How to Sell Books Without an Algorithm

Substack Writers Salon · Oct 31, 2026 · 32m · transcript

On the latest Substack Writers Salon, I sat down with Tim Jacobs, The Publishing Edge, author of 19 books and more than 450 articles, and owner of JWC Publishing

Tim’s path looks a lot like mine. He was the kid reading under the covers with a flashlight. He wrote his first book. He learned the business from the inside, and eventually he started publishing other people’s books. What began around 2010 as Jacobs Writing Consultants (Tim plus five editors doing editing and proofreading) grew into a full publishing company.

We talked about publishing myths, distribution, marketing, and protecting…