I know that I reference my editor and publisher of my first book and my forthcoming book somewhat frequently in my blog posts.
But I haven’t said much, if anything, about Wells Media Group, Inc. in any of my posts.
Writing a book is hard – it is certainly harder for me than writing the many scores of reports that I wrote as an insurance industry analyst.
Writing a book takes a lot of people to help an author – in my case, to help me.
As importantly as having a network of people to go-to for advice, answers and, as importantly, questioning me (and reminding me to write), it is equally as important to have an editor and a publisher.
Yes, any person can self-publish. There are certainly large numbers of books and articles with advice to help an author become, well, become an author.
However, I feel extremely fortunate that Wells Media Group, Inc. is my editor and publisher. They understand the insurance industry: actually, they have very deep expertise of the insurance industry.
Let me “lift the curtain” and tell you about them (I asked Julie Tinney, the CMO of Wells Media, what she would recommend I write):
Wells Media brands attract over 1.5million page views and 775,000 users globally each month.
However, there is much more beyond the numbers of this global insurance media firm that serves the property/casualty insurance industry.
Its brands include: Insurance Journal, the P/C insurance industry’s leading website and magazine; Claims Journal, for P/C claims professionals; the Academy of Insurance an online learning center for P/C insurance professionals; Insurance Journal TV, a media site featuring insurance industry videos and podcasts, and MyNewMarkets.com, a searchable insurance markets directory which connects thousands of insurance agents with market providers every day; and Carrier Management, which provides research, news, online media and a magazine for insurance company leaders.
As an insurance industry analyst wanting to write books – and have them published – about the insurance industry and technology, Wells Media has meant more for me than what it does and what it offers.
Wells Media is about the professionals who work for it, crafts the firm’s products and services, and their personal and caring manner of interacting with insurance professionals. They have heart. (And no, I won’t break out into the song from the 1955 musical comedy “Damn Yankees”.) But they do have heart.
There are a few people I need to mention that have turned my content and ideas into my first book and into articles for Insurance Journal and Carrier Management. Several of whom I plan to lean on heavily when I begin writing my second book in 2Q24:
- Josh Carlson (the CEO of Wells Media who made the initial decision in 2019 – with Patrick Wraight – to publish my insurance and technology content as books);
- Patrick Wraight (my editor who probably thinks I have a formal position description which includes a featured responsibility to drive him crazy on a semi-regular basis);
- George Jack (who magically – and with his acting skills – transforms my finished product into an Audible format for Amazon and with Patrick, hosts the Insurance Academy After-Shows); and
- Susanne Sclafane and Andrea Wells (Executive Editor of Wells Media and Vice President, Content respectively) who publish excerpts of my book’s content – after they or their colleagues edit it – for Wells Media’s Carrier Management and Insurance Journal editions.
I fully realize that there are many other people that I haven’t mentioned on Wells Media’s team that work very hard to make our books a success. They are without a doubt “our books” because the final deliverable, the book, in its various formats (Kindle, paperback, hardcover, and Audible) is the result of all of us working together to achieve the goal of publishing a book that the insurance industry will find valuable.
I thank all of them for everything they do. They are all helping me realize a life-time goal of being a published author.
(Link to my first book on Amazon below.)
Rabkin's Opinions 