It’s a question that’s been on my mind lately, as I have been briefing and writing some content for our upcoming Wisdom of Taylor book.

Taylor Swift’s recent(ish) decision to self-publish her upcoming book has provided me with a lovely opportunity for a bit of a mental meander.

In the Wisdom of Taylor I have been learning about the life lessons that a highly creative, highly entrepreneurial, highly successful, highly woman-like woman (it matters) can teach us.

The book seeks to ask serious questions (and isn’t a cheap publishing gambit I hope – there’s enough of those about) and provide insightful reflections. I’m thinking about leadership, business skills, kindness, loyalty, resilience – and more, of course more – and what it means to us ordinary people when those qualities are role-modelled as Taylor Swift has.

What stands out about Taylor Swift is that she is control of her own destiny – even if we aspire to it, most of us don’t have the mettle for it. It hasn’t fallen out of the sky for her though. It’s been the consequence of many considered decisions (and hard work, and talent and luck for sure) made over time.

All of that has put Taylor in the fortunate position to make the decision to self-publish her book of The Eras tour, in partnership with Target. Cutting out the middleperson will give ownership over her IP, creative control over the product and a much bigger cut of the income associated with it. Furthermore, it keeps her connected “one-on-one” with her audience – and that’s something traditional publishers just can’t really facilitate.

It’s not the death knell of traditional publishing, nor is it a siren call to self-publishing (that’s still bloody hard – more on Captain Honey’s emerging Amazon journey another day), but it’s a yet another prod in the ribs, this time for those of us in the book publishing industry, to sit up and take note of The Wisdom of Taylor.