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June 4, 2015

Max Phelps, Cool Person

This week, I’m talking about the amazing people I presented with at the Wind River Outdoor Writers Conference.

Max Phelps

Max Phelps is has spent his life in service of books ~ he is the son of a lawyer/novelist, he was an assistant in a Quaker library, he managed bookstores, and he’s been doing the great work of getting our books out there for years as director of marketing and sales.  Now, he is director of outdoor sales for the National Book Network (for Globe Pequot, FalconGuides, and Lyons).

His great presentation at the Wind River Outdoor Writers Conference was about what happens in publishing and what a writer might expect if they went the traditional route.  He outlined what the organizational chart of a typical publishing house might be, which sounds boring but is absolutely fascinating to writers.  He outlined the process a book goes through.  I’m not being facetious when I say I was on the edge of my seat.


And as he was talking about all these great people working in a house to get books out there ~ you know 30 or 50 or 100 ~ I kept thinking about how as a self-publisher you have to do every one of those jobs.  All the more reason to appreciate all the help you can get, whether you’re traditionally published or self-published or both.

And Max is such a lovely person! I’m so stoked that I got to meet him and hope to run into him in the future.  You know that person in the room that doesn’t say that much but when he does, everyone stops and listens?  That’s Max.  I’m much heartened about the future of book publishing when I think that people like Max are in the trenches. *Hand to heart* Max!

Here is his bio:
I was born and raised in Southern Colorado, and lived in Philadelphia and Montana before settling in Connecticut. Occasionally I work for my wife and kids, serving as the pack mule for their backcountry trips and as their belay slave at the climbing gym or local crag. I am a regular source of motivation to cyclists in the region, giving them the impression that they are fast and strong. The nearby Long Island Sound is plenty raucous to test my paddling skills, and I noticed that there are lots of trees and birds in the area, so I am planning to learn the names of some of them. I have a ski problem and must always have a healthy supply of New Mexico Green Chile in my freezer.


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