The Corner Office: On the Record With: Paul Bogaards

That post, indeed much of my presence on social media, is a response to the anxiety people in our industry are feeling about the future. I was basically poking fun at the notion that we are all going the way of the parasaurolophus, and what better way to do that than with a list suggesting that the most powerful people in our industry are authors who have slipped through the clutches of traditional publishers. Also, that our fortunes are largely determined by outsiders. By people in the media. And by retailers.

Of course, if I were to re-publish that list tomorrow, we all know who would be number one: E L James. And what is significant about E L James is that she chose not to self publish. Instead, she chose to publish with Vintage because we approached her with a fully realized plan and vision for her work, one that we were able to execute in seamless fashion. And we all know the end result: Her books have enjoyed enormous success. I suppose one could surmise that we are not, in fact, going the way of the parasaurolophus after all. BB

Follow Paul Bogaards on Twitter: @paulbogaards; on Tumblr: paulbogaards.tumblr.com.