My firm was just hired to promote the newest novel from Joseph Finder. We’ll conduct a radio tour to promote the late June publication—a spy thriller. We’ve promoted his books a number of times. What surprises me is how many people have never heard of him, although when I first started promoting him, I didn’t know of him either.

It’s interesting that someone as successful as he has been—five New York Times best-sellers with four million copies in print—can be under the radar. Then again, in a country of 310 million, it’s easy for the vast majority to not recognize best-selling authors, movie stars, politicians, Grammy-winning musicians, or leaders in major fields and industries. There is simply too much to keep track of. Plus, the top people in their given area of expertise, may “only” have tens of millions of fans—or just a few million, still leaving 250+ million people who don’t know anything about the Joseph Finders of the world.

What surprises me is if something can break through, like a Harry Potter book, and gets lots of publicity, ad support, and praise from fans, how come it doesn’t go all the way, and get into the hands of practically everyone? Is it getting to the point that our society’s interests are so varied that we can’t get the majority to like the same thing or know about the same things?

Social media may be contributing to this, to a degree. We’re fragmented. Few national discussions or centralized platforms exist. Instead, we have people tweeting and blogging to a core group of self-selected followers and we have, literally, millions of public discussions going on simultaneously but nothing to unite us. And yet it is probably social media that affords us the best chance to rally the masses to focus on specific issues, people, events, or even books.

I know that we’ll schedule a great radio tour for Joseph Finder. We’ll get him a few dozen interviews with top-tier markets and inform millions of listeners about him. Now we just need to reach the other 300 million people.

Random thought: 51% of Americans age 12 and older have profiles on Facebook, up from 8% in 2008, according to a recent Arbitron/Edison Research survey. What can you conclude from that? I’m surprised to see 49% don’t have profiles, but then again, why does this study include pre-teens? Does a kid really need a Facebook page?

I also thought about seniors who still may not be as active online as others, as well as illiterates, people who can’t afford a computer, and those who don’t speak English well. Really, that 51% number is probably more like 80% of the people who are active and contributing to society. What’s most interesting is how in just a few short years the majority of the country lives on one social networking site. That’s a lot of power and potential there, but how are we harnessing it to market books and to make the world a better place?

Also, Google is king of the search marketing industry. Over 2 million searches take place using Google every minute, according to the New York Times.

Brian Feinblum is the chief marketing officer of Planned Television Arts (rebranded as Media Connect), the nation’s largest and oldest book promotions firm. Brian has worked in the promoting industry since 1989 and has worked with clients of varied professions such as magician David Copperfield and best-selling author Og Mandino.

All creative artists want their work to be embraced by a loving public, even long after they are dead. They want to leave a legacy and to be appreciated by others. It doesn’t matter if it’s art, film, books, architecture, or other forms of creation—the desire and drive of all creators is the same.

Sure, some are ego-driven, money-hungry, fame-seekers, but all, at the heart of their efforts, want to see their work valued and to know it has inspired, enlightened, entertained, and informed others. They want to know they sparked a dialogue, provoked action, stimulated thought, and led to a change in society or impacted lives. Writers want to think that they created something not just for today or for a generation, but something everlasting and permanent.

The truth is it doesn’t work that way. Not at all.

The other day, I was in a public library helping my eight-year-old son do research for a school report he was writing for his second-grade class. While we looked for books about the Blue Iguana of the Cayman Islands (we found none), I happened upon a volume titled “Colonial History to 1877.” As I flipped through the pages of the book, I realized how much has happened in our nation’s history of nearly 237 years, and I said to my son: “You know, there will come a time when all of the history you will spend your school years learning will be taught in a day.”

Eventually, there will be little difference between 1813, 1913, or 2013, because so much history will have taken place over the years. Here’s what may happen:

• The more recent history of the present era will seem more significant and important than the distant past.
• So many more significant things will happen in the centuries to come that by the time it is 2513, to reflect on the quaint times of today will seem insignificant.
• As time goes by, the time dedicated to studying history will be replaced, in part, to be used to learn new skills that future technologies will bring about.

Our ability to record news, find facts, publish analysis, and share information will overwhelm the education system and forbid it to properly give students enough time to discuss any specific event or subject in great detail.

Every year that goes by, the amount of classroom time spent learning about history generally remains the same but the amount of time put to any one event or person shrinks because more history is created and has to be covered. History books have three decades of history and five more presidents to write about since I graduated high school in 1984.

How much longer will the school year need to be in order to properly cover future history? I calculated I spent about an hour per day in class on history—some 2,160 school hours (an hour per school day, 180 days per year, 12 years). That is about 10 hours dedicated per every year of this nation’s history. That means another 290 hours of instruction would be needed just to cover the last 29 years. What will that come to in 100 years? 1,000 years? 10,000 years?

So, I come back to my opening remarks about the lifespan of a creative artist’s work, especially books. We still read old books—the Bible, works of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and some ancient texts, but compared to all that has been written and published, how many books are read well beyond an author’s lifetime? Most books expire. They have a shelf-life even if they can exist forever online. Relevance, discoverability, language—all of these things doom most books.

But it does not stop us from writing as if our words will last forever. Heck, before we can think about our works being read and enjoyed a century from now, we struggle to find readers today. But we can strive to write today and hope the words live another day.

The odds of being read today are much greater than they will be even next week, when, at least 7,000 more books will have been published by traditional publishers. Write as if you’ll be read tomorrow, but hope to be read today.

Remember these words, for chances are they won’t live beyond your lifetime: Create because you reflect the truth. Create because you need an alternative to the truth. Create because you don’t know the truth. Create, to inspire greater truths.

History will tell us what really was true, if only history were complete, unbiased, and accurate. Who knows how long your words will exist, so make them count right now. If your words do their job to inspire greatness, change, and more creativity, then they will become useless and unneeded with time. They will have led a revolution that will render them obsolete. Perhaps being made obsolete is the honor to strive for.

Will your words stand the test of time?

Brian Feinblum is the chief marketing officer of Planned Television Arts (rebranded as Media Connect), the nation’s largest and oldest book promotions firm. Brian has worked in the promoting industry since 1989 and has worked with clients of varied professions such as magician David Copperfield and best-selling author Og Mandino.

The marketplace for books—whether print, digital, or audio—is clearly owned by Amazon. According to RR Bowker, as of October 1, 2012, Amazon accounts for 27% of total units sold, which is an improvement from 21% a year earlier. Barnes & Noble went from 17% to 16%. Other than these two retailers, no single company scored in the double digits. In fact, no single category of sales channel hit double digits. Here’s how the rest of the book marketplace breaks down:

• All independent bookstores, combined – 6%
• Other ebook and audio download sites – 6%
• Other e-commerce sites – 6%
• All book clubs – 5%
• Discount, closeout, and thrift stores – 5%
• Walmart – 4%
• Non-traditional bookstores – 3%
• Warehouse clubs – 3%
• Christian bookstores – 2%
• Target – 2%
• Books-A-Million – 2%
• Supermarkets – 1%
• All other means – 12%

The book marketing battlefield runs beyond bookstores or e-commerce sites. Books are everywhere and nowhere. But however they are sold, there is no doubt that sales will always be driven by savvy book marketing and the garnering of news media coverage. Word of mouth makes a big difference but only once there is a critical mass of interest that builds up form marketing exposure. Publishers and authors will continue to identify their target readers, sell their books everywhere in every form, and market to their core readers. Promote—or perish!

Brian Feinblum is the chief marketing officer of Planned Television Arts (rebranded as Media Connect), the nation’s largest and oldest book promotions firm. Brian has worked in the promoting industry since 1989 and has worked with clients of varied professions such as magician David Copperfield and best-selling author Og Mandino.

As the debate rages within the publishing industry over how much information is worth, a May 3^rd Sotheby’s auction yielded a $170 million windfall for 44 works of art. There was one painting—a Picasso—that sold for $21.3 million. It made me wonder why we don’t value the written word the same way.

Now, granted, books, other than ancient or rare manuscripts, will never fetch millions of dollars, but why is information today being devalued in the marketplace?

The Internet poses many challenges to information peddlers. Book publishers, newspapers, magazines, and websites are still searching for the ideal pricing model. Part of the problem is there’s so much information out there and a lot of it is free. But the art of writing should not be commoditized, where we weigh words by the pound. It’s the quality, more than the quantity, of content that should count.

As it is, many authors fail to earn much from their work. Publishers Weekly reported on a study performed last year that showed 7% of all books published generate 87% of the sales revenue. Further, 93% of all published books sold less than 1,000 copies each. In fairness, many sales happen off the radar (via authors’ sites, seminars, bulk organization sales, etc.) and thus there are probably more successful authors thank this study shows, but still, these are sobering statistics.

Book publishers have made a tactical error in making ebooks so cheap. As a result, they undercut the perceived value of all published writings. It’s a model that, the longer it persists, will be harder to reverse. I would prefer they give extra value to a higher purchase price, rather than lower the price.

There are many factors weighing on the pricing of information, including the following:

• We’re still in a recessionary mode and for some, buying a book or subscribing to a magazine poses some challenges.
• Publishers are playing follow the leader, letting Amazon, Apple, or Walmart dictate terms. If a publisher tries to push its own model, it has to compete against what the vast majority has established.
• All information is competing with each other, so people are choosing what to spend money on—while also reading free blogs, posts on social networking sites, and tweets.
• More than ever before, people are spending time creating content and writing and, therefore, devote less time reading and buying the works of others. Our nation is moving from consumers to producers of content.
• Aside from free and purchasable information, there is a competition for time and mindshare. People also devote hours and hours to television, radio, video games, on-demand video, and a host of other entertainment forms.
• As the number of e-readers increases, more people will secure information digitally, and thus, the printed version of content is likely to suffer lower sales.
• Global competition online. Walking into a bookstore used to confront you with hundreds of thousands of choices but online, the choices extend to the millions. Books never go out of print online and no boundary of store or country stands in the way of your accessing materials from around the globe.

In time, the dust will settle. I would venture a guess that in a few years a clearer model of pricing will develop and the lines will blur as to what even constitutes a book. Information will merge and the distinction of what’s a book, a magazine, a newspaper, or a blog will become less clear.

Just look at television and movies. The boundaries of distinction are decreasing. Not long ago the major TV networks produced content and then syndicated reruns were shown on cable stations. Now cable stations produce original shows. Netflix used to rent old TV shows and movies. Now it’s getting into the game of airing shows that didn’t air elsewhere first. More importantly, people are not going to movie theaters as often as they used to and not buying DVDs as often as they used to. They watch it on TV or through streaming online video, for free or little charge. Even worse, millions of homes are off the TV grid.

Nielsen reported that 3.5% of all homes do not own a single TV. Some of it is attributed to the recession, although TV-based entertainment is cheaper than almost all other forms. Some of it is attributed to the switch two years ago over the elimination of antennas, thus requiring transition to cable or the purchase of a converter box. Others may simply believe TV offers nothing of redeeming value and avoid it. But the real culprit may be the Internet. People are watching TV for free online.

So what does all of this add up to when it comes to pricing books? I would suggest publishers stop lowering their prices and curtail all of the free content to a degree. Or else look for ways to trumpet the uniqueness of a book. Authors devote their lives to their writing. Shouldn’t they get paid more than what comes out to below-minimum-wage royalties? This is true for self-publishers and print-on-demand authors: don’t devalue your own work. Once we’re all on the same page, the market shall improve.

But if writing doesn’t pay off for you, consider investing in art. I hear there’s money to be made there.

Brian Feinblum is the chief marketing officer of Planned Television Arts (rebranded as Media Connect), the nation’s largest and oldest book promotions firm. Brian has worked in the promoting industry since 1989 and has worked with clients of varied professions such as magician David Copperfield and best-selling author Og Mandino.

My six-year-old recently asked me if I can “advertise” a book that he plans to write. He doesn’t exactly know what I do for a living even though I tell him that I promote authors to the news media and market their books. But he knows enough to see that anyone—even a kid—has access to cheap technology that can create a book (regardless of the quality of the content), and he knows that the book can sell with the right promotions.

I didn’t ask him what his book would be about or why he thought others would want to buy it. I wanted to applaud him for thinking this up, but I didn’t want to encourage him because I knew it would mean I’d have to promote it. Not that I’m lazy or disinterested in supporting his efforts. It’s just that I wasn’t sure how I’d explain to him all the things many adult authors seem to miss the boat on.

Too many authors think like my kid does—slap together a book and promote it. Then count the sales, right? It’s not that easy. Just as almost any healthy under-40 adult can have a kid, provided they have unprotected sex, that doesn’t mean he or she will be a good parent. And so it goes with publishing. Almost anyone can get a book published, but it doesn’t mean the book is any good. And even if it’s a gem, it will need smart, relentless promoting or it will just die a quiet death.

I suppose if I did encourage my son, Benjamin Feinblum (I put his full name here so he can find himself online), to pursue his dream of getting published, selling lots of books, and becoming famous, I’d first help him think through what he plans to do. I’d want him to think about how his book will be written, designed, and presented. Image is becoming just as important as content. I’d ask him to define his marketplace: Who does he envision as his customers or readers? Why will they buy from him, and at what price point? Lastly, he should tell me how he’ll promote it. Yes, a six-year-old with a business plan!

That may be a tall order to ask of a six-year-old. Many adults fail to answer those questions or to deliver as promised on the answers they provide. There’s a lesson here, I think. Technology allows us to get a book published instantly. It also creates a marketplace and a means to promote. But behind all of the button-pushing, we still can’t lose sight of the basics: you still need a compelling book; lots of energy, time, money, and creativity to promote it; and a readership that can be targeted to with the right offer.

Ben has already convinced me to participate in his other money-making schemes: a car wash, cupcake sale, lemonade stand, to name a few. Maybe publishing and marketing a book for a kid these days will become the new norm. I’m sure some other six-year-old is asking his parent to help with blogging or creating a website as we sit here now.

One thing my son has that most adult authors don’t is his innocence. He has charm and personality. Who’s going to turn down a smiling six-year-old peddling a cute little book for a couple of bucks? Maybe he should write about dogs, happiness, money, or chocolate—a big percentage of the population supports each of those things. Throw in a charity tie-in (Let’s raise money for the homeless, maybe?), and you have a neat little package.

For publicity, do I need much of an angle beyond “Six-year-old publishes memoir; nation’s largest book PR firm promotes it”? Too bad Oprah is gone, but I can see a Publisher’s Weekly interview, New York Times profile, and a Today Show segment (albeit, hour number eight) in the cards. At least that’s what we’ll write on the galley copy’s back cover. His mom can give a great testimonial though his three-year-old sister, Olivia, can’t quite use her crayon to write neatly.

Say, the more I think about it, the more I’m starting to see why my son suggested his publishing foray in the first place. He has me sold on it.

Brian Feinblum is the chief marketing officer of Planned Television Arts (rebranded as Media Connect), the nation’s largest and oldest book promotions firm. Brian has worked in the promoting industry since 1989 and has worked with clients of varied professions such as magician David Copperfield and best-selling author Og Mandino.

Imagine being sequestered somewhere for about a year, getting paid to do what you may love the most: read books. Lots of them. Every day. Non-stop. A marathon of books, books, and more books. Could you do it?

The equivalent for sports watching is taking place right now. Major League Baseball, in its infinite marketing wisdom, is paying two guys to watch baseball day and night throughout the season. They will watch 2,450 regular season games and then the playoffs and the World Series. They are on display to the public—you can go to their first-floor “fan cave” in a space formerly famous for occupying the original Tower Records on East 4th Street in Manhattan.

Besides watching games, the two superfans film a reality show that airs on www.MLB.com. These unabashed baseball addicts interest me because they call into question the old adage: too much of a good thing is not so good. I wonder after it is all done if they will ever want to watch another game, or will they come away as addicted as ever?

Can publishing houses sponsor some gimmick like this? Can Random House, Harper Collins, Simon & Schuster, or St. Martin’s Press host a read-a-thon by its best authors? Would Amazon sponsor a book-a-thon to highlight the readings of its best customers? Should Barnes & Noble pay someone to read as many books on its Nook as possible over the summer? Maybe someone wants to set a Guinness Book of World Records mark for most books read and blogged about in one month?

The writing profession does get its due. There are many book and author awards out there. There are a number of best-seller lists one can make. There’s attention drawn to a book by reviewers and bloggers. There are public book signings. And there is countless coverage on social networking sites. But maybe the industry, as a whole, needs some fanfare. It’s been a rough few years with layoffs and consolidations, shrinking sales, and store closings.

It’s time to celebrate the profession and art of writing. Go buy a book—or read one.

Or a few thousand of them.

Brian Feinblum is the chief marketing officer of Planned Television Arts (rebranded as Media Connect), the nation’s largest and oldest book promotions firm. Brian has worked in the promoting industry since 1989 and has worked with clients of varied professions such as magician David Copperfield and best-selling author Og Mandino.