Cool Book Of The Day

Pitch reporters with our up-to-date media databases:

For people with a book inside them who want to get published faster, easier and cheaper.

The Self-Publishing Manual is well known by nearly everyone in the publishing industry and is the first book they recommend to newcomers. Since 1979, it has been revised 16 times while going through 20 printings. This is a brand new book—with a track record. It has broken into double digits at Amazon.com and recently made the Quality Books Top Twenty.

Nearly everyone has a book inside him or her. Self-publishing is finally being recognized as a better alternative to traditional (New York) publishing. Now that the large trade publishers are downsizing, consolidating and cutting back on their lists, more and more people are self-publishing. There are only six large trade publisher left, there are some 3-400 medium-sized publishers and there are more than 86,000 self-publishers. The ISBN agency registers some 10,000 new publishing companies each year. Small publishing is growing rapidly.

Dan Poynter has been in publishing for 45+ years. He is the author of more than 120 books, 50 reports, 500 magazine articles, 12 audiotapes and two videotapes—most of them on some aspect of book writing, publishing or promoting. Prentice-Hall and eight international publishers have published Dan. His books have been translated into Japanese, German, British-English, Russian, Italian, Spanish and Romanian. He is a frequent speaker at writing and publishing-industry events such as the Maui Writers Conference and the PMA’s Publishing University at the BEA book fair. He flies more than 6,000 miles/week and has made six round-the-world speaking tours in the past year.

There are other books on self-publishing. Most are modest attempts with very brief coverage and much less detail. Some are out of date.
Beware of books on self-publishing that are not self-published.
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Regardless, Dan Poynter supports and recommends the other books.
“Anyone getting into a new field should buy several books and attend a number of seminars. The investment is cheaper than a mistake.”

Some endorsements.

“Poynter is at his best when discussing such specifics as starting one’s own publishing house; dealing with printers; establishing discount, credit and return policies; promoting, advertising and selling a book; and order fulfillment.”
—Publishers Weekly.

“Poynter covers the production basics but his emphasis is on the business of books.”
—American Library Association Booklist

“The strength of this book is the detailed discussion of various marketing methods.”
—Choice magazine

“This is the first book I recommend to those considering becoming a publisher.”
—Jan Nathan, Executive Director, Publishers Marketing Association

“This is the best self‑publishing manual on the market. Poynter offers more information per paragraph than many handbooks put on a page, and it’s all clear and easy to follow. Highly recommended.”
—Judith Appelbaum, How to Get Happily Published

“One essential ingredient to our Chicken Soup success was consulting with Dan Poynter in the early stages.”
—Jack Canfield, co-author, Chicken Soup for the Soul series (over 90 million sold—so far)

“Dan Poynter has generously guided thousands to authorship. Their books make this a better world.”
—Dr. Robert Müller, Past Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations and author of 2000 Ideas & Dreams for a Better World.

“A deeply researched how-to book on writing, printing, publishing, promotion, marketing, and distribution of books.”
—The College Store Journal

“The book is a must for those considering publishing as a business, for writers who want to investigate self-publishing, and is eminently useful for its new and old ideas to those who have already begun to do it. A fine and handy guide by a fine and successful publisher.”
—Small Press Review

Pitch reporters with our up-to-date media databases:

Question: Who is the intended audience?
Answer: Authors, independent publishers, and those with a book still inside them.

Q: What is the book about?
A: How to write, publish, and market a book that can get attention among nearly 300,000 titles published just in the US every year. Affordable, ethical, and effective ways to get your book noticed and BOUGHT.

Q: Why are you the best person to write this book?
A: People have been telling me for years, “you know so much about book marketing, you really ought to do a book just on that.” I finally took their advice. I’ve written, altogether, five books on frugal, effective, and ethical marketing, published by Simon & Schuster, Chelsea Green, and my own imprint–and I’ve been hanging out on publishing discussion lists and speaking at writing conferences, giving useful advice, for 12 and 24 years, respectively.

I’ve also done some very innovative things to market my own books, particularly my award-winning sixth book, Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First. There was demand to know more about those techniques.

Finally, since I wrote an earlier book, Grassroots Marketing: Getting Noticed in a Noisy World, it gave me a chance to test my theories about branding a book or author by creating a series; there may well be different Grassroots Marketing books for other audiences in the future. It seems to be working—it’s in a second printing after only five months.

Q: How is this book different from other books on this topic?
A: First of all, I surveyed my audience. I put a note in three discussion lists and two or three writers’ newsletters asking for the single most important concern about book marketing, and also their best success story. As a result, there are two chapters in the book that weren’t in my original outline—because they covered the number one request I was receiving from my future readers. AND I include some 40 success stories from these people, so the book is not just me talking about my own experience… Some very creative stuff.

Second, the emphasis is very much on frugal and effective strategies for people with little or no marketing budget, and covers many channels way outside the traditional bookstore system—some of which can sell a boatload of books at once.

Third, I include actual examples of successful marketing plans, press releases, pitch letters, etc.—including many that clients paid my full copywriting rate (currently $145 per hour) to have me create. I’m also very thorough, with, for instance, seven different models to create a website that sells books, a full chapter each on harnessing the full power of Google and Amazon, chapters on speaking, trade shows, giving great interviews, and more. Oh yes, and 17 pages of resources. So there’s a great deal of “brain capital” in the book–pro-level consulting for $24.95.

And fourth, as a believer in turning my competitors into allies–something I discuss at length in Principled Profit, BTW—I actually have endorsements from—among other people—the five most popular authors of books on book marketing: Dan Poynter (The Self-Publishing Manual), John Kremer (1001 Ways to Market Your Book), Fern Reiss (The Publishing Game), Marilyn Ross (The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing, Jump Start Your Book Sales), and Rick Frishman, head of a major New York PR agency for authors and co-author of both Guerrilla Marketing for Writers and the Author 101 series.

This book is so strong that when I sent the manuscript to an executive I know at Infinity Publishing in the hope of a blurb, I not only got a fabulous blurb, but he pretty much demanded to publish it, and waived all costs. So there are two editions: Infinity’s and my own. I let them have the bookstore channel and I sell through my own channels.

Q: Is there anything else we should know about this book?
A: On orders directly from me at http://www.grassrootsmarketingforauthors.com or 800-683-WORD (9673), I include a number of bonuses, including a five-chapter e-book called How to Write and Publish a Marketable Book, an actual plan I wrote for a client who needed to move 10,000 copies in six months, some special reports from Yanik Silver and other famous marketers, and other good stuff.

Pitch reporters with our up-to-date media databases:

Question: Who is the audience for this book?
Answer: Managers, directors, executives, and students of management.

Q: What is the book about?
A: “Managing Leadership” is an essential guide to help managers, executives, boards, and owners understand that leadership is really an organizational – not an individual – characteristic; it is their job to manage – not express – it.

Q: Why are you the best person to write this book?
A: I have been practicing, studying, and teaching organizational leadership for over 3 decades in civilian, governmental, and military
organizations around the world. I have seen organizational leadership at work from all sides in all kinds of organizations; I know what it is, how it works – and how to manage it.

Q: How is this book different from other books on this topic?
A: “Managing Leadership” is the first book to explain leadership in organizations as arising naturally and irresistably from the organizations, themselves, and not from the putative “leaders” at the top. In fact, the efforts of these individuals to represent themselves as the sole, or at least the primary, source of leadership in their organizations at the best reduces the power and force of the leadership actually present – and at the worst generates headline-grabbing catastrophe. “Managing Leadership” explains why this happens, what leadership really is and how it works, and, most importantly, how to manage – not express – it.

Q: Is there anything else we should know about this book?
A: “Managing Leadership” is an award winning book that has garnered wide critical acclaim, and has been referred to as “perhaps the most intelligent work on the subject in recent years.” Visit the author’s blog at http://www.managingleadership.com/blog to learn more.

Pitch reporters with our up-to-date media databases:

Weirdos in the Workplace! The New Normal…Thriving in the Age of the Individual by John Putzier

Question: Who is the audience for this book?
Answer: Business owners, managers and human resource professionals (and workers who are interested in the manifestation of individuality).

Here are excerpts from an interview with John Putzier:

Individuality’s place in the enterprise is underrated, and teamwork can be overrated. Having a few weirdos on staff can be a good thing as long as they contribute value, said John Putzier, president of FirStep Inc., a human resource performance improvement and consulting company based in Prospect, Pa., and author of “Weirdos in the Workplace: The New Normal—Thriving in the Age of the Individual.”

In his recently released second book, Putzier discusses a politically incorrect attitude that companies such as Google, Starbucks and Ben & Jerry’s have adopted in order to stay on top of their respective industries: encouraging individuality, discriminating against employees and negating the idea of equal treatment.

“You can predict what’s going to happen in the workplace if you follow societal trends,” Putzier said. “Society is in the Age of the Individual. In the ’50s and ’60s, the Age of the Organization Man, white men dominated the world and the workplace. In the ’70s and ’80s, the Age of Diversity, the civil rights act of 1964 was passed, and an avalanche of legislation followed for equal opportunity, contributing to the entry of women and minorities into the workplace. The ’90s, the Age of the New Economy, ushered in a new way of doing things. If you had something to offer, you could almost not fail.

The concept of diversity became a non-issue because there was such a shortage of talent that companies suddenly didn’t care if you were purple with two heads if you could write code, sell or whatever it is that they hired you to do.”

He explained, “The expectations of the ’90s didn’t go away—just the reality of that economy went away, and now we’ve got all of these individuals, not just African-Americans and women and Asians and everything else, all wanting to excel, and we don’t live in a collective society. We’re a collection of individuals, and if you look at the media and you look at athletics and politics and who we celebrate, we are rewarding individuality not collectivism. We have a whole bunch of people out there wanting to be individuals and to be successful, and this is creating quite a challenge for organizations because not everyone is exceptional.”

If not everyone can be exceptional; it stands to reason that all workers are not created equal. Putzier said that one of his most frustrating work challenges is how to get organizations to understand that discrimination is not a bad thing. “The word discrimination has gotten a bad rap, particularly from the Age of Diversity when it was shoved down organizations’ throats, and we tried to make numbers,” Putzier said. “Everybody thinks that if you do’t treat everyone exactly the same, then you’re discriminating. You are not. In fact, if you don’t discriminate you cannot possibly be an effective leader or manager. When I say ‘discriminate,’ I mean discriminate on the basis of performance and value and the things that we did in the ’90s, which worked. We didn’t care what you looked like necessarily or what your personal life was like; we just wanted your talent. That concept needs to continue because then diversity becomes a non-issue. We move into what’s called meritocracy, in which you succeed or fail based on your own merit, which is the way it should be.”

In the Age of the Individual, if you want to be recognized and rewarded for your individuality, then you must contribute value. Organizations need to know when and how to discriminate based on the value an individual brings to the organization, said Putzier.

“I have a thing called the ‘Weird/Worth ratio,’ which essentially says the more you’re worth, the more you can be weird. You don’t have to like it or agree with it. It’s just reality. In our society in particular, we reward things that might be out of whack. If the workplace reflects society, as an individual you’ve got to make yourself worth more. The organization must be able to make the distinctions between which employees and individuals bring value and treat them differently. Individuals must be responsible for maximizing their own personal worth by finding their calling in life. In the book it’s called, ‘AIM to be weird.’ AIM is an acronym for abilities, interests and the market, which means that if you or I can find that thing that we do really well, that we really love to do and that the world will pay us for, then we’re in utopia. It’s no longer work—it’s a calling. You can get away with a lot more in terms of weirdness when you bring a bunch of value.”

That’s where the discrimination comes in. Putzier uses case studies to further illustrate the Weird/Worth ratio. For instance, Blue Suit Bob (BSB) wears the same blue suit to work every single day. Finally, he’s called in to the head office and asked, why doesn’t he buy another suit? He makes enough money to afford one. BSB replies that he does have more than one suit: he has five, and they’re all blue. Circadian Charlie has numerous patents to his credit, but doesn’t like to come to work in the morning because his creative process starts at 3 a.m.

“The bottom line is this guy has brought so much value to the organization, you should accommodate that weirdness,” Putzier said. “You don’t have to let everybody not come to work in the morning. When they have 15 patents, they can come talk to you about coming in late, too.”

The ratio holds four categories of weird and worth: terminate, tolerate, accommodate and celebrate. If an employee does not bring value to an organization, weird or not, that person should be terminated.

“Then you’ve got the ones that you tolerate. Some people are just weird, but they don’t do any harm. They don’t have to be geniuses. They can be good, hardworking, dedicated and well-intentioned, but maybe they just get on your nerves. They have weird habits or eccentricities like Blue Suit Bob,” Putzier said. “Bottom line, get over it. Tolerate it.”

Organizations should accommodate weird employees like Circadian Charlie with his multiple patents, high levels of productivity and contributed value. Organizations should celebrate normal, low-maintenance employees who exhibit genius and have a lot to offer, though they are rare. Geniuses, on the other hand, tend to be a little wacko.

“Part of the reason is because they’re oblivious,” Putzier said. “(Geniuses) do what they do best, and the world be damned. They don’t care if they’re liked or if you think they look weird. This type is also high in self efficacy; they feel they have control over their world. They grab the bull by the horns and take control because they feel like they should have control. They’re good at what they do and can afford to be weird. You can hire all kinds of losers who are easy to manage. If all you want are people who are easy to mange, then just hire warm bodies. Geniuses and high performers can be very difficult to manage and to deal with.”

Q: What else should we know about this book?
A: “Weirdos in the Workplace” has flow charts to help organizations analyze behavioral issues to determine how to discriminate. One is called the Behavioral Change Map, which encourages you first to ask the question: Is it really a problem? Then, do a cost-benefit analysis of the behavioral challenge, which is typically a motivation or skill issue.

“They either can’t do it, or they don’t want to do it,” said Putzier. “It may sound simplistic, but it really is that simple when you get down to it. There are two of these flow charts in the book to help you analyze individual change as well as organizational change. There are also tools in there to help you identify your AIM, abilities, interests and the market, so that you can be a weirdo of worth yourself.”

Q: Why are you the best person to write this book?
A: Because I did! Ha! 30+ years in HR, Bachelors and Masters in Organizational Behavior and HR, SPHR lifetime certification, former member of adjunct faculty at Carnegie Mellon University Graduate School, Past President of Society for Human Resource Management High Tech Net, former Board of Directors At-Large of Pittsburgh Human Resources Association, Judge for People Do Matter Awards.