Innovative Partnerships
“The tale of woe is more woeful. There are horror
stories everywhere.” Says Adrian Zackeheim of Penguin
Press talking about the traditional publishing industry
and the experience of authors. Writers typically turn over
their precious cargo to a publishing machine that moves
forward with editing, printing, distributing and marketing
without any input or regard for what they want.
Don’t you love innovators who change woeful to joyful?
A publishing company, Berrett-Koehler in San Francisco,
has an innovative new model that treats their authors as
cooperative partners. As a result, they are publishing “smarter
books” according to their founder and president, Steve
Piersanti, with much better sales than the industry averages.
They may have started small 13 years ago, but they are now
attracting big-name writers such as Ken Blanchard (One
Minute Manager series).
As partners, authors are involved in the process, interact
regularly with the people working on their book, and know
that the publisher is invested in making their book successful.
“The big houses ...give a book a six-week look, then
they move on,” Ken Blanchard said, “Steve is
always asking what we can do to keep it going. It’s
a win-win.”
An innovative, cooperative model in publishing that is
producing outstanding results.
Life Upgrade Coaching Questions
Are you an innovator in your industry?
Do you partner with others to make everyone’s
dreams come true?
Are your alliances true inclusive partnerships?
Is every person on your team invested in your
success?
Are you 100% invested in their success?
Do you believe in co-operation as a success
strategy?
Additional Resources
Getting on the Pages by Lucas Conley
from November 2005 Fast Company Magazine | 
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