I just read an intriguing quote by Jeff Jarvis about a new course in journalism. In it, he says, “Content fills things; service accomplishes things.” He was talking about the need for journalists to focus on serving their audience, not just feeding them content to consume.

Every author, speaker, consultant, coach, and internet marketer is told to “create content” in order to connect with their audience.

I wonder.

I wonder how authors can serve readers rather than filling up cyberspace – or dead trees – with more pixels and bits. I wonder how we at Dudley Court Press can serve our authors and prospective authors and readers of our blog and newsletter – rather than creating ‘content’ that simply fills time and space and gives Google’s spiders and bots something to chew on.

What I want most to accomplish these days through my service is to help as many people as I can to write and publish, and if they want, sell, the books that want to be written through them. I meet so many people who feel strongly that they have a book in them, and they want to share it. They don’t expect to become world-renowned bestselling authors. They just know that they have something worthwhile to give back to the world. They don’t want to become publishers. They just want some help getting through the publishing jungle. That’s how we serve – as jungle guides!

I love working with people who are compelled to write a book. People who know that the value of their life experiences is in sharing them with others, so that others can be inspired or warned, or forgiven, or entertained, or educated, or counseled, or motivated, or renewed. Those books that are calling out to be written are the books that I love to midwife. My service is to the author, the book and the readers – helping authors write the books that readers want, need, crave, and will receive with relief and gladness. And helping readers find those books through strategic, relentless collaborative marketing that starts when an author and I first sit down to chat.