Talking Through My Hat

Lorraine Shanley is co-founder and President of Market Partners International, who are consultants for the changing environment of publishing. Before MPI, Lorraine worked at Barnes & Noble, Book of the Month Club and HarperCollins, and now also serves on the Advisory Board of New York University’s Publishing Program, and for five years chaired the Launch Kids Media conference at Digital Book World. In her spare time she writes articles on publishing, technology and social media, and regularly reviews audiobooks and books for several sites. In this episode, Lorraine talks about maintaining a broad focus and how having several distinct types of work means that everything stays interesting. We talk about how the business grew into the shape it did, some of the famous clients they've worked with, and how they introduced Jeff Bezos to the world of bookselling. Often, expertise lies in knowing who to ask questions of, rather than necessarily in knowing the answers.