Trend Seer Marian Salzman's Predictions Have Lessons for Writers

Marian Salzman is chief marketing officer for the PR hugey Porter Novelli in Manhattan. Her success hinges on her projecting the future and making sense of the times leading to this moment, this day.

Author of Next Now: Trends for the Future she notes, "technology is here to stay."

Now didn't we know that! But she takes it a step forward. She says, "The future lies in mastering new technologies."

Judging from my experience in the publishing field, I'd say she is right on. Luckily, I was forced to learn the Internet in order to submit my novel online in 2001. Since then (just to name the biggies) I've been forced by good friend, author, and publisher Joyce Faulkner to learn to "do" my own Web site using Micrcosoft's FrontPage, encouraged to blog by good friend Allyn Evans who held my hand through some of the basic processes when it was brand new to me, and to get with with Facebook and Twitter (MySpace was pretty much a bust for me though I'm still there).

And now the time I spent in New York to launch A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques is pointing me in a new direction. I have no wi fi and the rentals at the Marriott (shame!) were $8 per 15 minutes. I am not Blackberry or iPhone connected. Thus my e-mail lay fallow, overflowed my e-mail box, and accumulated into days of work before I returned home. It seems my next task is cut out for me.

So, Marian Salzman, not only do I agree with you but I am here to ask where each of my writing friends is in their trek on the technology path. If the future is in tech, what do we all need to do next (besides write another book) to get our act on the road. For me it's to get connected when I'm on the road. I'm thinking the 3G iPhone complete with on-the-road e-mail capability and iPod music and in-hotel F R ^ ^ access.

You are probably way ahead of me, and my admission--I hope--will make you feel better about any of your own perceived technical inadequacies. But in terms of tech, what is coming next for you? Roll out your community college catalog and decide what you can do to forge ahead, keep up or catch up. We owe it to ourselves to be there when the time comes!

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Information on Marian Salzman came from American Airlines' American Way magazine, May 15, 2009, edition. Other of her predictions include embracing maturity, a more intense interest in wellness, and the interest in looking back to learn evidenced by the new books and references this year on Darwin, Lincoln and the 1930s.

PS: If it weren't for my experience at launching my new retail book at the National Stationery Show, I may never have run across this marketing dynamo. I plan to get her book; trends are more than fashion or color. They are you're life, you're tomorrows. Also, I'm including the cover of my new book that lead me to this new discover, even though this is a column for writers. It seemed the perfect opportunity to mention that the designed is John Quinn, http://www.designsolution360.com.

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and two how to books for writers, The Frugal Book Promoter: How To Do What Your Publisher Won't and The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. Her FRUGAL book for retailers is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. She is also the author of the Amazon Short, "The Great First Impression Book Proposal". Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor blog.