New Year’s Resolutions For Book Publishing

2014 is sure to bring new energy, optimism, and resources to make it a highly competitive but prosperous year for those in book publishing.  I’m sure many publishers, authors, promoters, literary agents, editors, book packagers and all those who make up the publishing ecosystem want to commit to doing better, working smarter and more efficiently, and to being part of books they can be proud of.  They will no doubt commit to be better people, better practitioners of what they do, and better rewarded for their hard work.  But here are some vows, commitments, and promises I’d love to see this coming year for the book publishing world:

1.      Authors should promise to write the best book they possibly can—and then commit to promoting it.

2.      Publishers should vow to book beyond platforms, brands, and sales histories and commit to taking a chance and experimenting with what it green-lights for publication.

3.      May all users of social media vow to send out less digital clutter and e-pollution.

4.      Book publicists promise to be creative, pushy and timely on behalf of the authors they commit to represent and don’t just rest on contacting the low-hanging fruit.

5.      Everyone will remember books are art and they are also the glue that holds society together.  May authors and publishers find a way to collaborate so that not only is a commercial product created, but a valuable expression of one’s ideas and experiences are packaged effectively.

6.      Literary agents promise to go back to the basics—discover good writing and present it to publishers, rather than only look at submissions from those with sixty billion twitter followers.

7.      May the news media promise to read its email and get back to those who contact them, even if the answer is “no.”

8.      Barnes & Noble should promise to be profitable and to get its act together.

9.      Authors will promise to remove their ego from their works and publishers will vow to not act like elitists.

10.  Amazon should promise to raise the prices of the books it sells and to treat authors and publishers better.

Good luck in honoring whatever resolutions you declare.

DON’T MISS THIS!!!

Here is my 2014 Book Marketing & Publicity Toolkit: Based on 20+ years in publishing --

Master Publishing PR Toolkit

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 © 2013