Steven Piersanti, president of Berret-Koehler Publishers (John Wiley & Sons), last updated his missive, “The 10 Awful Truths About Book Publishing,” in 2016. Piersanti, as usual, made no bones about the challenge of writing and publishing a successful book. Authors would do well to read his truths.

What I find most timely, other than the long odds of becoming a top-selling book, is that success today depends on writing for communities. Authors first have to serve the “core readers” circulating in communities they regularly connect with.

In a market with tens of thousands of interesting titles, authors cannot expect anyone to read their books if they don’t write first for people who already care about the subject, their work, and them. And if the author has become a celebrated member of that community, all the better.

Words to the wise from Piersanti: “...people are reading only books that their communities make important or even mandatory to read. There is no general audience for most nonfictions books, and chasing after such a mirage is usually far less effective than connecting with one’s communities.”

[Revised January 2020. Originally published June 18, 2012]