About The Origins & Oddities Of Language You Never Thought To Ask, by Paul Anthony Jones.   

“The chapters that follow answer 20 questions such as this, ranging from the basics of our language, defining our words and languages themselves, through some of the more famous quirks of the English language, and finally casting a more philosophical eye over the inner workings of language and human communication,” writes Jones.   

The book raises and answers some quirky questions about the language, such as why doesn’t English classify its words into genders anymore, while other languages, like Spanish, continue to do so?  

It asks us, “What is language?” and “Where do languages come from?” Some of the answers are filled with theories and logical guesses, so we don’t necessarily get all of the answers we could hope for. Inventive conjecture will have to do for now.   

According to Jones, “The dawn of recognizable language can be dated to around 45,000 years ago.”  

There is a lot of linguistic sleuthing taking place here, but it's fascinating to even have a working theory on the mysteries of language.   

English may have the most words, more than any other language. But the original words came from where?  

“Go back far enough in time.” writes the author, “However, and surely all our words were at one point invented out of nothing. According to Max Miller’s ding-dong theory, our very first words were our ancestors’ instinctual responses to the world around them; they had no etymological basis other than a metaphysical resonance with nature.”   

For the curious intellect, Why Is This A Question?, readers will learn of theories, histories, and facts about the building blocks for books.  

I’ll leave you with one more tidbit that I found super interesting: Jones says about two-fifths of the world’s languages have no written form. Think about that.  

Do You Need Book Marketing Help?

Brian Feinblum can be reached at brianfeinblum@gmail.com  He is available to help authors like you to promote your story, sell your book, and grow your brand. He has over 30 years of experience in successfully helping thousands of authors in all genres. Let him be your advocate, teacher, and motivator! 

 

About Brian Feinblum

This award-winning blog has generated over 5,800,000 page views. With 5,500+ posts over the past 14 years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs  by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.”  Copyright 2026.

 

For the past three decades, Brian Feinblum has helped thousands of authors. He formed his own book publicity firm in 2020. Prior to that, for 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and as the director of publicity at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler.

 

His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/whats-needed-to-promote-a-book-successfully). He was recently interviewed by the IBPA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0BhO9m8jbs

 

He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, Morgan James Publishing, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. He served as a judge for the 2024 IBPA Book Awards.

 

His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.

 

Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog.

 

You can connect with him at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum/ or https://www.facebook.com/brian.feinblum