Where is the new planner's bible?

I'm often asked to recommend books about advertising and planning to people who are starting out in the business. I have shelves of business books at home, and an increasing number on my trusty Kindle. But I always seem to come back to the same few. And, alarmingly, I realised that these same few are exactly those that I was recommending when I still worked in an agency, fourteen years ago.

Top of the list is How to Plan Advertising which was produced by the APG. I have the second edition, published in 1997, which I guard with my life as my name's in it! So my first place to look to see if I'd missed any new releases was the APG UK Chapter.

I like the website itself - there are some great resources on there and I was amused to see one or two familiar faces who are now big shots in the world of planning. There was also a book section so I hopped over to have a look.

Maybe I was being dense, but How to Plan Advertising wasn't even there. What was there were more familiar faces of the literary variety - books on advertising, marketing and planning from the last the century and the early years of this one - the exact same books that grace my own bookshelves:

Ogilvy on Advertising

Truth, lies and Advertising (Jon Steel)

Eating the Big Fish (Adam Morgan)

The works of the pioneers of planning, Stephen King and Stanley Pollitt.

Most of John Grant's books.

There were one or two new books specifically on Planning - Brain Surfing by Heather Lefevre, for example but nothing resembling a 'How to?' guide.

Is it the case that what used to be published as books now simply gets lost somewhere in the ether as blog posts, or LinkedIn Articles With Lots Of Capital Letters And Numbers? Or is it easier to get a book published if it's cleverly expressed opinion, point of view, observation rather than educational and manual-like?

A little disappointed that the new Planner's bible wasn't forthcoming, I've opted to read The Anatomy of Humbug by Paul Feldwick. It's a history of thinking on how advertising works.

In the meantime, I'll continue to recommend those books from the last century.