As a mergers and acquisitions consultant in the book, audio and video publishing industry I value publishing companies and have the opportunity to see what works and what does not. One important element in the success of publishing companies, that shows up again and again, is "Star Power".

In the motion picture business Star Power is something that every executive understands all too well. If you have a Meg Ryan, or a Michelle Phiffer, Robin Williams or Tom Cruise attached to your picture, or a name director like Stephen Spielberg, that movie can be pre-sold around the world for tens of millions before it is ever made. You hear terms like "Box Office" and "Bankable" used in relation to a star’s name.

In book, audio and video publishing your titles can have Star Power too. You may not be able to get one of the "stars" of the publishing constellation like Mary Higgins Clark, Stephen King, Deepock Chopra or Danielle Steel to publish through your company – but that does not mean that you cannot use Star Power to sell books. Star Power can be in a recognizable name like, "The Dallas Cheerleaders Workout" video, or a classic children’s story read by a name actor, such as "The Velveteen Rabbit", read by Meryl Streep, "The Great Hershey’s Chocolate Cookbook" or even "Snoopy learns his A, B, C’s". As crass as some publishers feel the use of cheerleaders, candy, actors and cartoons might be, the fact is that they sell books. Lots of books.

Too many, mostly unsuccessful publishers turn their nose up at associating their works of "literature" and "fine art" with the commercialization of the media. The fact is that giants of the publishing industry like Andrews & McMeel, Simon & Schuster, Prentice Hall and HarperCollins use Star Power every day to move millions of books. And so can you.

Can a place have Star Power? How about a video entitled the "Chicago Institute of Art’s Guide to Great American Twentieth Century Artists" or a book entitled "Santa Fe Style"? Yes, famous places can often denote grace, patriotism, quality, and prestige. Can fictional characters have Star Power? People still search the country woods of England for signs of King Arthur, Robin Hood and Sherlock Holmes. Fictional characters all. A book entitled "The Sherlock Holmes Guide to London" would fare much better than the "John Jones Guide to London".

As Bill Wolfsthal, a marketing representative for Carol Publishing in New York, told me, "I can explain why that is. As a sales rep my customer is the bookseller. I only have 15 to 30 seconds to discuss the merits of each new frontlist title in our catalog with the customer. A book has to capture their attention fast -- for them to order it. A famous author, subject or celebrity is a hook that I can set in just a few seconds. If the book is about Frank Sinatra, a person well known to the bookseller, I have a "hook" that allows me to go on tell the buyer why this book about Frank Sinatra is different from any other."

Many of you have heard of Rabbit Ears Productions, Inc.. This is a company that got its start in the early 1980’s at the kitchen table of Mark Slottnick and Dorris Wilhousky. They had a concept to develop children’s audio books and videos based on classic tales, narrated by famous actors. Twelve years ago they started signing up up-and-coming and veteran actors like Jeremy Irons, Meg Ryan, Cher, Meryl Streep, Jodie Foster, Holly Hunter, Danny Glover, Jack Nicholson and Bob Hoskins to read scripts of classic stories like "Thumbelina", "The Emperor’s New Clothes", "The Ugly Duckling" and "Goldilocks". The concept was to sell children’s stories to parents based on Star Power recognition. It worked…at least it attracted a lot of money.

By 1986 Rabbit Ears Productions launched its first four audio titles as a joint venture with Random House. Soon Sony waded in with a lucrative offer to distribute 14 more titles. Columbia Tri-Star came calling with a $740,000 advance for the home video distribution rights and Simon & Schuster spent $557,000 for the book rights to 18 titles. And that’s not all. Showtime bought up the domestic TV rights for about $150,000 per video, Phillips Interactive Media paid $50,000 per story for the CD-i rights and ITEL paid $440,000 for a five year license to distribute the video’s outside of the US. If that was not enough, Microsoft spent over $1 million for the rights to 8 CD-ROM titles, MacMillian/McGraw Hill paid over $500,000 for the educational use and Lightspan and Sunburst both chipped in tens of thousands of dollars for other educational rights. Even BMG advanced some $4 million for distribution rights. In all, publishing partners spent over $12 million to get just a piece of the right to distribute "classic" old stories already in the public domain. The punch line is that the product line had some serious production flaws and never netted any of the publishing partners any money – but it attracted cash like ants to a picnic. Today, the company is owned by Microleague Multimedia. Think about this – would these publishing giants have spent a penny if these same stories had been narrated by unknown actors?

Sometimes you can make an unknown book or author into a Star. Take the case of Pfeifer-Hamilton’s Old Turtle children’s book. When the publisher, Don Tubesing, found that there was major consumer interest in this book about God and nature, as seen through the eyes of an Old Turtle, he could have just let the book run its course. But instead, he painted an old Volkswagen up look like a turtle and toured the country promoting the book. Old Turtle became more than a children’s story – it became news! Pfeifer-Hamilton Publishers was able to keep the book in the public’s eye long enough to build a following. Remember, the Star of the book was not an old turtle – it was God. Over 500,000 copies have been sold of Old Turtle and it keeps scooting along years after first publication.

We’ve all heard the term, "Hitch your wagon to a star". But, how many of you have applied it to the publishing business. "Kermit the Frog Song Book", "Loni Anderson’s Hair Care Secrets", "Lilly Tomlin on Telephone Etiquette". These are all made up titles that would probably sell as books, CDs or videos. The fact is that Lilly Tomlin and John Cleese are two of the top selling performers in the corporate training video market. Many publishers do not see opportunities that are right in front of them. Any travel guide has the potential to be the, "Mercedes-Benz Guide To …". Every cookbook has the potential to be the, "Cathy Lee & Regis Cooks…"

Every publishing program can build Star Power into it. Not every book can capitalize on this angle to sell more titles, but many can that are not taking advantage of it. Sometimes the subject itself is the Star, because it is so hot…it sizzles. Dove Audio made a fortune with its just in time tales of the O. J. Simpson debacle. The subject was the Star because it held the public’s interest – Dove Audio just capitalized on the existing demand with a quick to produce audiobook while the public hungered for the subject.

All of us can be a little "star struck". Can you remember how you felt the first time you stepped into The Plaza Hotel, The Metropolitan Museum of Art or the Louvre. Or the first time you laid eyes on the Golden Gate Bridge, Niagara Falls or the front gate of Paramount Studio’s. The movies, songs and yes, books have brought us pictures of these places that we have built into palaces in our minds.

As a publisher, you are a gatekeeper of information and entertainment, you can take advantage of the Star Power that the American public has lavished onto our icons of fame, power and beauty. Hollywood spends millions of dollars making common people into "Stars". Any one or any thing can denote Star Power. Bugs Bunny is a Star, Playboy and Cosmopolitan magazines are Stars, Wolfgang Puck is a Star, the Porsche 911 Targa is a Star, Michael Jordan is a Star, George Clinton is a Star, Harley Davidson Motorcycles are definitely Stars and the biggest Star of all is God.