Maxim Behar's Experience as an Author

03.01.2021

Maxim Behar shares his experience as an author and interesting facts about his best-selling books for Ramona Portelli's Maltese online media in section Author Interviews.  

Mr. Behar, your name appears in so many capacities, achievements, and titles over the years… Who are you, indeed?

Just one simple word repeated many times dominates my all biography – work, work, work…

I am an international PR expert, Harvard Kennedy school Graduated, but also have a diploma from Universities in Prague, Yokohama, Seattle, London, and Berlin. 25 years back I founded a leading PR company in my native Bulgaria – M3 Communications Group, Inc. serving numerous international clients and still among the top leaders in the markets in Central and Eastern Europe… In 2020 absolutely prestigious PR Week announced me as “The Best PR Professional in Europe” … among all titles and positions I have until 2017 I was President of ICCO – The World’s PR Organisation and currently I am a President of the World Communications Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Tell us more about “The Global PR Revolution”, a book ranked recently among Top 10 of The Best PR Books of All Time by BookAuthority just couple of months after the publication.

I am really pleased to see this, it was also among best-selling new Amazon books on PR months after it was listed for sale there… From many points of view, this is a unique book and the more it stays on the top readers ranking in the world, the more I am convinced on that. First of all – the book gives a full picture of the dramatic changes in one of the most important businesses these days in the world – Public Relations. It briefly tells the history and then is focused on social media, the dying of the traditional newspapers, and also the forthcoming merge of the three main elements of public communications – Public Relations, Advertising, and Digital…

But I must recognize that one of the biggest advantages of the book, and it is really the fact that within the book I have 100 opinions on the changes of business shared by 100 Top PR leaders from all over the world – Paul Holmes, Sir Martin Sorrel, David Gallagher, Elise Mitchell, to name just a few. They give a full picture of the changes in this business in all parts of the world, and – an excuse not to be very modest – no one did it before in the whole history of Public Relations. The book now is on sale by Simon & Schuster in all Barnes & Noble book stores across the US, in practice, all Universities have in their libraries, many of them included it in their educational programs.    

What was the most challenging aspect of writing this book?

To make it both easy to read, easy to find the necessary information, and at the same time analytical and slightly academical. I hope I reached the target, sales, and popularity of the book speak for themselves. In fact – everyone will find something serious and interesting for himself – mainly businessman, managers, leaders, professors, students… or just people curious to know how the complicated world of communications has changed over the past decade and what will happen in this world in the next one.

What is your normal procedure to get your books published?

To find a good publisher. This time I did not find the good one, I just found the best – Allworth Press and also, they found the best distributor in the world – Simon & Schuster. Working with editors and managers of Allworth Press was a great pleasure and at the same time enough challenging process. They are great professionals and I hope I met all their standards. Of course – self-publishing in the modern world is also common practice, but I predict that in the next decade big publishing house will have their strong impact into the creative process and readers will trust them a lot.

How many books have you written so far?

Until now I have written 5 books and the 6th one I hope will be on the market in February 2021 as it is almost ready. My first book “Secondary Instinct” was published in 2000 and was dedicated to the dramatic changes in Eastern Europe after the fall of communism in the late 80s and included my articles on the topic and also interviews with such great personalities as Lech Walesa (President of Poland), Vaclav Havel (President of Czech), Felipe Gonsales (Prime Minister of Spain) and many others… The next book was a curious one – I started publishing on Facebook every day my rules of life and a local published liked them a lot, so we published them in a bilingual book called “111 rules how to make it (First published on Facebook)”. It could be the first-ever book in the world first published on Social media and then printed.

In 2014 my third book was published – “Generation F” expressing my point of view on the new “social media generation” and at the very end of 2019 “The Global PR Revolution” was published first in the USD and then in many other countries in the world. In November 2020 I published a book “The Morning After” about the pandemic, COVID, and impact on business and leadership, first in Bulgarian which has three editions just for two months and is one of the best sellers on the market now. And finally… my next book “2020: New World is Here” will be published both on Amazon and locally in February 2021, it is almost ready and the title is self-explanatory.      
 
What’s the best way to market your books?

Undoubtedly – first of all, Social Media and then direct contacts, mailings, and letters to the potential business entities or universities.

How hard or easy is it to establish and maintain a career in writing?

I do not know. Indeed. I am a businessman and a manager, not a professional writer. As a former journalist, I enjoy writing very much, but for me, this is a fun and hard job at one and the same time and also a great way to share my thoughts with a larger audience.

What is your advice for aspiring writers?

Just one important piece of advice which is my guiding light always: when you look at the monitor of your computer or laptop try not to see the text there, but the face of your potential readers.

It is not easy, but try to do it, it is more than worth it and will open your eyes to a completely new style of writing.