Publishing industry

We’re not going to listen to you!

The other day I got some communication from one large company or other that had a few significant errors that I needed to correct. I went to reply but of course the email had been sent from a ‘do not reply’ address, so I had to go hunting for other details. Sometimes these emails tell you that can’t reply in the body of the text, sometimes it’s written somewhat politely but often it’s just stark capital letters, shouting at you 'DO NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL'. Often, the email address itself is actually [email protected] Maybe I’m over-analysing this one, but I think this is a really bad look. It basically says that they want to talk at me, but they won’t listen in return. It feels like they’re standing there with a megaphone telling me what’s what, then put their fingers in their ears when [...]

Save time and money with custom events

I've been to a lot of trade shows in my career, and I've even run a few as well. I've seen the very best and the very worst, as well as the vast mediocre centre. At their best, trade shows are a brilliant way to interact with all your customers and prospects face to face in an enjoyable setting, but at their worst they can be an expensive and time consuming gamble, that often result in you spending a huge amount of money to stand on your booth for a few days and hope for the best. As a result, increasingly companies are instead creating their own custom events as a way to; guarantee the right people are there save time and money by not worrying about the wrong people get exclusive airtime without having to share the spotlight with your competitors As the tradeshow [...]

Why distress rates suck!

My publishing training was a bit unorthodox, in that it began when I found myself charged with running a publishing company without any experience. In the early days – and perhaps even now – there were a lot of long-held industry practices that didn’t make all that much sense to me. It was only a couple of years ago when I first heard of distress rates – I didn’t like the sound of them then, and I don’t like them now. Some publishers, particularly those with very set targets, have a policy of offering any unsold space close to their deadline at greatly reduced rates. I remember when I was first asked by a customer to do this, I nearly spat my coffee across the desk. Economics 101 teaches us that people respond to economic incentives – if I charge $2 for muffins and $1 [...]