Before BookExpo America started, I had the honor of participating on a panel at Publishing University, a jam-packed two-day event sponsored by the Independent Book Publishers Association (formerly Publishers Marketing Association).

On Tuesday, Seth Godin, award-winning author and renowned blogger, wowed the audience with his perspectives on the future of publishing and marketing. Seth’s newest book, Linchpin: Are You Indespensible? provided the framework for his discussion about book publishing … which he saw as a “near-perfect business” that is going through radical change. He suggested that the publishing industry can go the way of the music industry (which is now selling fewer albums than in the 1960s) or you can turn the process upside down and thrive. Although Seth’s remarks focused on book publishers, they have direct value for authors and other entrepreneurs as well.

As Seth explained, a publisher’s job has five critical elements: curator (picking the right title); production and manufacture (editing to finished product); Financial Risk (providing venture capital for ideas); Distribution (garnering shelf space); and promotion (spamming/flogging/publicizing the 750,000 books published each year).

In a digital world, “anyone can be a publisher.” The top of the economic system is shifting, and readers are using different media to consume the “product.”

The good news is (1) you don’t need to take nearly as much financial risk; and (2) the hardest part of your job   – distribution – just got easier. In a digital world, you have “infinite shelf space.” Traditionally, a publisher selected an author and then tried to bring the audience to buy the book. All that “spam, Oprah, etc. is too much noise. There are too many channels.”

In the new paradigm, a publisher’s job remains as a curator, but now they must be leaders who connect with their “tribe” (aka community) and engage in movement. Building that connection comes from personal relationships, built around a mutual interest, not telling people what to do/read.

As Seth sees it, people will spend more time affiliating than reading. These are people who won’t pay for pop media thrown at them. They want what THEY want, not what YOU want. They have specific interests and will connect with other people who share those interests. Rather than finding readers for your writers, you will be finding writers for your readers.

The successful publisher of the future will be the one that “stands for something.” Publishers will become the middleman that facilitates the process of connecting people who want to be connected. Become the leader of a community (genre, subject, etc) and publish for your “tribe.” That will put you in the position to be a matchmaker.

 It is not as simple as declaring yourself a tribe, you need permission; and that is something you may not currently have. Permission comes from genuine connections built from shared interests and ideas. Seth talks about how this works in First, Ten (April 2009).

Reach out to ten people. “[People] who trust you/respect you/need you/listen to you…” Then watch what happens. Do they promote your product/work to ten people? If not, the problem is not your platform, it is your product.

As you look to the future, think about these questions …

• What are the traditional “critical elements” for my industry?
• Does/has an online/digital world changed them? If so, how have they changed?
• What change do I want to make (in response to or in anticipation of these changes)? 
• What is my mission?
• How can i get us all going in the direction we’re going in together?