Parisian Phoenix Publishing

20% of Books Make a Profit

The quote in the title of this blog came from Katherine Ramsland, author of 71 published books, known for her work on the biographies of Anne Rice and Dean Koontz, her work chronicling serial killers and her deep-dives into topics like ghosts and vampires. (Her books Ghost and Piercing the Darkness will always be two of my favorites.)

The quote in the subhead comes from Maria Rodale, the former CEO of her family’s Rodale Press which was purchased by Hearst Communications in 2019.

Ramsland and Rodale were two of the amazing speakers at the Reading, Writing & Retailing Symposium at DeSales University today, organized by the Council for Retail and Sales. Sponsors for the event included Walmart, Poster Boy Productions, Edward Jones and NextEvo Naturals (so our participant swag bags included CBD gummies!)

The other speakers included actor/playwright Dan Lauria, familiar to me as the dad from The Wonder Years; Bethlehem native and actor Daniel Roebuck who has appeared in just about every television program I’ve ever watched; television writer Shelley Dennis who just finished her third season in the writer’s room of the Roseanne spinoff, The Connors; and former Morning Call journalist and nonfiction author Vicki Mayk.

Tabletop panels featured topics like finding a publisher, making the most of social media, composing/producing music, writing a textbook, and promotions that sell books/working with bookstores.

The Council and DeSales did a great job with this symposium which gave students and local professionals some insight into the publishing industry and some helpful hints about self-promotion, social media and retail environments that should be useful in any field.

The five-hour event was packed with compelling nuggets.

This weekend, I will include some of those lessons in my Substack newsletter (parisianphoenixpublishing.substack.com). This week’s newsletter will look at self-promotion advice from The Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group The Write Stuff Conference and whatever I might gain from the Pocono Writers Conference tomorrow.