Do Avid Book Readers Improve Their Lives Or The World?

“82% of US adults reported reading fewer than 10 books in 2023, according to data analytics firm YouGov,” reports USA Today. It added: “An elite 1% reported reading 50 or more books annually.”  

My first instinct was to merely react to the obvious, and conclude that a handful of people do a lot more reading than most, and I wondered why so few read a lot and so many so little. 

Of course, I quickly mumbled: “Why aren’t people more curious? Why are so many people dumb? What’s wrong with our education system that it fails to produce readers?” 

But maybe I was drawing the wrong conclusions and not properly putting things into a fresh context.  

I got fixated on the article’s use of the word “elite” instead of the use of “rare.” 

Elite, as defined by Oxford Dictionary, is “a select group that is superior in terms of ability or qualities to the rest of a group or society.”  

Is it really a “superior” quality to read more books than others?  

Don’t get me wrong, I love reading books and treasure the knowledge, inspiration, wisdom, comfort, and entertainment that they can provide, but who are we to judge people merely based on how many books one reads? What matters most is what kind of books we read and how we convert what was consumed to living a better life and contributing to the lives of others. 

In other words, what good does it do to read bad books, or to poorly read them, or to consume them selfishly and not improve much of your life or the world around it as a result?   

Books can provide some amazing things but they also can waste one’s time, fill us with useless facts, focus our thoughts on the wrong things, and allow us an escape from life when we may actually need to engage it. As much as I embrace the beauty and power of books, like anything else, it can be used in a good, bad, or useless way.   

Everything is like that.   

A gun can be used to kill or commit crimes; it can be used to protect and save lives. 

Food can bring joy and energy; it can cause deadly diseases and chronic health problems. 

Sex can be an act of love and even produce a human being; it can be used to rape and hurt others. 

A parent can nurture and raise us well; or abuse, abandon, and fail us. 

A car can put us on a journey of exploration or at least get us to work and do errands; or it can be a weapon for terrorists and a danger posed by drunk drivers. 

Books are the same way.  

They can tell us things that alter our feelings and mood in a good or bad way; they show us things that can cure, fix, and heal people and problems or cause us more harm; they can inspire us to do good things or enable us to do bad. Even the act of reading takes us away from something else. Was that other activity always second to reading a book, or did we lose out?   

What one reads is important — and what we do with it matters. Elite or not, all book readers should strive to read better books, not just more — and to apply what is read to doing good in the real world.  

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 5,600,000 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

 

 

 

What Is The Future Of Books?

 

Can we speculate, with any certainty, about the future of books, any more than we can speculate what the world and society will be like centuries or millennia henceforth?

I am currently binge-watching a show, The Last Kingdom (Netflix), that is set in late ninth century England, and wondering if I could have survived in a world filled of war, disease, and ignorance. But then I realized that every generation has to confront some level of challenge and to live by a standard that future generations will neither understand nor accept. And so, today’s world will seem as bizarre to people in the 33rd century as the 800’s seem to us now.

In the year 3225, if the world has not been annihilated by nuclear catastrophe, climate meltdown, or an ET invasion, likely there will still be wars, diseases, and ignorance dictating things. It may also have robots enslaving humans or humans that are significantly engineered by, and outfitted with, pieces of technology. The human experience may not be so human.

I am not a futurist, nor can futurists really estimate anything with any accuracy more than a generation or two ahead of us. But we know about human nature and have thousands of years of history to reflect upon. Whatever the world will be like, we can predict its fate based on patterns of human behavior — unless the very essence of being human changes.

The use of prosthetic limbs, mind-altering and life-extending drugs, manufactured foods, surgical enhancements of body parts for function or appearances, and the co-management of life through our smart phones have begun altering the human experience. But these are all crude and rudimentary compared to what is to come, though I can’t tell you exactly what those inventions and applied resources will be.

At some point, there will be game-changers that not only revolutionize our lives but transform who we are and what it means to be human. The landscape for life will at some point expand beyond our planet and will include outside entities influencing and impacting us. The alien world likely exists, and if it does, we shall either find them or they us. When is the only question. Some believe it has already happened.

But visits from Mars and galaxies beyond aside, our development and application of new technologies will greatly alter the core of who we are — physically, mentally, spiritually.

So where will books be in a decade? A century? A millennia?

Books are beautiful but they may not be with us at some point. Why do I say this?

Well, historically, almost all inventions come and go. Some have a good run, like the knife, fire, or bed sheets, but many come and go and become obsolete in a relatively short window of time.  

The book, for it to become no more or simply a rarer thing, could be from one of these events:

** Some type of computer processor is embedded into our brains that renders the need to read books useless.

** Our digital capacities get destroyed, and those who rely on reading books from a device will be screwed.

** Wars or fires destroy libraries and bookstores or data centers. 

** Some disease or chemical warfare destroys our cognitive ability to read books.

** A new invention simply makes the reading of books not necessary.

** Behavioral patterns and societal change could simply shun the book for other forms of entertainment, such as television, and other ways to consume content, such as audiobooks.

** More people will choose to get book summaries and read just a few pages in order to get the distilled ideas of a 240-page non-fiction book.

** The world falls to a dictator who bans the creation and distribution of books. 

Perhaps the biggest challenge to books is not whether we will have them or how we will consume them, but rather, who will pen them and how they will be edited. The era of AI-assisted book writing is upon us. How long before the majority of books are printed without a trace of human involvement? 

The book world keeps evolving.  

We went from only hardcover books with no images. Then we got illustrated texts and later with photographs. We expanded to trade paperbacks and mass market books. Then books on records, eight tracks and audiotape cassette. Then came CD-Roms and e-books. Then streaming audio.  

There is always talk of having blended digital content that incorporates video, maybe 3D, and audio, but it has not taken off.  

The future is to have books consumed through osmosis. Maybe you pop a pill and literally digest a book. Maybe we get bionic eyes to read way faster than ever before. Perhaps we get a microchip yo expand our brain’s capacity to absorb, analyze, and act on tremendous amounts of data and content.  

As I said, I am not a futurist — nor a scientist, doctor, or technologist — but I fully expect and fear that one day beyond my lifetime we will have a Frankenstein-type hybrid human — half -machine and chemical substances, half-natural and biological.   

The end of humanity and of the book may be on a parallel track.

 

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 5,250,000 page views. With 5,400+ 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 2025.

 

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 A Best-Selling and Award-Winning Author Who Inspires Others As The First Interfaith Maggid

 

 

1.      What is your newest book, Tales of an Urban Mystic, about?   I tell the spiraling stories of my life, beginning with my memories in the womb, of the mystical, spiritual, transformative experiences that define me as a person and shape my work as a writer and a teacher.

 

2.      What inspired you to write it?  For years I’ve reflected on the amazing things that have happened to me – visits from dead grandparents, remembering past lives, talking with angels and God, which both ground me in the prophetic traditions of many cultures, and in our culture make me wonder if I might be crazy. Being locked in the house in fire season and then during Covid gave me time and the impulse to think about my life, and then God told me that She wanted me to write them all down, for myself, to support others who have similar experiences, and to inspire readers to own their own inner wisdom.

 

3.      Why do you feel it essential that we ground ourselves in ancient wisdom?  We are living in the face of possible climate extinction, with political, racial, class, and regional divisions growing stronger, in a time of increasing violence against the planet and against each other. This breaks my heart. More than 90% of the violence in the world is done by – men. And as a man myself it seems essential, if we’re going to survive as a species, that we own our ancient innate Earth-wisdom, own what we brought with us from our previous incarnations and from the ancestral wisdom in our bodies that’s allowed us to survive for so long.

 

4.      What are some examples of beliefs or actions that you hope people expose themselves to, and embrace, in an authentic way? I hope that readers of my work will massage themselves every morning and evening, to ground in their body in a deep spiritual way. I hope when they’re outside that they won’t listen to podcasts, music, or talk on the phone, but notice everyone and everything they pass. I hope they’ll open to clues from past lives. For example, they grew up in a Mexican or a Sudanese family, but from the time they were little they loved Japanese food, art, and music! And one of their grandmothers was an herbal healer. Their parents teased her about that, in the face of the American medical industry, but that innate gift – a connection to the Earth and its power to heal – they inherited and can awaken in themself.

 

5.      How did you come to attain the wisdom that you have now? I’d say I was born this way. That it’s a genetic trait. Other people have different genetic traits that I lack. I’m vision-impaired, can’t dribble a basketball or drive a car, but I can open up to the inner wisdom that I carry and can share with others, and have shared for decades in my writing and teaching. And I’m not the only one who can do this. There are so many of us.

 

6.      What does it really mean to be a mystic? To be open to what some people call God, All That Is, The Eternal. To be open to our inner voices and outer visions. To not be afraid to experience the world in ways that we were not taught to do in school, and rarely see reflected around us in positive ways. And to share what we experience with others, for in every culture in history there were people who did this, seers, prophets, visionaries. It’s both unusual, and a job – like cook, nurse, babysitter, car dealer, bus driver.

 

7.      Why were you ordained (a maggid) twice, both by a rabbi and a pastor?  About 15 years ago three rabbi friends said, “If we were Orthodox, you would have been ordained a rabbi a long time ago, and we want to ordain you.”  I planned to apply to rabbinic school when I got out of college, but I was newly out as gay, knew there was no way that I would be accepted if I told them, was too young and proud to go back in the closet, and there was no one there to tell me to be quiet about it, that no one would ask.  Honored and delighted by their offer, I said I needed to think about it. That night in meditation I sat down with my ancestors. The Orthodox ones said “Your Hebrew is terrible and your Aramaic is worse.” The Communist ones said, “So you’re going to sign on with the enemy.” I went back to the friends and said, “Thank you, but no thank you,” and one said, “Well, you’re  actually more a maggid than a rabbi.” A maggid is a storyteller in the Jewish tradition. I mentioned this to a few other friends and one day, spontaneously, a rabbi friend and a pastor friend pulled me to my feel in the sanctuary of my synagogue, where the pastor’s church meets on Sunday, and they ordained me as a maggid. A few months later the rabbi of my synagogue ordained me again as a maggid, publicly, in the midst of our community. I do feel like a maggid, but sometimes I wish I’d said yes to the rabbi offer.

 

8.      You say that all of your work -- as a writer, healer, professor, book editor, and writing coach -- is about the power of stories to heal our world. What is the key to conveying a good story? Let the story flow from your heart and soul, not from your brain. Let the  story flow through your heart and soul from your muses, however you experience them, as ancestors, angels, God, your own inner voice. Both ground your stories in the world and in the stories of our/your ancestors, and own your inspiration, your tradition’s sacred texts, and don’t be afraid to rewrite them, even radically.

 

9.      You have authored or co-authored 20 books. One of them was a run-away best-seller, Ask Your Angels, which sold over 650,000 copies. Why do you feel that one resonated with readers and became so popular?  Angels are such a part of the Judeo-Christian-Islamic traditions, which the majority of people in this county come from, even if they don’t remain believers. And I know from personal experience and from talking to hundreds and hundreds of other people over the decades, that angels are whispering to us all the time, and lots of us want support in learning how to better hear them, hence the power of our book, which teaches readers how to do that, step by step.

 

10.  Several of your acclaimed books straddle diverse worlds of angels, Jewish spirituality, and queerness. How do you reconcile each of them and bring what you have learned about each of them into a cohesive approach to life? I think of myself as an insider-outsider. And from having lived in the world for so long, in several different places, I know that everyone is in some way a composite entity, seeking to weave together who they are, who they were taught they’re supposed to be, who they want to be, and who they hope to become. I’ve had amazing teachers who guided me in my journey, and now as an elder it’s my task to pass on what they taught me through the lens of my own experiences, to support others in their own chosen journey. 

For more information, please see:  www.andrewramer.com. 

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 5,600,000 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

 

 

 

Interview With Historical Fiction Author Cynthia Elder

 

1.      What inspired you to write this book? Voices from the past urged me to write Tales of the Sea. After the death of my husband’s parents, we unearthed letters, ship’s logs and diaries from his seafaring family in the 1800s. Their words captivated me – here was the true story of sailors, soldiers and women in the years leading up to and through the Civil War. They navigated the final chapter of the Age of Sail, when wooden sailing ships connected continents and cultures, transforming commons sailors into global citizens.  

2.      What exactly is it about — and who is it written for? Tales of the Sea is a sailing adventure, a story of a country torn apart at the seams over the issue of slavery, and a love story between two remarkable people, James Jenkins and Ruth Fish of West Barnstable, Massachusetts. It brings you into the small towns and foreign ports where merchant sailors carved out the trade routes that exist to this day. People risked their lives to move goods around the world: tea and coffee, fruit and spices, cotton and silk, coal and lumber. The work of sailing meant years of separation from loved ones. Letters that might not reach their destination for months were their lifeline to home.  More than enough stories have been written about the great leaders who wielded power and money during our country’s formative years. Tales of the Sea focuses on the everyday people who lived, loved, worked, fought and died for their country and their families.  This is a work of historical fiction, grounded in original sources and deep research. These novels elevate the voices of real people whose words echo through the letters, logs and journals they left behind. The novels have been embraced by readers who enjoy sailing stories, family sagas, military history, and tales of women who broke through the barriers of their time.  

3.      What do you hope readers will get out of reading your book? Whether or not you’re a sailor, you can experience life aboard a great wooden sailing ship by reading Tales of the Sea. You’ll feel the mountainous waves cresting over your bow as you round Cape Horn and know the solitude and the grandeur of a life at sea. You’ll experience life through the eyes of women before they had the right to vote and witness how essential they became in sailing communities. You’ll meet a man who escaped a life of slavery and went on to find freedom on the seas as a ship’s cook, and you’ll walk in the shoes of a Civil War soldier as he crawled through the mud, dodging bullets, watching his comrades fall around him.  

4.      How did you decide on your book’s title and cover design? These are sailing stories, so I wanted the cover to reflect that. Most of the merchant ships in Tales of the Sea are three-masted, wooden-hulled sailing barks – the workhorses of the ocean. My publisher, Holand Press, found a great image of this type of ship for the cover of the first book, The Journey Begins. For the second book, The Drumbeats of War, they selected an image with a variety of sailing ships in a crowded foreign port and a darker mood, reflecting the state of the world in the Civil War years.  

5.      What advice or words of wisdom do you have for fellow writers – other than run!? Write the book that won’t let go of you. In a world when AI can rapidly produce just about anything, depend on your own flawed humanity to create something that will stand the test of time. Do it because you have to, because the characters and the story won’t leave you alone until you bring them to life.  

6.      What trends in the book world do you see -- and where do you think the book publishing industry is heading?  We’re in a fascinating period of change. The major publishers throw their resources behind a limited number of authors who can make the New York Times Bestseller List. Some authors are finding success with genre series, like cozy mysteries (which I love) or romanticies that have strong repeat audiences. Self-publishing is being redefined not simply as vanity publishing but as a countermovement against the big publishers. Hybrid publishing (e.g., Holand Press) has carved out the middle ground by lowering the cost of production and eliminating the need to hold inventory. Meanwhile, AI is here, like it or not, and we all have to find our own moral compass around how we use it. Writers have to get creative about earning money while maintaining their craft – that’s nothing new. I’ve always held a traditional job while working on my writing projects. You should only be a writer if you are driven to create. Otherwise, you could find much easier ways to make a living.  

7.      Were there experiences in your personal life or career that came in handy when writing this book?  I had never sailed before I met Bob Elder, the man who would become my husband. For our first date, he took me out on his 38-foot sailboat in Maine. That date lasted a week. We’ve been sailing ever since. Both of our daughters sailed from their earliest weeks of life. I caught the history bug from my mother, who was a museum director. She raised me around people from many cultures and constantly exposed me to the wonders of the past.  

8.      How would you describe your writing style? Which writers or books is your writing similar to? I draw on my creative roots as a poet and my working life as a journalist and nonprofit leader to craft a story. Every word should earn its way onto the page. I suppose you would classify my writing as “literary,” though that word has been stretched and twisted to the point that it’s hard to define. While I don’t put myself in the same league, I would compare my prose style to Amor Towles (A Gentleman in Moscow), whose writing I adore. Tales of the Sea has a taste of Jane Austin with a dash of Nathaniel Philbrick. My novels belong on the shelf next to Patrick O’Brian’s Master and Commander series.  

9.      What challenges did you overcome in the writing of this book? I used multiple points of view in Tales of the Sea because I wanted to tell the story of a family whose lives were defined by sailing and the Civil War. With some characters at home and others at distant ports or on the battlefield, it created a kind of time warp. They didn’t have the instant communication we have now. My solution: The first keeper of the Sandy Neck Lighthouse, Joseph Nickerson, evolved into a major character. He anchors the reader to solid ground while others travel the world. I fell in love with him along the way.  

10.  If people can buy or read one book this week or month, why should it be yours? The Civil War occurred less than a hundred years after our country’s founding, so it may seem a long time ago. In fact, it was only a few generations back – my husband’s great-great-grandparents lived through it.  We find ourselves now at a time of great political division and technological change, not unlike the mid-1800s. Tales of the Sea shows you how hard people worked to build this country and how much they sacrificed to keep it. You’ll come to know these honorable, flawed, determined people and understand why they chose a life on the sea.  

About The Author: Cynthia Elder is a novelist, poet and nonprofit leader. Her new two-part historical fiction series, Tales of the Sea (The Journey Begins and The Drumbeats of War), is based on previously unpublished letters, ship's logs and personal journals from her husband's seafaring family in the 1800s. Elder is also executive director of the Barrington Land Conservation Trust. For more information, visit www.cynthiaelder.com.   

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 5,600,000 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