Today I’m talking to Mark Pearson, publisher and president of Pear Press. I came across Mark Pearson because I was interested in a book he published by John Medina, a N Y Times bestseller, Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work.

The business model of traditional publishers is to publish 100 or so books per year, knowing they’ll have a few great books, a lot of good ones, and some bad ones.

Pear Press is doing things differently, and Mark has created a fascinating, admirable approach for the publishing company. They only publish one book per year, and they pursue it with full-hearted gusto. It’s gotta be a quality “great” book that can knock it out of the park and hit some bestseller lists.

In this interview, Mark and I discuss:

• Standing out in a sea of 800,000 new books published each year
• “Cut out the crap”: the advice Steve Jobs of Apple gave to the CEO of Nike, and what publishers can learn from this lesson
• Why exercise is important for the brain and taking a break from your desk is not slacking off

Visit Pear Press at Pear Press or follow Mark on Twitter @pearpress.

Listen to my interview with Mark Pearson.

0:07 Michael introduces Mark Pearson

5:03 Standing out in a sea of 800,000 new books published each year

13:16 “Cut out the crap”: the advice Steve Jobs of Apple gave to the CEO of Nike, and what publishers can learn from this lesson

21:48 Why exercise is important for the brain and taking a break from your desk is not slacking off

23:15 Michael closes the interview