(2009-09-30) Godin Book Publishing Change Talk

Seth Godin spoke to the Digital Publishing Group gathering of Book Publishing folks about the need for change. Eugene Schwartz summarizes Publishers need to develop their own "TribAl" Network-s to reach readers to whom they will be selling books in the new marketing environment. It is a concept that applies to authors, agents and anyone in the business who wants efficiently to create a market for their work. The old way of waiting for the publisher to promote the work is becoming ineffectual... Publishers need to recognize that many of the production, marketing and distribution skill sets which authors relied on them for in the past are easily available to the authors themselves as well as to startup publishers by other means... "If you have people's attention, you can make money," Godin declared. You start promoting your new book well before it is written by using the internet through blogging, hosting content-driven sites, and social networking to accumulate a tribal following. When to start promoting? "Five years ahead of time," he suggested, underscoring the point.