Monday, January 12, 2015

Interview with Pubslush CEO Amanda L. Barbara


What exactly does Pubslush do? Pubslush is a pre-publication platform that offers crowdfunding and pre-order options to authors and publishers. Crowdfunding allows authors and literary trendsetters to raise funds and gauge audience response for upcoming publishing projects, while the pre-order campaigns help to launch a book 30-60 days before its release. Our community-based platform aims to connect all the key players in the publishing process to create a more democratic and streamlined publishing process.

What do you find challenging or rewarding in helping authors?  Helping authors to bring their books to life is incredibly rewarding. We’ve had many authors on our platform who simply would not have been able to pay for publishing costs if they weren’t able to raise the funds beforehand. Receiving thank you notes from our authors is one of my favorite parts about the work we do.

What advice do you have for authors seeking to get published? As an author, you need to plan ahead and brand yourself in a unique way that will set you apart from others. One of the biggest challenges authors face is the overly crowded book market. By developing your brand as an author and organically connecting with potential readers, you’re establishing yourself within the industry. This is also where Pubslush comes in. We help authors to excel and stand out from the crowd. By providing authors with a platform that focuses on marketing and gauging audience response in the pre-publication phase, we’re allowing them to engage with their audience and prepare to publish more successfully.

Amanda, how has Pubslush grown in the past year? Oh my goodness, we have grown so, so much. 2014 was a big year for us as a company and has laid the groundwork for some really exciting upcoming features we have planned. With so many changes in the industry, Pubslush has chosen to adapt and evolve our platform to fill the current and upcoming needs of our users. My team and I aren’t afraid of change and developing new and exciting platform features is something that keeps Pubslush innovative and unique.

What are some recent successes or milestones you can point to? To end 2014, Pubslush hosted a super successful book giveaway, in which we gave away 25 books throughout the month of December. Also, thanks to some of our great friends in publishing, we were able to collect additional books, which we donated to the New York chapter of The Ronald McDonald House. It was exciting for us to be able to give books to the contest winners as well as children and families in need. We’ve also recently rolled out a new Book Review segment on our blog, which is gaining traction pretty quickly. If any authors are interested in sending our Review Team an ARC, please get in touch at blog@pubslush.com

What do you see is the future for book publishing? I believe as we move forward, readers are going to hold a lot more power within the publishing industry. We’re already seeing this on Pubslush. Where there was once a lack of connection between authors and readers, there is now engagement. As authors and readers continue to build their own relationships, I believe publishers will be forced to follow suit and develop more ways to closely interact with their consumer in a meaningful way.

DON’T MISS: ALL NEW RESOURCE OF THE YEAR

2015 Book PR & Marketing Toolkit: All New



Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer, Media Connect, the nation’s largest book promoter. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2015

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