{"id":4702,"date":"2015-08-07T07:05:16","date_gmt":"2015-08-07T11:05:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=4702"},"modified":"2015-08-20T07:19:11","modified_gmt":"2015-08-20T11:19:11","slug":"whats-not-a-business-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=4702","title":{"rendered":"What’s NOT a Business Plan"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Dr.

(photo: US Army Garrison, Red Cloud, creative commons license)<\/p><\/div>\n

Harvard Business Review<\/a> recently added its voice to the clamor for changes in the $28 billion U.S. publishing industry. The article, by writer Dorie Clark, a marketing strategist based at Duke University\u2019s Fuqua School of Business, is headlined \u201cHarper Lee and Dr. Seuss Won\u2019t Save Publishing.\u201d<\/p>\n

By relying not only on those obvious one-offs and other \u201csuccessful retreads,\u201d but also emphasizing authors who have what publishers call a pre-existing platform\u2014which means either past books, a painstakingly built social media presence, speaker popularity, or high visibility in other media (movie stars, television commentators, high-profile journalists)\u2014publishers are missing partnerships with less prominent authors<\/a>. Such relationships used to be cultivated over the long term, giving publishers a deep bench.<\/p>\n

Publishers don\u2019t treat authors the way a venture capitalist or angel investor<\/a> might, notes Suw Charman-Anderson in Forbes<\/em>. Some of the authors on that bench were future stars and others solid mid-list performers. The whole timid approach is reminiscent of Hollywood\u2019s love affair with sequels, prequels, and copycat films.<\/p>\n

Authors today have a choice; if publishers aren\u2019t willing to invest in them, they can look elsewhere, to smaller presses or self-publishing. In the past, the major publishers could offer authors their expertise in distribution, design, editing, proofreading, and marketing. Distribution has had a tectonic change with the advent of e-books and print-on-demand; increasingly sophisticated design, editing, and proofreading services are available for authors to contract with directly; and only the most highly successful (or happily delusional) author expects the publisher to take sole charge of their book\u2019s marketing any more.<\/p>\n

Clark recommends the following strategies to reinvigorate their relationships with authors:<\/p>\n