tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-117840742011-04-21T19:36:02.165-07:00Life, work, and the wonderful world of book publishing.Brian Hamptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12841511753774491011noreply@blogger.comBlogger241100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11784074.post-2900389169051395922008-08-11T15:27:00.000-07:002008-08-11T15:28:09.797-07:00

I was sitting behind a guy recently who was wearing the obligatory yellow rubber wristband. I noticed that the lettering really “popped,” and then I quickly figured out why: all the dirt caked in the letters contrasted strikingly with the yellow band. Live strong? How about we start with “wash strong”?

Brian Hamptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12841511753774491011noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11784074.post-20597679144712201692008-07-21T20:57:00.000-07:002008-07-21T20:58:58.095-07:00

This past weekend I had two strikingly different experiences in the world of retail.On Saturday evening, at a time when I would typically expect to fight crowds to some degree, I was in a Target store needed to pick up a few essentials. I planned to visit the book area to see what was merchandised where, what kinds of people were browsing, who was buying, and the like. Once I entered the store

Brian Hamptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12841511753774491011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11784074.post-1590932804344723532008-07-21T05:15:00.000-07:002008-07-21T05:18:50.139-07:00

I lead a publishing division called Corporate Brands. We focus our work—publishing, marketing, and brand management—exclusively on ten brands. Having this kind of focus is a rare privilege in the world of publishing. Of course, not everyone is a true believer in our business model; publishing purists don’t typically think of authors as brands. In fact, a colleague at my own publishing house said

Brian Hamptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12841511753774491011noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11784074.post-86210456600920469632008-07-09T15:27:00.000-07:002008-07-09T15:29:15.671-07:00

I’ve been watching professional tennis for thirty years now, and the Wimbledon championship between Raphael Nadal and Roger Federer last Sunday was one of the most exciting matches I’ve ever seen. Federer’s comeback from two sets down to force a fifth set was scintillating. Having squandered a chance to win in straight sets, Nadal’s ultimate triumph was a grand display of resilience and willpower

Brian Hamptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12841511753774491011noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11784074.post-13507247304713721572007-10-10T06:10:00.000-07:002007-10-10T06:14:21.266-07:00

My wife and I spent several weekends recently packing to move out of a house we’d lived in for more than nine years. Despite some aggressive purging, there was a lot to pack. At one point, our cheap sealing tape dispenser broke, so I ran to the nearby home improvement store to replace it. There, alongside the cheap dispensers, was a $9 dispenser: the Scotch H-180. It was bigger and better—clearly

Brian Hamptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12841511753774491011noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11784074.post-56228528496081356492007-10-08T06:18:00.000-07:002007-10-08T06:22:02.963-07:00

Early in my publishing career, I had to go to the office of one of our senior leaders to report on an issue related to an upcoming book release. While I was there, someone further up the corporate ladder than me interrupted the meeting to tell the leader about some extremely troubling “water cooler” talk he had heard recently. After listening to all the details, the leader paused and then said, “

Brian Hamptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12841511753774491011noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11784074.post-66608426239954812452007-04-18T05:37:00.000-07:002007-04-18T05:44:47.930-07:00

This has nothing to do with publishing or business or anything like that. My dad died last month. A friend of mine at work attended the service and encouraged me to post the eulogy I gave. This is what I said...This is the kind of man my father was.When my little sister’s dress caught fire one Sunday evening, he beat it out with his bare hand, burning himself in the process. The rest of us

Brian Hamptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12841511753774491011noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11784074.post-1148998271430737152006-05-30T07:08:00.000-07:002006-05-30T07:11:11.450-07:00

I love personality tests and strengths assessments. Myers-Briggs, DISC, StrengthsFinders—you name it. But the DISC came back into my life recently, and it got me thinking about the odd management advice that is sometimes dispensed with the test results.For instance, here are some tips for communicating with team members I’ve seen over the years:Don’t be dictatorial. Don’t talk down to her/him.

Brian Hamptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12841511753774491011noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11784074.post-1147700302872333032006-05-15T06:36:00.000-07:002006-05-15T06:38:22.893-07:00

In the business world, you can’t escape thinking a lot about brands and audiences. I’ve been meditating on Hardee’s quite a bit lately. If you haven’t noticed, they seem to be going full-bore old-school in their advertising and their menu selections these days.Five seconds into one of their babe-oriented television commercials, my ordinarily calm and peace-loving wife is hollering at the idiot

Brian Hamptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12841511753774491011noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11784074.post-1141742436321020232006-03-07T06:39:00.000-08:002006-03-07T06:40:36.346-08:00

As a publisher, I struggle with the highs and lows of getting to know the real people behind authors’ personas. The highs are great; spending time with some authors is a delight. It’s my privilege to count some of them as personal friends. The lows, however, can be pretty low; spending time with other authors (the minority) is torture. People often ask, “What is so-and-so like in person?” When

Brian Hamptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12841511753774491011noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11784074.post-1138317332177954342006-01-26T15:13:00.000-08:002006-01-27T07:10:46.986-08:00

I can’t help but comment on the controversy surrounding James Frey’s, ahem, fictional memoir A Million Little Pieces. However, it’s not the book publishing aspect of the dust-up that intrigues me. (More about that, perhaps, at a later date.)No, right now I’m fascinated by how—in this post-modern age in which we have been trained to believe that there is no such animal as truth—enlightened

Brian Hamptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12841511753774491011noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11784074.post-1136822061995722432006-01-09T07:44:00.000-08:002006-01-09T07:54:22.016-08:00

Loving BooksI work in the world of book publishing. As one of my earlier blogs detailed, it is definitely a business. Because of the topics treated in many of the projects I work on, for me it is also a mission. But whether people are reading them in hardcover or paperback, listening to them in audio format, or downloading the ideas digitally, they are books! They are stories. They are

Brian Hamptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12841511753774491011noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11784074.post-1133824813250469472005-12-05T15:17:00.000-08:002005-12-05T15:20:13.263-08:00

I was talking with someone recently about the state of publishing, and this person expressed to me a fairly dim view of literary agents. The opinion struck me as “old school,” as my son would put it. It got me thinking about this cynical question: “Who needs literary agents?” My answer is…Aspiring AuthorsTo say book publishing is competitive would be a grand understatement. As an aspiring author,

Brian Hamptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12841511753774491011noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11784074.post-1127340239048304682005-09-21T14:59:00.000-07:002005-09-21T15:03:59.056-07:00

I recently had the opportunity to speak to a small group of college seniors who are interested in careers in journalism or publishing. It was a good chance to reflect on how I got into this industry years ago as well as why someone might want to do so these days.In 1990, I was beginning my last year of graduate school. I had begun to second-guess the career I was preparing for. So I did what lots

Brian Hamptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12841511753774491011noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11784074.post-1121799156621560402005-07-19T11:49:00.000-07:002005-07-19T11:52:36.633-07:00

Sometimes I think the primary key to high performance is simply having enough self-discipline to act on the knowledge you already possess. For instance, I was reminded in a book I am working on that in conversations the primary means of communication is not words. It breaks out like this: Words: 7%Tone of Voice: 38%Non-Verbals: 55% We have several executives at our company whose rule of thumb is:

Brian Hamptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12841511753774491011noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11784074.post-1119030890871176952005-06-17T10:48:00.000-07:002005-06-17T10:54:50.876-07:00

When I was eight, Cincinnati Reds catcher Johnny Bench was my hero. Never mind that I was the scrawniest kid you could imagine; I wanted to be a catcher, too. So that year I put just one thing on my Christmas list: a catcher’s mitt. I made sure to give the request to my parents months early, and I never wavered like some kids do—asking for a catcher’s mitt one week but a model airplane the next.

Brian Hamptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12841511753774491011noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11784074.post-1118061552794703502005-06-06T05:35:00.000-07:002005-06-06T05:39:12.800-07:00

The English language is a fascinating thing, with all its idioms and aphorisms and figures of speech. I once knew a guy who frequently warned people, “Don’t count your eggs before they hatch.” I finally worked up the nerve to tell him that “before they hatch” is probably the best time to count your eggs. After they hatch, it’ll take an entire CSI team to put together all those shell fragments and

Brian Hamptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12841511753774491011noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11784074.post-1116424447562411732005-05-18T06:43:00.000-07:002005-05-18T06:54:07.586-07:00

There’s nothing quite like opening up a magazine and finding a review of a book you edited.Let me pause here and admit that there is also nothing quite like the dysfunctionality of the relationship between a publishing house and the publications that review books. We want the right newspapers, magazines, and trade journals to review our authors’ books. It confirms that they are paying attention

Brian Hamptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12841511753774491011noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11784074.post-1115645709030631572005-05-09T06:04:00.000-07:002005-05-09T06:35:09.060-07:00

It occurred to me recently that if you are fairly new to the corporate world, you might still be hung up on trying to be focused and attentive in meetings. If so, I can tell you from experience that you'll never get anywhere with such a simplistic approach. There are many things you should consider doing at business meetings. That's why I’ve put together the following list of best practices for

Brian Hamptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12841511753774491011noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11784074.post-1114864661648691962005-04-30T05:34:00.000-07:002005-04-30T05:37:41.650-07:00

This just in: bring and take are not synonyms.Don’t get me wrong. If you are bucking for the role of Hillbilly #3 in the new play at the community theater, you might indeed want to say, “Can you bring this letter to the Post Office on your way home tonight?” It makes the point effectively when you can’t find a way to work in a classic such as, “I need to water my tomatoes but I can’t find the

Brian Hamptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12841511753774491011noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11784074.post-1114435839239587752005-04-25T06:24:00.000-07:002005-04-25T06:30:39.240-07:00

I have a fairly lengthy commute to and from work each day—anywhere from thirty-five minutes to an hour one way. So I listen to a lot of audio books. I will eventually share some of my favorite audios in such categories as business, memoir, and poetry. But I can’t write about audio books without first mentioning Jim Dale.Dale is the actor who reads the audio book editions of the Harry Potter

Brian Hamptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12841511753774491011noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11784074.post-1113360944373519602005-04-12T19:41:00.000-07:002005-04-12T19:55:44.376-07:00

I have a confession to make. I love the poetry of Billy Collins.I say “confession” because some of my friends would probably smile at the idea that anyone would bother to read something as impractical or irrelevant as poetry. I say “confession” also because to some folks who consider themselves sophisticated, the poetry of Billy Collins is bad. They know that it is bad precisely because it is

Brian Hamptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12841511753774491011noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11784074.post-1112289076484778962005-03-31T09:05:00.000-08:002005-03-31T09:11:16.486-08:00

Today, I’d like to say a word about making money.Like many other organizations, Thomas Nelson Publishers is a lot of things, but at the end of the day it is a business. It’s a publicly held company, and you can find us on the New York Stock Exchange. Yet I still bump into people inside and outside our company—really nice and respectable people—who don’t ever want to hear about subjects such as “

Brian Hamptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12841511753774491011noreply@blogger.com63tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11784074.post-1112140272255827742005-03-29T15:46:00.001-08:002006-01-09T07:55:26.556-08:00

I’ve been working in the book publishing field for fourteen years. I’ve done about every editorial job you can do—from editorial assistant to associate publisher for a trade book imprint.From time to time, in this blog I will share ideas about the world of books as well as the wonderful, exasperating experience of working in book publishing. I will also occasionally have something to say about

Brian Hamptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12841511753774491011noreply@blogger.com5