Opyrus Blog for Authors and Writers

Where do books come from?

Written by Brittany Lavin | Sat, Feb 26, 2011 @ 12:25 AM

I recently took a trip with my brother to purchase a car. For 3 hours we were on the road together, with a chance to talk in greater depth than usual. My brother, Paul, is the sales manager for a Kia dealership, and he has been in car sales for years.

In fact, his first job in car sales was as a salesman for a Chevy dealer. He was Salesman of the Month 11 out of 12 months per year, every year, for about 7 years as I recall. I believe that he and I both owe our people skills to our father; who owned a butcher shop where my brother and I both worked. There is something about working in a family business, especially with a family like mine, that instills a very successful attitude.

My brother then went on to become a sales manager and has been one ever since. He's great at what he does.

Now, I have been in book publishing for over 12 years. And in all this time, I never knew something about my brother: He had written a book on sales.

There I was, on a road trip with my brother, finding this out for the first time. My energy level in the car shot right up, as I told him exactly what can be done, how many units I projected him to sell, who his target audience is, how he can best apply his marking efforts, etc. After all, book publishing is my passion (or at least one of them).

So where do books and authors come from? Some might say they come from excellence in a particular field. Or they may come from one with a gifted pen. But in my case, a book and author may come from a long road trip to Scranton, PA.

-Dave Giorgio