Keep Calm and Carry On . . .

So says Bruce Harris, the former COO of Workman Publishing who spent an hour sharing his advice on how to publish successfully in this digitally-driven world. Before Workman, he was president of Random House trade sales and marketing. He's now a publishing consultant who's recently consulted for Knopf, Hyperion, and W.W. Norton.

After everything we've heard throughout the course on the importance of embracing digital publishing, Bruce's session was a breath of fresh air. He's very rooted in the here and now--no surprise that he's best-known for publishing Ram Dass's Be Here Now.

A few takeaway points from Bruce:

*Keep Calm and Carry On: Take all this info on web marketing and web publishing with a grain of salt. So far no publishers have made money publishing online. Publishers need to continue to think about what we can do to succeed in our existing business models.

*Control Your Impulses: Traditional bookstore venues no longer exist. They've fallen victim to Amazon, and other online vendors and sites. No longer do consumers browse bookstores, which makes it difficult to seduce them into impulse buys. Rather, consumers make dedicated searches online, buy what they want, and exit.

*Less is More: Publishers as a whole are publishing far too many titles. Bookstores can stock only so many books. We can't rely on a scattershot approach to acquisitions. Instead, we need to make best efforts to target dedicated end-consumers and acquire books that will stand out on the market. Content is king.

*Editors--Raise Your Standards: We need to ask ourselves, is this the best book or is it just an attempt to jump on an existing trend. Is it the third book on the same topic? We shouldn't expect to succeed in publishing to every category. Narrow and deepen our categories for broader success.

*Publish no Book Before its Time: Bruce says publishing too quickly is a mistake. Good publishing takes time. It doesn't make sense to crash a book onto the list in order to fill slots or meet revenue goals. Instead, he suggests investing the money the publisher may pay for an advance on a last-minute acquisition into the marketing for an existing title to really break it out.

*It Takes Two to Make a Thing Go Right: The author needs to invest time and money to partner with the publisher. We need to discuss marketing expectations up front--before the contract is signed. Authors need to make themselves visible, connect with their audience, and commit to making appearances before the book is published. It's not up to the publisher to create a platform for the author.