Traditional Book Publishing is Not Dead

I'm going to a book signing tonight at a local bookstore for one of our new releases Organize Your Mind, Organize Your Life.  

This is a neuroscience book with a coaching approach--not surprisingly written by a psychiatrist and coach team.  It was released as part of book publishing's traditional campaign that begins annually in January, "New Year, New You." 

Organize Your Mind, Organize Your Life has come out of the gate with a bang, and people are quickly snapping up the exisiting copies.  I hear it's going to be standing room only.  The event was announced in advance, and people signed up for seats.  Aren't bookstore events dead?  Mostly, but not completely. 

Why all the buzz about this book?  Two reasons:

1. the BOOK, and
2. the AUTHORS. 

Let's start with the BOOK.

Organize Your Mind, Organize Your Life is a book for smart people about how to do more in less time by first getting your "house" (that would be your brain) in order.  It's the "one-two punch" with first understanding the neuroscience and then having simple but effective tools to implement.  Frankly, it's the book that every CEO should be giving to his or her employees to increase efficiency and productivity.  In book publishing, we call this a great "hook".  Great hooks usually develop when the content is superb and combined with a fascinating concept that is new.  Not surprisingly, people are buzzing about this book (read the early reviews on Amazon).

Now, let's turn to the AUTHORS.

I suspect that these authors, Paul Hammerness, MD (a psychiatrist and researcher at Harvard Medical School) and Margaret Moore (aka Coach Meg who is co-founder of the Institute of Coaching at Harvard Medical School) are a lot like the people that come to FreelanceMD.com.  They are smart and cutting edge and focused on trying to make an impact in their chosen fields — psychiatry and coaching, respectively.  They have a wide network of friends and colleagues who are very supportive of their work.  This is the first book for both of them, and this wide network is helping them to get the word out.  If you happen to know someone who knows these authors — let's call her Mary — at some point in the near future, you'll likely see that Mary has posted something about this book on her Facebook page, tweeted about the book on Twitter, shared info about it on LinkedIn, blogged about it, or at the very least, the good old fashioned way of getting the word out — actually mentioned the book in live conversation.  Mary is one of hundreds of people who are helping them to get the word out.  I'm sure I'll meet some "Mary's" tonight — people who are connected to these authors and will help make up the standing room only crowd.

It's been less than two weeks since Organize Your Mind, Organize Your Life was released, and after just a few days of being "real authors", Margaret Moore and Paul Hammerness can tell you--books are not dead!