About us

We created Micro Publishing Media, Inc as a reaction to the changing tide of publishing and how people consume media.

Here are some of the changes:

The conglomerate “Big Five” publishing houses have become more consolidated and many have absorbed smaller independent publishing houses.

1. The mid-list books are now almost always edged out for titles that could assure the bottom-line of the publishing giants.
2. More books are purchased through on-line retailers making places like amazon an important outlet for all publishers.
3. Ease of access to self-publishing online retailers has made it difficult, if not impossible, for self-published authors to find an audience.
4. Self-publishing has created a reduction of quality, which assures that these books will not be competitive in the marketplace.

Deborah Herman began her journey into publishing as a career literary agent and author. The Jeff Herman Agency, LLC is responsible for placing over 1000 books with traditional publishing houses. Deborah’s role at the agency was in editorial development. This included curation and selection of titles, evaluation of book proposals and guiding authors to create successful submission packages. In fact, Deborah Herman worked on the original Chicken Soup for the Soul book proposal. The proposal was ahead of its time but Deborah and Jeff both saw its potential.

In 1993, Deborah and Jeff Herman collaborated on the first edition of Write the Perfect Book Proposal: Ten Proposals that Worked and Why, now in its 3rd edition. It is considered a bible of the industry. Jeff Herman is the author of the actual bible of the industry, Jeff Herman’s Guide to Book Publishers, Editors and Literary Agents, which with over 500,000 copies sold has been responsible for guiding thousands of writers through the rough path to publication.

Through the years, Deborah and Jeff saw that the rules were changing.

Many authors with worthy books were not garnering publishing contracts as they would in the past. Unless authors have a large platform or their books are based upon a notorious cult like the Manson Family, they will not rise to the top. Deborah recently wrote the book Member of the Family: My Story of Charles Manson,Life Inside his Cult and the Darkness that Ended the Sixties, with the youngest member of the Manson Family. This was a book with all the ingredients to achieve publishing success. But how many times does an author have a book proposal about the most notorious cult figure told by someone who was there. To make this book more appealing, the proposal was submitted to publishers on the day Charles Manson first went into the hospital and was released one month before his death. It doesn’t get better than that from a publisher’s point of view.

Most authors do not have all the stars aligning.

But many authors have books worthy of being published. Micro Publishing Media was created to fill the void between conglomerate publishing and self-publishing. Authors need to have a team behind them to assure quality and competitiveness of their books. We have the experience to help you move past the obstacles to publishing success.