How a Bestselling Author Became a Successful Publisher (Podcast #17)

bestselling author

How a Bestselling Author Became a Successful Publisher (Podcast #17)

Episode #17 – Putting Authors First: How a Bestselling Author Became a Successful Publisher

By Marleen Seegers, Co-Founder of 2 Seas Agency and Host of The Make Books Travel Podcast

August 14, 2020

Bestselling author

Rohit Bhargava

Today’s podcast guest is Rohit Bhargava. Not only is Rohit a #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling author, a much-demanded speaker worldwide on disruption, trends and marketing, and an adjunct professor of marketing and storytelling at Georgetown University, he has also co-founded his own publishing house: IdeaPress Publishing.

2 Seas Agency handles foreign rights in their books, whose topics mostly focus on business, marketing, leadership and creativity. Since we started working together in 2015 we’ve managed to secure hundreds of rights deals for them (alright, so much for the self-promotion!).

I have been curious to know more about how Rohit evolved from being a published author to becoming a publisher himself and what impact this has, if any, on the books he publishes.

His most recent book is called The Non-Obvious Guide to Virtual Meetings and Remote Work, so I also wanted to pick his brain about how to best prepare for the virtual meeting marathon that lies ahead for many of us, in lieu of the physical Frankfurt Book Fair.

Here are a few of the questions I asked Rohit:

  • Can you tell us about the impact of the pandemic on Ideapress Publishing’s activities?
  • What was your main motivation to evolve from being a bestselling author, published by a well-established and reputed trade publishing house, to launch your own publishing house, besides continuing to author books?
  • Could you tell us about the biggest challenge you faced when starting Ideapress Publishing, and how you addressed it?
  • What is the ONE piece of advice you have for people who are thinking about starting their own publishing house?
  • Could you give us your top three tips for our listeners (myself included) to help them survive, and thrive, during the virtual Frankfurt Book Fair?
Make Books Travel PodcastShow notes
  • Rohit’s book recommendation: Cindy L. Otis, True or False: A CIA Analyst’s Guide to Spotting Fake News (Feiwel & Friends, July 2020)
  • About Rohit:

IdeaPress Publishing co-founder Rohit Bhargava is on a mission to inspire more non-obvious thinking in the world. He is the #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling author of seven books and is widely considered one of the most entertaining and original speakers on disruption, trends and marketing in the world. Rohit has been invited to keynote events in 32 countries … and over the past few months, given more than 40 from his home studio. He previously spent 15 years as a marketing strategist at Ogilvy and Leo Burnett and also teaches marketing and storytelling as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University.

https://www.youtube.com/rohitbhargava

Thank you for listening, and enjoy!

PS: If you are a publishing professional and are interested in participating in a new podcast episode, let us know!

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