CGW Publishing Blog

Authors of Dreams Do Come True Interviewed on BBC Radio

2012-03-06T03:54:00.000-08:00

Trudie and Lloyd Thompson were interviewed on the BBC's Sally Naden show yesterday, you can hear the full programme at:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/p00p01hc

CGW Publishing Entered into the Bookseller Industry Awards 2012

2012-02-23T11:05:00.000-08:00

We have been entered into the 2012 Bookseller Industry Awards in the category of Best Independent Publisher.

We're obviously very excited about this, and our entry reflects the unique way in which we support our authors, helping them not only to sell books but to grow their businesses.

The shortlist will be announced at an event at the London Book Fair in April and the winners will be announced at the awards ceremony in London on May 14th.

Of the People, By the People, For the People

2012-02-22T17:10:00.000-08:00

In his blog on The Bookseller, John Pateman talks about a new operational model for libraries that is being trialled in Suffolk - handing over library management to volunteers.

Well, for some time now, I've been watching what's been going on in the High Street; major chains disappearing and more and more charity shops replacing them, with 'superstores' and also niche stores specialising in furniture, white goods, even designer labels. I think this is the next retail revolution, driven in part by the likes of Freecycle, Gumtree and Ebay that make second hand culturally acceptable. Tatty furniture is rebranded as 'shabby chic' and old T shirts with holes in are 'retro'.

So why shouldn't more services go the same way? I think libraries are an excellent example. The hub of the community, libraries offer free access to literature for all, so why shouldn't they be managed and run on the same basis? The population is ageing rapidly and we have a growing group of people who want a third career, would often be happy to volunteer and have a lifetime of management and operational experience to bring.

I guess the trendy phrase is 'social enterprise', but it amounts to the same thing; of the people, by the people, for the people, as Number 6 would say.

Ask The Pitch Doctor in Real Business Magazine

2012-02-22T08:17:00.000-08:00

Paul Boross, aka The Pitch Doctor and author of The Pitching Bible, now has a regular column in Real Business magazine, where he'll be answering readers' questions about presentations, pitches and other public speaking problems.

In the first column, Paul answers a question about how to approach speed networking events, which will be invaluable to anyone hoping to develop their business through networking in these tough times.

The NLP Practitioner Manual in Training Zone's Book Club

2012-02-22T08:09:00.000-08:00

The NLP Practitioner Manual by Peter Freeth and Stepheni Smith is being featured in Training Zone's Book Club.

Peter is currently working on the sequel to the book, entitled Genius at Work, which we are hoping to have in print by early summer 2012.

Dreams Do Come True at Waterstones, Preston

2012-02-22T07:59:00.000-08:00

Trudie and lloyd Thompson will be be appearing at Waterstones book store in Preston on Saturday 10th March 13:00 to 15:00 to sign copies of their book, Dreams Do Come True, and answer your questions.

We've heard that they are also talking to a national newspaper about their remarkable story, so expect to see a lot more of them over the coming months.

Coaching Authors Choose CGW Publishing for Their First Book

2012-02-22T06:18:00.001-08:00

Ronna Smithrim and Christopher Oliphant, authors ofAccepting the Radical: You Can Not Be Fixed, have chosen CGW Publishing to gettheir first book into print.

“I was thrilled that a publisher was interested in my workand have not been disappointed”, says Oliphant, who had previously beenconsidering self publishing as an alternative to every author’s worstnightmare; endless rejection from the traditional, risk averse publishinghouses. However CGW’s Christopher Greenaway recognised the quality of writingin the book and the potential of the subject as fitting with the existing rangeof books and addressing an important niche in the market.

“There’s no doubt that the self-help book market is saturated,with everyone from Donald Trump, Jack Canfield and Paul Mckenna through a rangeof minor celebrities and business gurus, down to every street corner life coachpublishing a book or ebook.”, says Amelia Hartley, CGW’s co-founder andDirector. “The proliferation of ebook readers such as the Kindle, iPad or Kobohave also lowered the barriers to producing a book, and that has definitelyimpacted on the quality of what’s out there. So when we see a book that isgenuinely well written, with clarity, passion and strong case studies, we knowthat it will stand head and shoulders above the rest of the books out there.”

CGW Publishing specialise in working with authors whosebooks are written to support their service businesses, by packaging theirintellectual property, providing additional revenue and demonstratingcredibility.

“We launched and ran a successful management consultancy forten years, and the books that we published in that time played a huge part inour success”, says Christopher Greenaway, CGW Publishing’s Managing Director. “Thepublishing imprint that we launched back in 2002 has evolved over the last tenyears to become CGW, and we’re now very proud of the authors we’ve attractedand pleased to apply our expertise in this area to helping them grow theirbusinesses”

For the authors of Accepting the Radical, the primary pushbehind writing the book came from their clients. According to Smithrim, “Theirpush came from two questions. The first being, “This teaching is reallypowerful, why haven’t you written a book?” The second was, “Are there any booksthat teach acceptance?” The answer to the second question was a sad, “I know ofonly one other author and she who wrote from a Buddhist point of view.” Anyother books that talk about acceptance apply conditions to acceptance orsupport it in one sentence and then contradict that support in the nextsentence.”

Like many expert authors, Smithrim and Oliphant found itrelatively easy to get their ideas down on paper, but less easy to organise thoseideas into the structure required for a book. Oliphant says, “The writing waseasy. I have taught the material often and the words just flew from my mind onto the page. The editing process was another matter. I worked with a wonderfuleditor who helped my structure my ideas and wouldn’t stop until the text madeeach concept clear to her. This process with my editor also gave me someinsight into just how difficult these ideas are to understand: how they runcontrary to much of the popular thinking of today.”

Oliphant summarises the publishing experience by saying, “CGWPublishing have been professional and thorough. They delivered a qualityproduct quickly and efficiently, saving us months of work in text formatting,cover design and the many mysteries around getting a book ready for print.Christopher went above and beyond in the graphics work, proofing editing and bothtext and eBook formatting and we remain very grateful to everyone at CGWPublishing for all their hard work.

Accepting the Radical by Ronna Smithrim and ChristopherOliphant, published by CGW Publishing, is available now from all good bookstores, ISBN 978-1-9082931-0-7.

Dreams Do Come True authors make their first donation to St Marys Hospital

2012-01-29T05:39:00.000-08:00

Trudie and Lloyd Thompson have made their first donation to the IVF fund at St Mary's Hospital, the IVF facility that made their own dream come true.

'Dreams Do Come True' documents theirunconventional love story as they deal with a 12 year course of IVFthat sees them lose two businesses and eventually file for bankruptcybefore finally realising their dream of becoming parents.

Lloyd, who is now a proudfather to 12-year-old Jaja commented; "Writing the book was a greatway for us to reflect on the whole journey that really made our worldcomplete - even though we do talk about it nearly everyday. For mewriting this book was a great way to show other men that it is ok totalk about IVF, you don't need to keep it locked in."

Trudie added: "Istarted writing my feelings down as over the years I came to realisethat until I had my beautiful boy I was addicted to getting pregnantas it was all I wanted in the world. Throughout our IVF I experienceda range of emotions, so I really wanted this book to help others whomight be experiencing the same. It is also very important to us as afamily that with this book we are be able to give something back tothe hospital that set us off on our journey – Saint Mary’sHospital."

Still searching for a solution to life’s problems? Try Accepting the Radical

2012-01-29T05:13:00.000-08:00

Accepting the Radical is the new book from experts Ronna Smithrim and Christopher Oliphant, and it contains surprising advice for anyone seeking support with their success in life. Rather than looking for a problem and trying to ‘fix’ it, the authors advocate accepting yourself fully as you are, as a route to achieving the life you want. If this approach seems radical, then it is – Radical Acceptance.

Oliphant explains, "Our journey began when we started out using the various ‘fix’ therapies – but soon found them to be limited. The more we explored, the more the idea of acceptance emerged. This led us to develop the Wheel, a tool we explore throughout the book. We carried on, developing the idea of acceptance until it emerged in its current form."

Oliphant and Smithrim continued to develop their new approach, continuing to achieve outstanding results with their clients until, one day, someone asked them what they did, what was this way of thinking and teaching called? Smithrim replied, "Acceptance, I suppose: Radical Acceptance." And so it was born.

The authors explain the principle of Radical Acceptance; "The basic premise of Radical Acceptance - what makes it so different - is that your ‘fixer’ is powerless: no matter how hard you try, you can never fix yourself. What’s so paradoxical about acceptance is that the more you accept a part of who you are, the less you need to act on it. Radical Acceptance has the power to give you a degree of control over your life that endless years of ‘fix’ therapy couldn’t touch. Its subversive teachings can help you to recognise and accept the powerlessness of the ‘fixer’ within you. From there, you can accept all of who you are."

Since the creation of Radical Acceptance, the authors have taught the simple yet powerful principles and techniques to groups around the world – and under constant pressure from the students in these groups have finally produced this book. What it contains won’t be for everyone: Radical Acceptance is a multi-faceted approach to personal growth work which can be both demanding and painful, opening up doors in readers’ lives that can be highly challenging yet ultimately liberating.

With the tools, exercises and case studies shared by Smithrim and Oliphant, readers will discover a new way of seeing life’s problems, both for themselves and for their clients, quickly discovering that the path to happiness, success and fulfilment really does lie in Accepting the Radical.

"Accepting the Radical: You Can Not Be Fixed", ISBN 978-1-9082931-0-7, is published by CGW Publishing and available now from all good book stores, priced at £15 or $25.

Why All the Fuss About Books?

2011-12-19T13:31:00.000-08:00

With Amazon pushing the Kindle and WH Smith pushing the Kobo in a battle for first place under the Christmas tree, a lot of people are asking what the big fuss about paperback books is. Surely people read for the content of the book, and therefore an ebook reader is a no-brainer? Why harp on about ebooks meaning the death of the printed book? So what?

Some people would be cynical and say that the big publishers are so tied into the print production business model that they can't exit gracefully and still protect their profits.

However, I have a different view to offer you that explains the reason behind our love affair with the printed book.

Consider what we had before the advent of the printing press: Nothing. There was no unified written language. Symbolic languages were the property of royalty and priests. Knowledge could only be passed down through word of mouth or the equivalent of cave paintings. People couldn't even do simple multiplication because there was no written language with which to effectively represent numbers.

The printing press was our very first attempt, as a society, to make language accessible to all. The printed book represents knowledge torn away from the select few and made available to the masses. The printed book represents freedom; not just freedom of knowledge but freedom of a society.

So you'll have to forgive our love of printed books, they have a very special place in our history.

Another Great Review for Dreams Do Come True

2011-12-01T08:40:00.001-08:00

We saw a lovely review for Dreams Do Come True on Waterstones' website today:

Having not read a book for years I wasnt sure what to expect. However we all have dreams and in this case some do come true! A compelling story of a couples triumph over adversity. Showing grit and determination to ultimately suceed when others could have wilted. Captivating read, covering a range of emotions, highs and lows, sorrow and ultimately the joy of bringing a child into this world. Overall you feel a part of the journey. Well written and well worth a read!

'Lofty', Bolton, UK

Yours Magazine features Dreams Do Come True by Trudie and Lloyd Thompson

2011-12-01T02:19:00.001-08:00

Yours Magazine recently interviewed Trudie Thompson's Mother and Son for a special feature article.

November 29 - December 12 Issue 129

Review for The Pitching Bible by Gavin Duffy of Dragon's Den Ireland

2011-11-30T10:00:00.001-08:00

How come you can pick two or three exec’s who are brilliant individual presenters but put them together to make a pitch presentation and you often don’t even get the sum of the parts? The reason, they haven’t read The Pitching Bible by Paul Boross. Boross is the boss when it comes to learning the know-how of successful, effective and memorable pitching.

Gavin Duffy - Dragons’ Den Ireland

The Pitch Doctor in The Telegraph

2011-11-30T09:57:00.001-08:00

Paul Boross, author of The Pitching Bible, was interviewed recently for The Telegraph's business technology supplement.

Dreams Do Come True hits Number One on Amazon

2011-10-25T15:35:00.000-07:00

We're very excited to announce our second number one ranking book; Dreams Do Come True by Trudie and Lloyd Thompson.

Following their appearance on BBC Radio Lancashire's Sally Naden show, their book hit the number one position on Amazon in their category - pushing Robert Winston's book into third place:

Corporate Godfathers due for November release

2011-10-19T09:58:00.000-07:00

The author of Corporate Godfathers has this to say in the opening of his new book:

I wanted to get a reaction to this manuscript before submitting it for publication, so I asked a book reviewer who doesn’t know me or anything about me to take a look at it.

She read for about five minutes, and said: “This is scary. Is it a work of fiction?”

I answered, “How much truth can you handle?”

She caught her breath, picking up the implication of my question.

A shadow of fear passed over her eyes.

I said, “If it makes it easier for you, just go ahead and call it fiction. You’ll rest easier at night.

But remember what Harry Truman said, ”I never give them hell. I just tell the truth and they think it’s hell.”

Corporate Godfathers is available soon, ISBN 978-1-9082931-1-4

The Pitch Doctor a Big Hit at MIP

2011-10-11T07:34:00.000-07:00

Paul Boross, author of The Pitching Bible, delivered a keynote seminar at the MIP media festival in Cannes last week.

The seminar was covered both in MIP's daily newspaper, shown on the right, and also in the MIPCOM blog, which is copied below.

He began by teaching us to expect the unexpected. Boross has a psychology background (neurolinguistic programming, specifically) as well as a performance background, so to warm us up he brought his cohort Robertson onstage to sing us a song.

“That’s something you didn’t expect, wasn’t it…?” he goaded. “That is MIP. Expect the unexpected. Go with it.”

He later framed this moment by pointing to its memorability: none of us will ever forget Robertson now, and it is true he suddenly seemed imbued with a singular and special quality.

Our second lesson: “The meaning of your communication is the response you get.” If you don’t deliver the message people want, it’s your responsibility. Our job at MIPCOM is to clarify the message we’re delivering.
He also emphasised the importance of being in the right headspace: “We programme ourselves for success or failure.” At this, someone in the audience unexpectedly began chirping, “that’s true, that’s true” with great conviction, as though at church.

Nervousness is natural. “There are two kinds of people in the world,” said Boross: “people who are nervous, and people who are lying.” It’s how we deal with that nervousness that counts. To explain, he pointed to a concept called the “cybernetic loop”: the notion that the mind and body affect each other. What you do with your body will alter your attitude, and vice versa: what you concentrate upon changes your outward comportment.
This is important when you’re pitching. As humans, we can recognise when someone is depressed or nervous. So sell a confident front. “People buy people. People buy from confident people.”

But mainly he emphasised the importance of building rapport instead of focusing on selling. A hardcore sales attitude creates an instant barrier between you and the person in front of you, who probably doesn’t want to buy what you’re punting. You also lose focus on the individual, and ultimately lose control of the outcome of the meeting.

When your focus is entirely on connecting with that person, you keep the door open for future productive opportunities. “Think of sales as the transfer of enthusiasm from one person to another,” Boross said.

Which brings us to the importance of following up: when you do it, remind people why it was so great to meet them. Personalise your email and demonstrate to what degree you’ve listened to them and found them special.

Attitude will carry you through MIPCOM. And the most important thing you want to do here is build rapport, whose dividends pay off indefinitely:

To sum up, the best networkers:

Engage
Interact
Make good eye contact
Don’t complicate things

Follow Boross on Twitter (@paulboross), and read his own five tips on making the most of MIPCOM, posted just prior to the show.

Authors of CGW Publishing's Latest Release to Appear On Radio Lancashires's Sally Naden Show

2011-10-08T02:05:00.000-07:00

Trudie and Lloyd Thompson, Authors of "Dreams Do Come True: The Amazing Story of One Family's Triumph Over IVF and Bankruptcy", are to appear on the Sally Naden show on BBC Radio Lancashire on October 25th, 2011.

Trudie and Lloyd Thompson's story of their twelve year journey through IVF treatment and bankruptcy is a roller coaster ride that includes an appearance on a reality TV show. It shows that, with courage and love, any obstacle can be overcome and any dream can come true.

The Thompson's book has taken twelve years to write, as Trudie Thompson explains, "It didn't start out as a book, it was just me writing down bits and bats, and because on occasion due to the pressure, we weren't always in harmony I wanted to see if I could summon all the feelings of pure infatuation I'd felt when our relationship began all those years before, I wanted to fall in love with Lloyd and feel carefree and young again. When Lloyd joined in the writing, he would write a chapter as to how he felt and I would do the same then one day we just put it all together and a friend read it and suggested we get it published."

The dream of publishing the book gathered pace when the Thompsons realised that, through the proceeds from book sales, they could help the IVF hospital that had helped them to realise their dream of having a family of their own. Lloyd Thompson says, "It soon became a huge dream to donate money to St Mary's to see if anymore precious babies could be born. That dream has become enormous, we live, we eat, we breathe, and we now sleep this desire which has grown as big as our own desperate need was to have Jaja. Lets realise the dream for someone else."

At first, the Thompsons didn't believe that a publisher would be interested in their story, but after a call to CGW Publishing's Christopher Greenaway, Trudie says, "CGW Publishing took us seriously right from the offset, and we have had the best guidance and help you could possibly imagine. We've never done anything like this before and we never in our wildest dreams believed we'd ever write a book, but hey we did and then the search began for a professional to jump onboard and advise us and that's exactly what our Publishers have done. Christopher is not only knowledgeable but he can read our minds, he knows what is needed and his suggestions have always been brilliant."

Christopher Greenaway, Managing Director of CGW Publishing, says, "I was totally hooked by Trudie and Lloyd's enthusiasm, and touched by their story that they share with such open hearts. Not only is this book extremely valuable for anyone considering IVF, it's a wonderful read for anyone who doubts that, with love and faith, dreams do come true."

"Dreams Do Come True: The Amazing Story of One Family's Triumph Over IVF and Bankruptcy" is published by CGW Publishing and available through all good book stores.

iBookstore problems

2011-10-01T04:49:00.000-07:00

We've been having a few problems with the Apple iBookstore on iTunes lately, so if you are looking for the iBooks version of The Pitching Bible by Paul Boross then this link will take you right to it:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/isbn9780956535894

The Pitching Bible at Number One on Amazon!

2011-09-27T08:59:00.001-07:00

... in the Presentations category.

Testimonial from Trudie and Lloyd Thompson

2011-09-22T12:13:00.000-07:00

CGW Publishing took us seriously right from the offset, and we have had the best guidance and help you could possibly imagine. We've never done anything like this before and we never in our wildest dreams believed we'd ever write a book, but hey we did and then the search began for a professional to jump onboard and advise us and that's exactly what our Publishers have done.

Christopher is not only knowledgeable but he can read our minds, he knows what is needed and his suggestions have always been brilliant.

Trudie and Lloyd's book, Dreams Do Come True, is available now from all good book stores.

The NLP Practitioner Manual is Now Available in Paperback and Kindle Formats

2011-09-22T11:52:00.001-07:00

Renowned NLP expert Peter Freeth releases his latest book 'The NLP Practitioner Manual' containing the SNLP Practitioner syllabus and his 20 years' worth of practical tips and secrets that make NLP work for you.

The NLP Practitioner Manual is the result of 20 years research and application of Neuro Linguistic Programming by one of its most innovative, practical and results oriented trainers and writers. Peter Freeth has pioneered many recognised developments in NLP's approach and techniques that are now used by countless trainers and professionals, worldwide, including:

The flipchart and notepad swishes - loved by trainers, coaches and all professionals for powerful results in any environment

The easy way to anchor - succeed every time by discovering how it really works, contrary to what most trainers think

Use complex techniques such as the Six Step Reframe and Fast Phobia Cure easily by understanding how to improvise and adapt them

Peter Freeth says, "People have been asking me for years, "When can we buy your Practitioner manual? You should publish it!" and so I've finally given in. It took quite a lot of work to get it from an excellent course manual to something that you can both read as an introductory book and use as a course manual."

Stepheni Smith, Peter's co-trainer and co-developer of many of NLP's latest applications to fields as diverse as coaching and child behaviour management, says, "Too many NLP training courses give participants a certificate just for turning up, and despite their trainers' protests to the contrary, the acid test is that we see too many people with Practitioner certifications who can't anchor, don't understand a Six Step Reframe and have no idea what the presuppositions of NLP mean. This is a Practitioner manual for people who want to thoroughly understand NLP, who want to earn their Practitioner certification."

Peter adds, "There is a description of anchoring in the earliest NLP texts which has been copied, almost verbatim, in every other NLP book I've seen - and it is fundamentally wrong. No wonder students have trouble getting anchoring to work! When I teach anchoring, students find it so easy, and it's no wonder why - they're making it easy for themselves. It's the same with the swish, reframing and even the Meta Model. It worries me when trainers say that the Meta Model patterns don't matter, and you don't need to remember what they're called. The absolute foundation of NLP is an understanding of how we attach symbols - words - to our experience. How can we truly understand NLP and the rich benefits that it offers if we dismiss the very foundation that it stands on? If you can't name something, how can you become a craftsman in its use?"

Stepheni concludes, "Is NLP a panacea, a cure for all ills? No, of course not. Nothing is. But it is one of the most versatile and valuable tool kits that you will ever discover, and learning NLP is a journey that will bring you value, insight and reward beyond what you may have first imagined. You could think of The NLP Practitioner manual as a guidebook for that journey."

Featuring both the Society of NLP core syllabus and many other popular NLP concepts and techniques, this book will show readers how to adapt and apply NLP in any professional environment. There are even chapters on building a professional practice and absorbing NLP into other skill sets, so readers can integrate NLP into any line of work for the very best results, both for themselves and for their clients.

The NLP Practitioner Manual is available now from all good book stores.

ISBN 978-1-9082930-3-9

Testimonial from Paul Boross

2011-09-15T15:10:00.000-07:00

"When I was looking for a publisher, it was important for me to find one that specialised in business and psychology books so that they could help me hone The Pitching Bible for the right market. Not only was Christopher Greenaway the perfect editor but his team managed the whole involved process of getting the book to market with dedication and professionalism.

Since publication, the CGW team's focus, creativity and service business expertise has continued unabated and has resulted in The Pitching Bible gliding gracefully up the Amazon charts. I highly recommend CGW Publishing."

Paul Boross, The Pitch Doctor & author of The Pitching Bible

Trudie and Lloyd Thompson to Launch 'Dreams Do Come True' at WH Smith, Manchester Trafford Centre in November

2011-09-14T11:35:00.000-07:00

Dreams Do Come True is the new book by Trudie and Lloyd Thompson, telling the incredible story of their 12 year journey through IVF treatment, losing a business and even bankruptcy.

They're currently in discussions with WH Smith in Manchester's Trafford Centre to arrange a launch event, sometime in November 2011.

Their book is at the very final production stages and should be ready to buy within the next few weeks, so the launch event will be very exciting for them, as they are donating profits from book sales to support the IVF unit at St Mary's Hospital, Manchester.

We'll be posting more details nearer the time.

Judge a Book By Its Cover

2011-09-07T07:18:00.000-07:00

We're just working on a new book by Ronna Smithrim & Christopher Oliphant on the subject of 'Radical Acceptance', and in trying to work out the book's target market and pricing, I've realised that online shopping has skewed the book market.

I've said before that cover design is important in selling a book, and that designing a cover for print is different to designing one for that little thumbnail that you see when browsing online.

Printing a book is a fixed cost, so the main variable that determines margin is the cover price. A lower price might mean more sales, but not necessarily. This introduces another variable into the equation - the page count.

A book of 100 pages might cost *2 to print, and a book of 500 pages might cost *6 to print. I've used * as a generic currency symbol here.

However, when you look on Amazon, you see that all of the books in your genre are in the range of *5 to *10. Clearly you can't price a 500 page book at *5, because you'd make a loss on each one you sell. But if you price it at *15, you potentially reduce sales.

When someone walks into a book shop and picks up your book, the size of it communicates perceived value. The thicker it is, the more the reader thinks it is worth, up to a point, which is the size at which the reader decides that they can't be bothered to read something that big.

If you want a light holiday read, you don't buy War & Peace.

If you want a 'ten tips to being a great manager' type book, you don't want something that will take you 6 months to read.

And a book on speed reading? How thick should that be?

So I think that what authors - and publishers - are doing is increasing margins by making books smaller. Take half your content out and save it for your next book.

This creates a problem for anyone with a 500 page book - although Amazon does list a book's page count, do you look at it when you're choosing a book? Do you use it to determine the value of a book?

Probably not. You probably just look at the price and assume that all of the books are about the same size...

Review for The Pitching Bible from John Gough

2011-08-31T15:23:00.000-07:00

John Gough is widely considered to be the best connected man in TV and media circles worldwide. His networking, knowledge and influence is legendary. If you mention John Gough’s name, one of the first words that are used to describe him is a ‘gentleman’. He is a gentleman in every sense of the word and that is why the great and the good - in an industry known for sharks and charlatans – not only respect him but also hold him in high esteem.

Prior to his successful life in the media, John was a teacher, writer and designer of educational resources for the UK’s major publishing houses and that is why his considered review of The Pitching Bible is very gratifying.

"Often the divide between practise and theory is quite wide. Only a few practitioners who have the gift to empower an individual to improve their performance can communicate the theory effectively through the written word and even more so embody and retain the spirit of how they do it. Paul Boross has done just that.

Paul Boross has been a speaker and mentoring tutor at the Entertainment Master Class since its foundation and has travelled the world with us working with participants from many different cultures. Every time I hear Paul speak my understanding of how I am perceived and how I communicate has deepened. Paul has an exceptional talent that has proven results.

Having read ‘The Pitching Bible’ I am amazed at how effectively the book communicates Paul’s messages about personal performance. It is a true example of how a book can effectively and practically inspire confidence and bring about change in an individual’s thinking.Without doubt if you read the book it will change how you think, how you perform and how you approach your life."

John Gough
Head of Programme, Entertainment Master Class

Revelation 2011 Survey - corporate politics and hidden agendas

2011-08-29T14:23:00.000-07:00

I'm writing on behalf of one of our authors to ask for a few minutes of your time in completing a survey that will form part of research that they're conducting for a new book on the subject of corporate politics, hidden agendas and manipulation in business which is due for release towards the end of this year. It's a thorny subject, and one which I'm sure has touched your career and life in one way or another.

The results will be made available once the survey is completed, and how long that takes depends on the number of responses received, so please share this with all of your friends and colleagues, and also on any other networks or forums that you are a member of.

The survey is completely anonymous, just click on this link to go directly to it:

http://kwiksurveys.com?u=revelation2011

Please also pass this on to as many of your friends or colleagues as you can, because the more responses we get, the more valuable the results will be.

Choosing a CRM Vendor: Best Practices, Pitfalls, and the Myth of the Turnkey Solution by Andrew Schultz

2011-08-24T09:37:00.000-07:00

We're proud to announce the forthcoming launch of a new book by US expert author, Andrew Schultz.

He has captured his years of experience in building CRM solutions for his clients into the book.

Getting Customer Relationship Management right is a goal to which any customer focused company aspires. Yet, rather than enabling companies to achieve this goal, the complexity of choosing the right CRM vendor can become a stumbling block to companies trying to deliver excellence in customer service.

With an increasing choice of established, corporate vendors, niche vendors and open source solutions, your decision to invest in CRM is vital in supporting the business information that underpins your delivery of sales, marketing and service excellence to your customers.

In this book, Andrew Schultz shares his expertise on the following subjects:

CRM: The Illusion and the Reality
The Fall of the Biggest CRM Vendor in the World
The 3 Pillars of CRM
Finding a Solution
Choosing a Vendor

Having led many CRM implementations as a consultant, and in his current role helping CRM consulting firms and vendors of CRM add-on applications develop solutions relevant to customer needs, Andrew Schultz is a solution architect with deep experience in understanding customer requirements and mapping those requirements to CRM functionality.

In Choosing a CRM Vendor, he shares both his objective advice and the hard earned 'insider secrets' that you will find invaluable in making the right CRM vendor decision.

You can find out more about Andrew at his blog: andrewbschultz.com/blog

Book Review from Jeff Ford, Director of Programmes at Channel FIVE

2011-08-24T07:01:00.000-07:00

Jeff Ford, Director of Programmes at Channel FIVE, has sent in this review for Paul Boross' book, The Pitching Bible, which is quickly climbing up the sales charts.

"When I first picked up Paul Boross’ new book, The Pitching Bible, I thought that it was a rather grand title for a book that surely couldn’t teach me anything new. Yet, page after page, I rediscover ideas from a completely new perspective and, for me, that is The Pitching Bible’s real value. It helps me to make sense of the experience that I’ve gained in pitching, and it brings new meaning and new insight into all the things that I know that I should know, and that I know make a huge difference to the success of any pitch. I highly recommend it."

Jeff Ford

An Author's Role in Book Marketing

2011-08-24T06:00:00.000-07:00

We publish business non-fiction, mainly, and that is always a niche market. Very few business books sell in large numbers, because not all readers are 'business people' with a need to develop their careers, presentation skills, leadership skills etc.

Therefore, for most business authors, the way they actually make a living from their book is as a marketing asset for their business. People who run service businesses in particular have a difficult time demonstrating value, and a book is a good way to capture intellectual property. There are many ways that a book adds value to a service business.

So our criteria is more like, "Can this book add value to the author's business?"

We look at what the author's business is, what they're doing to market that, where a book would support them, how many they are likely to sell and so on. We turn away books that are badly written, and we do look at what else is in the market. We also look at the author's credibility in their field of expertise.

Our selection process is similar to that of a traditional publisher, but we look at the author's business as a whole, not just their book.

Size of network is not that relevant, actually. We did some research into social media and found that marketing 'experts' advocate the use of things like Twitter, but in reality their use of such tools is misleading at best:

http://cgwpublishing.blogspot.com/2010/12/cgw-publishing-and-absem-announce-fry.html

In terms of a personal network, real people you know, they are probably not the potential target market, so they're not that valuable either. Where they are useful is in building and communicating the author's credibility, but that involves a bit of engagement on their part, which they aren't always willing to give.

We have one author who spends a significant amount of time networking, but a lot of the people he knows just want something for nothing, and when push comes to shove, they shy away from doing anything tangible to help promote the book. However, the biggest jump in his book sales has come about when he delivers a lecture to a special interest group. One of the things that we help him with is publicising what he's doing, which he had never done before, and recognising the value in it. When he delivers a 'free' talk, the deal is that the organisation publicises it and his book and sends an email to all their members with a discount code. That's just one example, of course. The main benefit for him is that the book builds his credibility which gains him more work. We turned his book content into a lecture, and when he delivered it a media festival, he was invited to seven other festivals to deliver the same lecture.

The author is vital in marketing the book, because the book is a mechanism for getting the author's ideas to the reader. Therefore the reader isn't interested in the book itself, they're interested in connecting with the author's expertise, or creativity, or sense of humour or whatever the book is about, and the author's personal credibility is therefore key.

This is why the big publishers see ebooks as a threat, because once we free ourselves of the pleasure of holding a chunk of paper, what we really want is to connect with the author's mind, and the delivery mechanism will evolve to support the way that people live and work.

The size of a network does not necessarily denote credibility. I would say that our decision process involves something like this:

Is the author credible in their chosen subject?

Is their book well written? Is it accessible? Does it convey the right expertise to the right people?

Is the author committed to developing their business, and is there the right business environment for the book to make an impact on their business success?

Is the author looking for a partner relationship that allows us to add value, or do they see the publisher as the dogsbody who puts their work on the shelf?

Ultimately, the success of the book must be a partnership that engages the reader, the publisher, the author and the author's business.

Book Review from Neil Mullarkey

2011-08-23T08:20:00.000-07:00

We've just been sent another review for Paul Boross' book The Pitching Bible, this time from well known improvisational comedian and actor Neil Mullarkey. Neil does a lot of corporate work too, using improv comedy skills to help teams become more creative and effective.

"I’ve known for a long time that Paul Boross has many years’ experience in pitching, but even I’m astonished at just how much he has managed to pack into The Pitching Bible. It’s fun, it’s entertaining, and in my line of work, that means that you will learn a great deal without even realising it. Yet the structure of the book really does drive those valuable lessons home, and by the time I reached the end of the book, I felt that I hadn’t just been reading; I’d been learning, and that’s the most important lesson of all. One thing is for sure, you will greatly ImprovYourPitch with The Pitching Bible."

Neil Mullarkey, Director at ImprovYourBiz and Co-founder of The Comedy Store Players

Cutting Out the Middle Man

2011-08-22T08:57:00.000-07:00

Fanseyeview reports that Amazon and authors are cutting out the middle man, in this case the publisher.

Well, in every market we see a long term trend of price wars at the retail end squeezing margins across the whole supply chain. As an ecosystem, the publishing world produces a few gems and a lot of noise, for example the ever-increasing pile of self help books from minor celebrities.

For a few years, the print end of the supply chain has reduced costs, through digital technology, then a move to Asia and China, where we can get a 250 page book printed in relatively small quantities for £0.78 (about $1).

While it's easy to focus on the greedy retailers such as Amazon and their cut-price-to-win-market-share-at-publisher's-expense strategy, we shouldn't overlook the role of distributors who are still looking for 50% of cover price to hold stock for a publisher.

The evolution of any market in this state is "disintermediation", or the cutting out of the middle man.

However, it is easy for people to see the publisher as the middle man, and say that with self publishing, who needs a publisher?

Duh....

Self publishing means that the author becomes the publisher. And then, instead of writing, or talking to readers, or holding signing events, the author spends his or her spare time managing orders, maintaining ISBN records, designing book covers, formatting manuscripts, setting up pages on Amazon, setting up distribution arrangements, locating niche retailers and all the other things that we do as a publisher.

So disintermediation can't take out the publisher. Remember, this is the publishing industry. You can't take bakers out of the bakery, all you can do is get the baking process closer to the customer.

In the case of publishing, you can't get the reader any closer to the author, otherwise the author would never sell any volume of books. Having read a few news stories, blogs and other commentaries on the subject, it seems that most people overlook the fact that the author's work is not the book, the book is a physical product that the publisher creates to convey the author's work into the reader's hands.

Projects like Unbound are not a revolution in publishing, and they don't replace a publisher. Unbound is a publisher, they just have a different business model, as outlined in my previous post.

Print costs are rock bottom. Cover prices and sell prices are rock bottom. Who do we cut out? The people who actually turn the manuscript into a saleable book? Or the people who take a cut just for moving the book from one place to another?

Why is Amazon moving into publishing? Because they know that it's the retailers and distributors who are the middle men.

They're At It Again

2011-08-15T07:06:00.000-07:00

According to The Guardian:

"A class-action lawsuit has been filed in the US alleging that Apple and five major publishers "colluded ... to illegally fix prices" of ebooks."

Here we go again. The big publishers, in this case HarperCollins, Hachette Book Group, Macmillan, Penguin and Simon & Schuster are accused of conspiring with Apple to set prices and force Amazon out of its 'cut prices to win market share and expect the publisher to take the hit' business model.

The complaint centres on the agency model – used by Apple for iTunes and by most major publishers for ebook sales – in which the publisher, rather than the retailer, sets the retail price of ebooks.

It's interesting, because what they say about the agency model makes it sound as if the publishers are calling the shots. Not so.

Here's the way it works. Normally, we set the cover price and the retail discount level, and retailers can sell the book for whatever they want. Makes no difference to us if they make any money on it, we still charge them the same wholesale price.

But with agency pricing, we set the end user price, and the retailer, in this case Apple, takes their margin out of that. Essentially, their retail margins are protected by the fact that they tell us how much profit they want and we then have to price the book to allow us, and the author, to make some money too.

So agency pricing is not in the publisher's interests at all. Nor the authors. Guess who it benefits? Oh yes, Apple.

We have an iPad. Most of the time, iTunes doesn't work, and iTunes is the only way to get anything onto the iPad. The latest problem was a continuous loop of having to verify an email address that prevented logging into the iTunes Store. It seems that Apple's attitude is that their products are perfect, therefore everyone wants one, and all content producers want to work with them.

We don't like Amazon's cut price policy any more than anyone else does, except of course readers, who are always on the lookout for a bargain. But we protect ourselves against a financial loss by setting our retail discounts accordingly. In the past, we mistakenly joined Amazon's Advantage program. Guess who it's an advantage for? Amazon. On two books, we made a loss thanks to their non-negotiable 60% discount.

So now we treat Amazon like any other retailer, and everything works well. Customers still buy books, we get our wholesale prices, the author gets their royalties, and Amazon have to make a living like everyone else - by not abusing their suppliers.

Of course, in an agency pricing world, if we were to start talking to Apple and agreeing to fix prices, which would only happen if we were a really big publisher, then that wouldn't be fair at all. It would mean that Apple wasn't treating its supplier relationships fairly and equally. Could you imagine such a thing?

The lawsuit alleges that "the five publishers "feared" Amazon's move to price ebooks at $9.99 – a figure considerably below physical book prices. The pricing "threatened to disrupt the publishers' long-established brick-and-mortar model faster than [they] were willing to accept", and to set low consumer expectations for ebook prices."

Oh, shame. Don't we all feel sorry for them?

Good Enough To Be a Beach Read

2011-08-05T09:58:00.000-07:00

We're very pleased to have received this review for Paul Boross' book, The Pitching Bible, from David Lyle, CEO of National Geographic's TV channels:

“I enjoyed the book very much and I think it is a top to bottom checklist and practice guide for an essential part of television that is too often overlooked. Too often producers agonize about the development of an idea and fantasize about the production, But without an effective pitch they are whistling in the dark.

Very nicely thought through and researched. I haven’t finished (stuff came up) but will do so in the next day, sitting in the sun. That’s how good it is, good enough to be a beach read.”

A beach read? Now that really is high praise for a business book...

The Art of Pitching

2011-08-04T07:55:00.000-07:00

New Business magazine have published Paul Boross' article about his observations on pitching within the TV series The Apprentice.

http://www.newbusiness.co.uk/the-art-pitching-paul-boross

The latest series of the Apprentice came to the end of its television journey here in the UK with the inevitable media focus on entrepreneurial business skills and, in particular, the art of pitching.

Almost every episode of the popular, business-based cross between a reality program and a game show features the contestants having to make a pitch.

They pitch for business, pitch for orders, pitch ideas and they pitch to keep their jobs in the boardroom showdown at the end of each week's task. What's interesting is that, every week, Lord Sugar says that he's not looking for a sales person, yet every week the task involves selling something; either low key, selling products to individuals, or high stakes pitching to the buyers of major retailers.

What does this mean? Is buying and selling all there is to running a business?

Fundamentally, what defines a business is profit. I don't mean that profit defines how good your business is, I mean that profit is what distinguishes a business from a public sector organisation, charity or foundation. Yes, these organisations need to raise capital to cover their operating expenses, but they are not driven or measured by the delivery of raw, financial value over and above that.

Fundamentally, every business has to buy raw materials, add value and then sell some kind of finished product. It might buy graduates, add training and then sell accountancy services. It might buy equipment, add support expertise and sell an IT service. Or it might buy electronic components, add design expertise and sell computers. All of these examples point to one principle; that business is indeed about buying and selling.

While Lord Sugar may have the contestants buying and selling waste materials, biscuits, fruit or illuminated teapots, what he is actually doing is stripping business down to its raw essentials.

Where does pitching fit into this? Every week, we hear one or more contestants saying, "I want the opportunity to do the pitch", or, "I delivered the pitch", or, even "I pitched it to him", referring to the point where a contestant asked a builder if she could have another copper hot water tank. The contestants vie for attention, trying to win the team leader's favour so that they can do the pitch. Is pitching really that important to the success of the task or business? Or is it just an opportunity to "shine"? And how closely does the fiction of a TV game show fit reality?

One thing that we never see in The Apprentice is Lord Sugar pitching. Is this another sign that a pitch is no more than a ‘beauty parade'?

Let's first look at what a pitch is. It is a sales cycle compressed into a very short space of time, perhaps as much as twenty minutes, or as little as three.

Whilst sales is an interactive process, with a good sales person listening much more than speaking, one of the difficulties in a pitch is the buyer's expectation that the sales person does all the talking, while they listen and make their minds up. If the sales person doesn't get it ‘right', no deal.

So a pitch isn't made ‘off the cuff', it's the culmination of a great deal of hard work, understanding the needs of the client or target market. One of the biggest problems that the contestants in The Apprentice face, week after week, is clearly identifying their target market. All too often, they start with an idea, or a name, instead of a target customer.

Advertising is an even more condensed form of pitching. In an advert, you're broadcasting, "This is the product, are you the right person to buy it?" It's a product led pitch, and it relies on getting in front of as many people as possible, preferably within the target market.

And so we end up with two types of pitch; client led and product led. And Lord Sugar's bias is very towards the client led pitch. Every time he talks about his own business career, he talks about customers; major retailers and consumers. Yes, he sees himself as operating in a particular market, but what he really seems to focus on is what the buyer needs. Yes, he had to pitch products, but he didn't pitch blindly. I would bet that every pitch he delivered was calculated and targeted to meet that buyer's needs.

Does Lord Sugar still pitch? In a way, yes. At the start of each week's task, he pitches to the contestants. You might think that they can't really say, "no thanks", but he is still aiming to get their buy in, to clearly communicate what he is looking for. Every week, he is very specific and gives a big clue about the success of the task. And every week, the contestants overlook that clue and get wrapped up in their own excitement, politics and desire to be in the limelight.

What clues are you missing from your clients because you're too focused on what you want to say? What needs are you failing to meet because you're too wrapped up in your own? Pitching is just a small part of the sales cycle, or it encapsulates the whole process, depending on how you look at it.

How important is the skill, really?

That all depends on how much you want to win.

Publishers Still Control the Book Market

2011-08-01T06:54:00.000-07:00

Once again, The Bookseller provides us with an interesting snippet of news about the progression of the publishing industry.

"Despite the collapse of two of the world's largest high street book chains the book publisher Penguin lost only £36m in sales in the first half of 2011, while profits narrowed marginally. Digital sales made up 14% of its overall business, resulting in total sales of £64m at a growth rate of 128%"

Despite the collapse? That would be like saying that despite the collapse of Marks & Spencer, sales of woolly jumpers were down only 5%, or despite the collapse of Tesco, people have surprisingly not starved.

I think that what this demonstrates is that the major publishers have the upper hand with the book stores. Clearly, the majority of Penguin's profits were generated as a result of its own marketing, not because readers go into book stores and have a browse around. When a reader wants a particular book and they find that Borders has disappeared, they just go somewhere else. Let's face it, people haven't stopped decorating just because Focus has gone. Our local focus now has a sign on it directing customers to the nearest B&Q.

I think that this demonstrates that the major book stores are just a shop window for the major publishers. Mind you, that's what I've been saying for the past ten years.

The only reason that book retailers like Waterstones buy books from self and independent publishers is to prevent the likes of Amazon from owning that share of the market; a market that is fast growing. Let's not kid ourselves that they actually support authors who choose not to publish with the dinosaurs.

What Penguin have demonstrated is that the retailers can fight amongst themselves; it really makes no difference to the book market.

Amazon Kindle - Winning the Content War?

2011-07-27T02:29:00.000-07:00

We received an email this week from our Apple content distributor. Here it is:

As the demand to get content distributed and  sold on Apple's iBookstore  continues to grow, [distributor] is striving to  meet our publisher partners'  needs in the most efficient manner  possible. In order to help plan and  meet expectations, we'd like to ask  your assistance. Please e-mail the  number of titles that your company  plans to distribute to Apple for the  remainder of the 2011 calendar  year to [someone's email address].

Is this true? Unlikely. It is more likely that Apple are pushing their distributors for sales forecasts, to test the impact on the market of their decision to prevent app developers from selling content direct to the actual person who owns the iPad outright and should be able to do whatever the hell they want with it.

Here is our reply:

In  response to the email I received asking for [distributor]     projections,  I would like to say that I will be publishing 8 books     between now  and the end of the year, however I am supporting the     Amazon Kindle  platform as a priority because of the unexpected and     unnecessary  cost and complexity of supporting iBooks.

Specifically,  I went to great lengths to ensure that my first iBook     was fully  compliant with the epub standard, only to find that Apple     themselves  don't comply with it, so I had to pay for [distributor] to make  the conversion, and your technical people couldn't     actually tell me  what was wrong with the original, so I have no     chance of correcting  these errors myself, of which I am capable     given the right  information. So Apple have enforced a standard that     they don't  comply with, and they guard the information that is     required for me  to fix the problem, and I am not prepared to pay to     have you convert  every book for me when the conversion process for     Kindle is quick,  easy and reliable.

Please do pass this on, because I'm sure I'm not the only publisher     with this problem. 

Cast your mind back a few years... What killed off Betamax in favour of the technically inferior VHS? Content. The studios licensed their content to the consortium of VHS developers, not Sony's Betamax. People couldn't get films, so they didn't buy the machines. Sony learned quickly, and bought Columbia Pictures so that they would never be denied content again.

Random House recently announced that they are putting their entire catalogue of 17,000 books onto the iPad. But for any publishers who don't deal direct with Apple, the Kindle is a much easier and more reliable option. Will this fragment the market? Or will it polarise the market into serious readers who will see the Kindle as a clear winner, or people who primarily want to play games and waste time on Facebook, and dip into the odd ebook here and there, who will go for tablet PCs. Note: Tablet PCs, not necessarily the iPad.

About 20 years ago, the mobile phone companies realised that whoever owned the device in your hand owned what you saw and heard. But wireless Internet is moving the goalposts again. That device could be any one of a number of things, from your phone to your tablet PC, even your television. This favours the content distributors.

Apple have played a very risky strategy; giving content and app development over to third parties, and then trying to control them with restrictive, unfavourable contract terms, based on the belief that Apple owns the world, therefore the developers have no choice but to comply. You want to sell your products? You have to play by Apple's rules, because they control the market.

Except, they don't.

They have scored some early wins by getting customers to fall in love with their products, but this will absolutely not last forever. How do we know?

When Ford's iconic XR3i ruled the suburban backstreets, every product had an 'i' on the end of its name.

When Sony's Walkman ruled the subways and classrooms, every product had 'man' on the end of its name.

When McDonalds ruled the world of crap jobs, every crap job became a McJob.

When Yahoo became My Yahoo, every website became 'My' website.

When the Internet came into the home, every tenuously related product had an "e" at the beginning of its name.

When Apple's iPod took the Walkman's crown, every product had an 'i' at the beginning of its name.

Apple is tightening its grip on the market. And what can you expect to happen next? The tighter Apple squeezes, the more of that market will slip through its fingers.

Changing My Mind About the Amazon Kindle

2011-07-27T02:08:00.000-07:00

A while ago, I said that the Kindle is a pointless device given the price difference between something that only displays ebooks and a tablet computer that can do pretty much anything that any other computer can do.

However, I am beginning to change my mind.

Earlier this week, Apple announced that it is going to start enforcing its rules that mean that content must be acquired through iTunes, where Apple can of course make money. It would be like being forced to only by a BMW through a BMW dealer. OK, you might be able to live with that to get a BMW. But then you are also forced to buy your petrol (gas), car washes, bags of sweets and pine tree shaped air fresheners through the BMW garage too. You might feel that BMW were taking advantage of your allegiance to their brand.

Personally, I feel that Apple's philosophy is, "You bought an Apple. You love Apple. Apple is your life. You don't need anything else. We own you." They're like a paranoid, clingy, dependent lover that just happens to be holding a gun to your head.

Here's a snippet of the story from The Bookseller:

Apple is finally getting round to enforcing its new app purchasing guidelines after reports emerged over the weekend of direct purchasing links being removed from some third-party apps 

E-book companies now have the option of selling direct through Apple's iTunes store at a cost of 30% per transaction, or hoping customers buy direct from their own stores and use the app only for reading the purchased material. 

The simple fact it that no third-party aggregator can afford to pay a 30% fee for being the middle-man on a platform it does not own itself, meaning that in the short term the e-book market is going to be a less interesting environment for book readers and a less useful place for those interested in developing e-book apps.

To explain this simply, here's what has happened.

You go to the iTunes store, looking for ebooks. To read an ebook, you have to BUY an ebook app such as iBooks. Of course, the majority are free because the developer wants to make their money on ebook sales, not on the app itself. So you download the app.

You BUY some books for the app from iTunes, on which Apple makes a profit.

Inside the app is a link to find more books, which you can buy direct from the developer's website, which saves all the hassle of having to buy through iTunes, which normally involves the download failing half way through, you not getting a refund and not being able to re-download, so you have to buy another copy and then chase Apple for a refund.

So you buy the book on the developer's site and read it on your iPad.

Not any more. Apple are now forcing you to buy all content through iTunes and preventing you from buying content elsewhere.

Hang on.... We just paid £600 for the thing, and you're going to dictate where I can and can't get the stuff that I use it for?

Sorry, Apple, I just don't feel the same way about you any more... Now, put the gun down.

Join the Social Revolution

2011-06-30T07:24:00.000-07:00

Well, as much as we hate social networking, it seems that Google loves it.

Specifically, Google's latest indexing algorithm attributes more importance to incoming links from social networking sites, particularly Facebook.

So while we've been avoiding it for some time, we've set up a Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/CGW-Publishing/134630879948358

Now, don't get excited. We're not looking for friends, or to play games, or for any other tat that proliferates in social networking.

However, if you would be so kind as to 'like' our page, and we get 25 people to like it, we get our very own page name! Ooooohhhh!

And that means better search engine something or other, according to the experts.

You can also just visit our main site

www.cgwpublishing.com

and click the 'like' button in the top right. And while you're at it, give us a Google "+1".

Thank you!!

How to Get Published

2011-06-27T16:03:00.000-07:00

Well, maybe not. How to get a publisher to take you seriously, at least.

Here's another submission email from an author (Just the first paragraph, the full email is very long):

Please forgive me if I am not following your existing submission rules, but by some reason I could not find them. Maybe by my indolence, mostly. I hope that even I did not follow them and you are likely overloaded by similar freaks like me you will find time to review my proposition.

Spot the problem?

The writer (a poet) has used words like 'forgive', 'indolence', 'freaks' etc. These are not good words to use. Let me explain why.

When you ask someone to like your poetry or come to your poetry reading, you might call yourself a freak and it might be funny for some people.

When you ask a publisher to invest in you, you are asking them to make a business decision. It is not easy to work with someone who puts themselves down, and it does not give a publisher faith or confidence in you if you do not show confidence in yourself.

Don't apologise. Submission guidelines are here for the publisher's benefit. It saves us having to ask the same questions every time someone sends a 'best selling' manuscript. But what we need is a solid reason to make a business investment. Whether we like something, personally, does not make a big difference. What is important is that we feel something will sell. Publishers are experts at getting a product to market, and that product is not your poetry, it is YOU.

So my advice is, before you contact publishers, think about your email or letter and show that you have confidence in yourself. Not arrogance, it does not help when an author offers us a book and says it is a guaranteed best seller because it's fantastic.

What is very important to remember is that the question of how good the book is really makes no difference to how well it will sell. You might think your book, or poems, are wonderful. Your friends might. Even we might like them. But the issues you must address are:

How well do people really know you? (Your name must sell the book)

What are you doing to promote yourself and your work?

Do you take your work seriously? (The writer's words suggest that he would like to but does not)

Remember, when you contact a publisher, you are not asking them to like your book. I can like your book without wanting to invest in you as an author.

The bottom line with any investor is that we want to know, "Will this investment show a return?"

And the answer doesn't lie within your books pages, it is within you.

Spam, Scams and online Cons

2011-06-14T04:05:00.000-07:00

Spam really does get everywhere. As a publisher, we receive many unsolicited submissions from authors. One of the most persistent is a guy claiming that he invented Post-It notes and that his book follows the story of how 3M ripped off his life's work. Right. Unfortunately, the story of Post-It notes is well documented.

Here's another example that arrived today:

To Whom It May Concern:

Hi, my name is Jack Steele, my story is that I was recruited by the Justice  Department for over two years to infiltrate a group in order to capture one of  Americas 10 most wanted killers. An article was written in the New York magazine  by Robert Kolker titled Mercenary For Justice documenting my journey leading to  his arrest.  If you are interested in my story, please email at dendav17@aol.com, or by telephone number  561-594-2281.

Thank you in advance.

Jack Steele

Sounds great! Exciting!

Where's the outline? Where's the connection between the author's name and the email address?

The article referred to is genuine; http://nymag.com/news/features/51835/

But is the person in the article in Palm Beach, Florida, where the phone number appears to point to?

So why the suspicion?

If you were an author, wouldn't you put a link to the article? Would you include at least some outline of the book or a sample chapter?

Spam, scams and con tricks are everywhere, unfortunately.

What Do You Get When You Cross Twitter With an iPad?

2011-06-13T07:26:00.000-07:00

A fantastic new step forward in the integration of mobile computing platforms and social networks?

Or a dark day for your privacy?

Apple and Twitter have said that they are collaborating to incorporate Twitter into iOs, the operating system for iPads, iPhones, iPods etc.

What does this mean? You can use Twitter on your iPad now? What's the big deal?

Do you have a desktop or laptop computer? Perhaps a Mac? Or Linux? Or if you're unlucky, Windows?

Your computer has a bunch of programs on it, and most of them share some common functions. They can print. They can access the Internet. There's no point in each software vendor figuring out how to make a program print; it's one of the things that your operating system or OS does for them. So the program designer sends a file to the printer library, and a short while later, you're another step closer to having to buy more ink that costs more than the printer did in the first place.

Integrating Twitter into the OS doesn't just mean that there will be a special program or 'app' for reading and writing Twitter feeds. That's already there.

No, integrating Twitter into the OS means that it is there for all apps to use, whether you know about it or not.

Imagine, you get a new high score on Angry Birds, and the app tells you that your best friend just beat you.

How? The app 'Tweeted' your high score, and their app Tweeted back. But the Tweet wasn't a private conversation between the two of you, it was available for anyone to see.

Do you really want your iPad doing even more behind your back? Apple's view of user privacy is already, "You bought an iPad, therefore all your data now belongs to us. We call it an 'enhanced user experience'. You call it an invasion of your privacy. If you don't like it, don't buy an iPad."

Do you want your iPad telling the world where you are? Or what website you just visited? Do you want it sending emails on your behalf based on a special offer from a store you just visited? Do you want Google maps to show you, in real time, where all your friends are right now?

After all, you might find out something you wish you hadn't. Like one of them is round your house, right now. And they're not playing Angry Birds.

The Changing Face of the Book

2011-06-08T15:40:00.000-07:00

Have you noticed that book covers have changed?

The predominance of cover 'art' is being replaced by a new design goal; big and bold.

Is this to make books stand out on book shelves more?

Not really.

Cover art, complex designs, small or script titling, even subtle photographs are perfect for when the reader picks up the book before choosing to buy it; at an airport book shop, typically.

But these kinds of covers are next to useless, illegible, in the place that most people will see the book - on a web page.

Huge, clear, colourful text with a title that fills the entire front of the book, simple geometric designs and high contrast covers are the order of the day.

In the 'flesh', they might look garish but as a thumbnail image on a web page, they are competing with the site's own branding and adverts.

The Internet has led to many changes in design philosophy in all kinds of areas; writing, graphic design, user functionality, and so book cover design is simply one more area that the Internet is now influencing.

So remember, don't judge a book by its cover.

Unbound: A Threat to Publishers?

2011-06-06T11:21:00.000-07:00

According to The Bookseller, the new self publishing service, Unbound, is the beginning of the end of traditional publishing, or at least a business model that will accelerate the demise of the printed book. Or the ebook. Or neither.

The Bookseller says, "Unbound, a publishing platform that allows readers to choose what is published, was devised as a response to the “difficulties of the existing publishing model”, with the programme aiming to get 35 to 40 projects off the ground in its first year."

Here's the idea; instead of self-publishing, you pitch your book idea to a social network of readers. If they like the idea, they invest in it to cover the publishing costs. In return, they get anything from a 'goodie bag' to lunch with the author.

If an investor puts in more than £1,000, they might get a royalty share of book sales too.

Whhooooaa! £1,000? How much are they saying it costs to publish a book?

Oh, of course, I forgot. We're talking about a traditional publishing house trying to muscle in on the ebook and self-publishing market.

"Supported by Faber, the platform was created by “QI” writers John Mitchinson and John Pollard, and Crap Towns author Dan Kieran. Authors are required to pitch their idea to readers on the site, and have 50 days to attract support through readers pledging money to fund the publication of the work. If enough money is pledged, the work will be published, primarily as an e-book or “beautifully bound, limited edition hardback”, or both, with each pledger’s name inscribed in the back of the print edition."

In the old days, there were publishers and there were vanity publishers. A publisher buys the licence to print your book and in return pays you a pittance of a royalty. They use your book to market their business, and if they really go to town on marketing, you make some money. But not nearly as much as the publisher, and quite rightly so, because they've done all the hard work in marketing and getting your book onto the shelves. Which they control.

Vanity publishers just charged you to print your book for you.

So, an aspiring author had two choices; take their manuscript around all the publishing houses, facing rejection, or pay to see their book in print.

In today's world of ebooks and print on demand, anyone can get their work into circulation for a very small amount of money, but, is it any good? And will it sell?

Today's author is faced with the choice of taking their manuscript to the traditional publishing houses, as before, self-publishing and now, getting the readers to buy the book in a limited print run before it's even written.

"As The Bookseller went to press, of the five ideas currently on the [Unbound] site, author Terry Jones’ idea for “a darkly funny set of linked tales” had received 2% of its required funding, while Gavin Pretor-Pinney’s idea, an iPad version of his book The Cloudspotter’s Guide, was still on 0%."

We presume they're both well known authors, so these figures either show that the Unbound concept is in its infancy, or it's a silly idea.

As a business model, it is very similar to the 'micro loans' concept that hit the headlines a few years ago. The idea was that I go to a website and post a request for some money, then some other people offer to lend me various amounts which together give me what I need. I then pay them back, through the website. Each micro investor makes a return, I get a loan, the website makes a profit off the top.

Unbound is not a new concept in publishing, it is a simple and blatant attempt by an existing publishing house to shuffle the risk around - so that it lands anywhere but at their door.

Write For You is coming to Hartlepool

2011-05-25T08:36:00.000-07:00

A lot of people we meet say, "Oh I've always wanted to write..."

So true to our belief that, if you have a book in you, we can help you to get it out, we are launching a brand new writing course in Hartlepool... with a difference.

The course will be for anyone who wants to write:

+ Fiction, such as short stories or a novel

+ Non-Fiction, such as business books, local history, biography or hobbies

+ Poetry and prose

And at the end of the course, we will be publishing a collection of all of the suitable work that the participants have produced.

On top of that, if you choose to work on a business book, or a full novel, you can publish it through us at 10% off the usual costs.

Why are we doing this?

Local colleges often run 'creative writing courses', but what we have found that most people want isn't just to be able to write, it's to see their work in print.

When you attend this course, even if you only produce one poem or a very short story that you're proud of, you'll see it in print in the collection for that course. You'll be able to buy copies at trade rates for your friends and family, you'll see it on Amazon and other retailers, and you can even get it into local book shops and libraries.

Because of the location and evening schedule of this course, we're aiming it at people who live in these areas:

Hartlepool
Darlington
Seaham
Stockton On Tees
Middlesbrough
Redcar
Billingham
Cleveland
Teeside
County Durham

Although anyone is welcome from any area.

Currently planned to run for 12 weekly evening sessions, the course will include the following:

Planning what to write
Becoming an author
Structuring your work
Overcoming writer's block
The critical process
Editing and proof reading
Understanding copyright and publishing
Marketing your work

Each week, we'll review and critique what participants have written, so we'll waste no time during the course itself, and our approach is suited to all types of writing, whether you want to write poetry, your grandmother's life story, a business or self-help book or a book about local history or your hobby.

At the end of the course, we will take all of the participants' chosen contributions and publish them as a collection, and we'll even organise a launch event and author reading to publicise your work to friends, family, colleagues, clients and the media.

We're in the process of organising this now, so if you are interested, register with us so that we can keep you posted. We're also looking for the right venue, so if you have any suggestions, let us know.

Either leave a comment here or visit www.cgwpublishing.com and use the contact form there.

Pitching for Business in UK plc

2011-05-14T11:56:00.000-07:00

The Apprentice is back on television in the UK, and with it comes the inevitable media focus on entrepreneurial business skills and, in particular, the art of pitching.

Almost every episode of the popular, business based cross between a reality program and a game show features the contestants having to make a pitch.

They pitch for business, pitch for orders, pitch ideas and they pitch to keep their jobs in the boardroom showdown at the end of each week's task.

What does this say about the bigger world of business in UK plc?

For a start, pitching is something that everyone in a business needs to do at some point – even if it's only in their interview and annual performance appraisal. Most staff have to pitch ideas, pitch for resources and pitch themselves for promotions.

And one thing that I can say, having seen thousands of pitches first hand, is that UK plc's HR department needs to invest in developing our collective pitching skills if we are to compete on a world stage.

Does this mean that staff in other countries outshine us? No, definitely not. I believe that our front line business men and women are easily amongst the most professional and capable in the world. But to compete, you have to be more than good enough. You have to be better. Much better.

One of our authors, Paul Boross, works with people to refine their pitch. As 'The Pitch Doctor', he helps them to focus on their key message, connect with the audience and get their message across. So what are the most important tips that The Pitch Doctor can offer you, and the contestants in The Apprentice, to make sure you make the most of every opportunity to pitch?

Here are Paul's Seven Secrets to a Successful Pitch, taken from his book 'The Pitching Bible', available from all good book shops and published by CGW Publishing at £14.99, ISBN 9780956535825.

Secret 1: It’s All About Them

Apparently, a fear of public speaking is one of the most common problems in the world of business. According to one survey, people fear it more than death.

There are many, many techniques that you can learn to overcome any fear of presenting, but you don’t need any of them. You just need to master the first secret.

Think about the worst presentation you have ever seen. Did you find that the presenter just read from the slides, didn’t interact with the audience and droned on even though no-one was listening? Did the presenter appear ’self conscious’?

All of these problems arise from the same source: the first and most fundamental mistake that people make when pitching is that they focus on themselves instead of on the audience.

Secret 2: By The Time You Start, It’s Already Too Late

When does a pitch start? Most people say the pitch starts when you show the first slide, when you stand up to speak, or even when the audience walks into the room.

They are wrong. The pitch starts the moment the audience buys the ticket or the moment your audience first commit to listening to your pitch. It is then their expectations start to form, and that is the point from which you must be able to influence them.

Secret 3: Steady, Ready, Pitch!

The audience has to be ready to listen before you start speaking. Get their attention and build rapport with them. Avoid ice breakers, because they actually distract from the topic of your pitch and break this rapport. Pausing before you begin is a sign of control, so take all the time you need.

Secret 4: Dream The Dream

Your pitch, your idea, was created in a dream world. In order for that dream to become a reality, you need to draw the audience into that dream.

Drawing the audience into your dream with rich, vivid, emotional, sensory language allows you to convey far more than you ever could describe in facts, figures and ‘benefits’. Bring your pitch to life and let your words carry the sights, sounds, feelings, tastes and smells of success.

Secret 5: Mind Your Language

While 93% of your message may be conveyed non-verbally, there is no doubt your language conveys the raw information your audience needs to make a decision.

For example, traditional sales training advocated selling ‘benefits’ rather than ‘features’. A nice idea in principle, but let down by poor execution. The traditional ‘feature means benefit’ model of presenting something is actually the wrong way round. By the time you’re half way through describing the feature, the audience is already thinking about the benefit. Otherwise they have no interest in it whatsoever. When you finally get round to the benefit, it will be different to what they had in mind. Even the most subtle difference will break rapport with your audience. Do that enough times and you’ve lost the connection altogether.

Try ‘benefit because of feature’ instead, and you’ll win more pitches.

Secret 6: Say It Again, Sam

No doubt you have heard the old presenter’s adage “Tell them what you’re going to tell them, tell them, then tell them again”. Get your message across in as many different ways as you can, and realise all of the different communication channels you’re not using: the way you dress; the way you walk into the room; what you say in the invitation email. All of these communicate your intention, and when they are aligned, you multiply the power of your message.

Secret 7: The End… Or Is It?

Every rock star understands the importance of an encore. It’s the thing most concert-goers rave about. Some performers make the audience wait for up to an hour before being reluctantly coaxed back onto the stage for one more song…or two…or 10.

I wouldn’t expect your audience to be shouting “More!” at the end of your pitch, but they should certainly be feeling it. So, what’s the encore to your pitch? Do you send a DVD with the video highlights? A copy of your presentation for them to refer to later? A thank-you email or call? As an absolute minimum, you must send a follow up message.

Light at the end of the Apple Tunnel? No it's Another Train Coming...

2011-05-13T14:50:00.001-07:00

We previously posted our experiences of getting a title up for sale on the Apple iBookstore, and at that point we thought that we had reached the end of that long, winding and painful road.

How wrong we were.

We stripped out all of the extraneous formatting from the raw html file and it passed both epubcheck and preflight verifier. Those are the tools that Apple say must verify your file in order for it to be accepted into the iBookstore.

But, guess what? Although Apple insist on your epub file passing the epubcheck formatting standard, Apple don't follow the standard properly, so when your file passes all of the checks, Apple still reject it.

Worse still, they don't actually tell you why.

If we wanted to find out, we would have to buy an Apple Mac computer so that we could run the Apple software that talks to the Apple iTunes store. And, not surprisingly, we're not keen on that idea. So we had to get our distributor, Ingram, to rebuild the file from scratch. They know how to get the file to pass Apple's entrance exam, even though they can't tell us how to do it or even explain what the problem was.

Money for old rope, as they say.

The Pitching Bible reviewed in Growing Business Magazine

2011-04-15T08:56:00.001-07:00

"Find out how to make the perfect pitch and avoid common pitching mistakes"

http://dev.growingbusiness.co.uk/the-pitching-bible.html

"The book is written in an engaging manner ... an excellent place to start"

Amazon Kindle is Dead... Long Live the Tablet PC

2011-04-14T02:03:00.000-07:00

We had an iPad for a year and now we have an iPad 2. It's about £150 cheaper than the original for the same spec and a lot of the original design flaws have been solved - you can actually hold it, and the smart cover works very nicely.

The original iPad's back was shaped like an oily banana and while it looked sleek, it was impossible to hold on to, so we added a leather case that just made the thing so bulky. Yes, you could prop it up to watch videos or type, but far from ideal. Like putting disabled hand rails on an Aston Martin to make it easier to get out of.

The new iPad 2 has a smart cover - £60 for a leather one! - but worth it because it is so neat and tidy, and as the iPad2 has a flat back, it folds away neatly when you're using the iPad. You can have a £30 plastic version, but the colour range is the same as B&M have chosen for their silicone spatulas. Not classy.

What has this got to do with Kindle?

Well, for £111 you can buy the Amazon device. The battery lasts a long time, and all it does is read ebooks.

The iPad was £480 for the 32Gb wifi version, from Tesco, or any other retailer thanks to Apple's price fixing.

To be honest, the iPad 2 doesn't do anything the iPad didn't do. It's just better at it.

The Kindle's battery last for weeks thanks to its e-ink screen technology, very handy for your holidays, if you're staying somewhere that has no electricity, I guess. I think most people could manage to charge their tablet computer overnight, along with their mobile phone and mp3 player.

And there's the problem. Wherever you go, you have other devices that will need charging almost every day, so is it really a problem to charge your tablet computer? Especially when you will also be reading your emails, watching videos and listening to music on it?

Disgo's Tablet 6000 costs only £98 from play.com - that's £13 less than Kindle. Yes. it's only got 2Gb of storage built in and the screen resolution isn't a patch on the iPads but you can read your emails, watch videos, listen to music, browse the internet and read ebooks for less money than a Kindle.

Of course, there are more expensive tablet PCs too, running Linux or Google's Android OS. However, the price plummet of Apple's iPad 2 will force down the price of clones too. We'll see a whole flock of sub £200 tablets on the market by the summer, we reckon.

As a publisher, the devices that people read ebooks on directly affects the adoption of ebooks. ebooks might be a wonderful evolution of the publishing industry, but if people can't conveniently read them, they won't catch on.

We think that buying an Amazon Kindle is like buying your children a Vtech laptop. Why would you? It's more expensive than a real laptop, and it doesn't do anything useful!

But wait, you say, a VTech Super Student Laptop is only £50. It has a matchbox sized black and white LCD screen and doesn't do anything that you actually want your children to learn, such as how to order stuff off ebay with your credit card.

And you can't even buy a laptop for £50, can you?

Yes, you can. £50 buys you a very nice second hand laptop from the wonderful department store in the sky, ebay.

What about the cost of software?

Load the bargain laptop with the wonderful, free Ubuntu, a user friendly version of Linux, the absolutely free and fabulous operating system. Free office software, free everything. Does more than Windows. More reliable. Free. Easier to use. Free. Did we mention that it's free?

You have absolutely no excuse for not getting your children a real laptop, so why on Earth would you buy an Amazon Kindle just to read books on?

Sorry Amazon, considering that you fancy yourselves as a market innovator, you are five years late to market with the Kindle.

Our prediction is that the Kindle will go the way of the Sinclair C5, the Tandy TRS-80, the Psion palmtops and pretty much any kitchen appliance that you bought from QVC.

Only buy a Kindle if you want to show your grand children the product that killed the mighty Amazon.

Green Tees Business Network - Bronze Award

2011-04-10T12:20:00.000-07:00

We've won a Bronze award from the Green Tees Business Network.

To win this award, we had to demonstrate our commitment to environmentally friendly activities such as recycling, reducing waste and reducing our carbon footprint.

We're aiming for a Silver award next...

Let's be partners!

2011-04-01T07:03:00.000-07:00

Most people offering a valuable service are, from time to time, offered wonderful partnerships that benefit everyone. A win-win, as they say.

For example, a prospective author comes along with a book proposal and says that it will make us rich beyond our wildest dreams because it's a guaranteed bestseller - as in our previous blog post.

They offer a partnership - they provide the book, we provide the publishing. A win-win.

Even better than that, if we do all the work for them, they'll share the profits with us. As we say in England, "You can't fall off!"

Consider this analogy. You approach a big media agency such as AdMedia and say, "I've got this fantastic product. A guaranteed winner. It will make millions. Everyone will buy one. I'll tell you what, we'll work together. You run the adverts and I'll share the profits with you. You can't lose".

In this situation, you'd think that you're portraying supreme confidence in your product because you're certain it will sell in big numbers.

Actually, what you're communicating is zero confidence.

So, AdMedia say, "OK great, we'll take 20% of your turnover on the product and any products you then sell as a result of the first product".

The advert is such a success that your turnover is £1,000,000. AdMedia get £200,000. You kick yourself that if you'd paid for the adverts, you'd have given AdMedia a fraction of that amount. On top of that, when you take out your costs, you discover that they made more out of it than you did.

But all of this is conjecture. You're probably wondering why offering a partnership is a sign of zero confidence in your product. It's because if you really believed in it, you wouldn't give it away.

No serious business would ever consider such a one sided joint venture.

Business Bestsellers - An Unachievable Dream?

2011-03-31T03:22:00.000-07:00

I just came across a BBC feature article that looked interesting:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-10928808

The writer, James Melik, looks at the growing number of business books that comprise nothing more than hyped up twaddle and the idea that setting outrageous goals is the key to success.

As a publisher, we don't only see the books that actually make it into print, mainly because of the author's existing fame, we also see the manuscript submissions that promise to make us millionaires with the latest best-seller.

Here are one author's words on the subject; "The best selling copies have achieved even more than 50million copies.. Please check your sources carefully. I dream big and act big so I prefer to work with like minded people, not people that even doubt the sale of a few million copies."

If you are an aspiring author with similarly ambitious goals then please consider that thinking big within some realistic boundaries can help you to focus your efforts and achieve your dreams faster. The goal here is not to do something unthinkable that has never been done before, such as putting man on the moon or climbing Everest, it is to achieve something within the boundaries of what exists today - the worldwide book and ebook market. Books have been sold before, the market is clearly defined and others have covered your subject before you. Even the 'digital revolution' makes only a tiny shift in the industry, lowering barriers to entry and flooding the low end of the market with poor quality self published titles. Of course, in that flood is an occasional nugget of gold too.

The best selling business book of all time has sold around 26 Million copies (http://www.whomovedmycheese.com/SpencerJohnson.html) since 1998 - that's 2 Million copies per year.

Dale Carnegie's 'How to Win Friends and Influence People' has sold just over 15 Million copies since 1936 - 200,000 copies per year.

What Colour is Your Parachute? has sold 10 Million copies since 1970 - 245,000 copies per year.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_books

If Richard Branson, Donald Trump or Bill Gates wrote a book on business (which they all have) then readers will say, "Ah! There's someone who obviously knows a lot about business!"

What sells a book is not the quality of the book itself; as with any product, sales are down to how well known the author already is (past reputation) and how much money is spent on marketing the book to get it in front of potential readers (future reputation).

The quality of the book is not what makes someone BUY it, the quality simply makes someone READ it. How many books on your bookshelf are still unread? How many life changing products are in your kitchen drawer unused? How many clothes are in your wardrobe with the tags still on? What makes us buy something is very different to what makes us use it - and recommend it to our friends.

If Richard Branson wrote a book on raising chickens, he would sell some books based on his past reputation because people would be curious, but he would need to invest heavily in his future reputation to prove to people that he had experience in this area and should be regarded as a credible source.

What is it that tells your potential readers that you are a credible source of business information when they could buy Donald Trump's book, or the books of a dozen other self made Millionaires and Billionaires?

Personally, we would not recommend that anyone takes the advice of someone with that big a comb-over. Obviously, he's so rich that people are afraid to tell him how it looks.

To get the kind of marketing exposure and therefore investment that will overcome the problem that not many people have heard about you requires a major publishing house to see a return on that investment. By not seeing your book as an investment that you are selling, but rather a fantastic idea that you are excited and optimistic about, I suggest that you won't get very far with the major publishing houses.

The best advice that I can give you is to watch a TV program on the internet, if your connection speed permits. It is BBC TV's Dragon's Den, and if you look at the reasons that the 'Dragons' invest their money, you will understand how to pitch your book.

A publisher doesn't really care how wonderful your idea is. A publisher is an investor, and any good investor is interested in returns, not potential.

Of course we'd love our books to sell in the millions, who wouldn't? You just need to remember that high sales come at a price...

ebook adventures

2011-03-09T14:50:00.000-08:00

We've been working long and hard to get two new ebook formats into production; Amazon's Kindle format and Apple's iBooks format. They're similar but different enough to create a whole host of file conversion problems.

Some of this post is rather technical, which is aimed at anyone who is having similar problems and understands what we're babbling about.

Our first ebook release is The Pitching Bible by Paul Boross. It's a 70,000 word book with around 100 images, so it was quite a challenge to format it correctly.

ebook readers such as iPads, Kindles and a whole host of less popular devices as well as software readers for PCs share a fundamental design principle; they display text. Because the file format used for web pages, HTML, is a ubiquitous and simple text formatting language, it's perfect for use in ebook readers. An ebook is essentially a mini website stored locally on the ebook reader. Whilst Apple's iPad is a complex product capable of displaying many different file formats on its high definition screen, Amazon's Kindle uses e-ink technology. Its power consumption is tiny, giving you enough battery life to last through your summer holiday, but it can only display text and greyscale images.

The majority of ebooks are text only, so support for images in an ebook format is actually quite messy.

Here's the meandering and torturous route that we took to finally get everything working.

First; Amazon. Amazon like to hold their cards very close, so they let you upload a 'raw' HTML file which they kindly convert for you. A helpful hand? Maybe, or another way to look at it is that all Kindle conversions go through Amazon which means that they have total control over distribution and therefore royalties. You can't load an ebook onto your Kindle without going through Amazon. Whilst we could debate Amazon's business practices, from a technical point of view, this ebook was relatively easy to set up. The only downside is that you can't fiddle with the formatting; once it's uploaded, you have to wait for it to be approved before you can then upload a revised file, so if the formatting isn't quite right then it's easier just to leave it alone. Amazon don't make life easy when you're a perfectionist.

Apple's iBooks are far more complex. Apple use a 'standard' format called epub which, apparently, is the future of the ebook format. It's much more complex, so what can it do that good old HTML can't? So far, we can't find anything. It is, however, much more difficult to set up.

We use OpenOffice for the actual writing and formatting, and export the book as a HTML file. Then we used a piece of software called eCub to convert the HTML book to an epub file. Then we used another piece of software called epubchecker to tell us everything that was wrong with the ebook. Finally, a piece of software called Sigil allowed us to make the changes to correct the errors.

We went through about 20 file conversions before realising that the strange and meaningless errors displayed by the iPad were caused by exporting the book from OpenOffice as HTML instead of the more complex XHTML, even though eCub is supposed to convert HTML to epub. An epub file is actually just a renamed XHTML file, with all of the supporting files such as images packed inside.

OpenOffice fills the exported XHTML files with an unbelieveable amount of junk; formatting and styles, peculiar 'span' tags that only contain apostrophes and other miscellany. This creates two problems. Firstly, all of this hidden text doubles the file size. Secondly, the hidden text isn't actually hidden. Whereas a web browser wouldn't display all of the formatting, the iPad displays lots and lots of empty space instead. So, we went through and manually took all of the unecessary formatting out. Perfect!

The next problem was images. We create images for books using Inkscape, a SVG drawing program. Images are output in .png format and imported into OpenOffice. Being lazy, I make the images bigger than necessary and size them in OpenOffice so that their resolution is always more than 600dpi for printing. The problem with this is that when OpenOffice converts the file to HTML or XHTML it exports them at full size with image 'width' and 'height' tags to resize them. On the iPad, the images looked terrible. The first solution I tried was to resize all of the images manually and then take out the width and height attributes of the 'img' tag, however this just resulted in the iPad not being able to display the book at all. So we bit the bullet and re-inserted all of the images back into OpenOffice at the correct size so that OpenOffice would format them at 100% of their original size. In OpenOffice, the images were tiny and most were completely illegible. Yet when exported to XHTML, they all displayed at the correct, glorious size. In future, we'll be creating images at just the right size in the original document.

Once we had the image size issue fixed, we went through the OpenOffice - eCub - epubchecker - Sigil sausage machine again and the iPad opened the epub file perfectly.

So, finally, we have our first working epub iBook. The next challenge is to get Apple to accept it into the iBookstore, so we'll keep you posted with our continuing adventures.

CGW Publishing Provides The Answers To Author's Questions About Today's Publishing Industry

2011-02-14T04:45:00.000-08:00

More and more people are turning to publishing to capture knowledge and expertise, using a book to build business credibility. But how can authors get their books to market without being ripped off by publishers who charge outrageous set up fees?

In the past ten years, the publishing industry has changed beyond recognition.

Book production used to be something that only the major publishing houses could afford. They took the commercial risk of printing tens of thousands of copies of a book and in return, they paid the author the most meagre of royalties. However, their marketing strength and control of the market meant that well promoted fiction books sell in the tens or hundreds of thousands and the author makes enough money for it all to be worthwhile.

However, this made the big publishers extremely risk averse. If you had a number one record, a sports career or a TV series, you were guaranteed a publishing deal while authors who weren't already in the public eye would spend years of rejection from one publisher after another.

“Sorry, it's not really what we're looking for at the moment”, meant, “Sorry, you're not famous enough and we'd have to actually work to promote your book”.

Some publishing houses, known as 'vanity publishers' would always take a book, and charge the author the full costs of setting up an expensive offset print run. If your goal was to see your book on your coffee table, this used to be the only option.

Today, Print On Demand has turned the industry upside down. Authors can publish their own books through 'self publishing' channels, or they can turn to a growing number of small publishers who offer them editing, cover design, ISBN registration and marketing services.

Some automated services offer the author no assistance at all, and so the author has to learn all about file formatting, cover design and print setup. The setup costs are reasonable, but the time and effort it takes to get your book to a high standard of production is beyond some author's capabilities or desires.

A number of publishers have entered the market to solve this problem. They will take an author's manuscript, format it, give the author a number of stock cover designs to choose from, set up an ISBN record and guide the author through the entire process.

So what's the catch?

The catch is that they charge up to $8,000 for this service.

At one British rip off publisher, the minimum, do everything yourself package costs £795. You get a stock cover design and up to ten images inside the book. But what if the author needs help in other areas? A cover design of their own? £99. A marketing kit? £219. A fast turnaround of only 2 to 3 months? £399. Press release? £559. Social media profile? £699.

An American publisher charges a simple upfront fee for the author, apparently giving you $20,000 worth of services for only $4,000. And it must be worth every cent because their logo is a coat of arms.

The cost of setting up a Print On Demand book with a printer is about £100. An ISBN number? £10. Cover design and editing? Is that really worth such extortionate fees?

How can they do this? Simply by letting their authors believe that this is the only option. In the past, these would be the 'vanity publishers'. They will take any book and pass on all the commercial risk – plus a very healthy profit – to the author. But without the heavyweight marketing of the major publishers, who own the shelf space in the High Street book stores, your book is unlikely to sell in high volumes, even if you have paid £120 for the publisher to list your book on their website.

Therefore you are very unlikely to recoup the cost of book production through book sales alone.

So what can an author do?

The way to profit from a book is to use it to capture intellectual property. You can sell this as a unit in itself, or you can use it to promote and build credibility in a service business.

Let's say that you have been a corporate manager for many years, and you want to start a service business coaching managers. By writing a book on the subject, you demonstrate far more authority and credibility than all of your brochures and testimonials put together. It's something that you can use to open doors to conferences, corporate opportunities and of course exposure in the business press.

At CGW Publishing, we are honest with our authors, transparent in our pricing and our focus is on helping authors build service businesses. We built a successful management consultancy and established an enviable reputation in a niche training area by writing and publishing five books, and we now help other authors to achieve the same results.

CGW Publishing have published a book which guides authors through the publishing process. Priced at just £7, Write For You, ISBN 978-0-9565358-3-2, is available from all good book stores.

CGW Publishing joins the Green Business Network

2011-02-10T11:53:00.000-08:00

We've joined the Tees Valley Green Business Network, and while we might not be saving the planet by cutting down on radioactive waste or toxic gases like some of the other members, we're definitely standing our ground by cutting down on paperwork and recycling where we can.

We can't get away from the fact that books use paper, but at least our author statements, payments, invoices and letters are all delivered electronically and by making ebooks of all of our titles available, we give readers the option of saving a branch or two... although we suspect that the environmental impact of an iPad or Kindle is quite a bit higher than the production of paper and ink.

Latest Reviews for The Pitching Bible Make The Pitch Doctor the Right Prescription For Business

2011-02-10T11:43:00.000-08:00

Paul Boross' new book, The Pitching Bible, is getting excellent reviews from the business and media world that prove its value both for entrepreneurs and sales professionals in these tough economic times.

These three reviews, from executives in the media business, demonstrate the broad appeal of the book and also the fact that it has something new and compelling for even the most seasoned and experienced business pitcher.

“I've worked in the media and advertising industry for 30 years, and The Pitching Bible by Paul Boross is the best book on pitching I've ever read. In fact, it's a breath of fresh air for an industry that is having to work harder and harder to get the message across when the answer, in my mind, is in simplicity and impact.

Reading The Pitching Bible is like reading all of the best tips that I've learned the hard way, collected into one easy, enjoyable, insightful read. It wouldn't be fair to call Paul's book common sense; it is uncommon sense – the stuff you know that you ought to know, the stuff that really makes a difference to you winning the business.

Not only is this book easy to read, it's easy to use too. With great examples, clear and practical exercises and beautifully simple checklists, it's a book that you can read from cover to cover and then dip back in to before an important pitch – and if a pitch is worth doing, it's important enough to do it right, with the help of The Pitching Bible.

I'll be recommending The Pitching Bible to all of my friends and colleagues, but not to my competitors, obviously. It really does contain the seven secrets to your competitive advantage.”

Ian Haworth, Chairman and Global Chief Creative Officer, RAPP

“The Pitching Bible is an enjoyable and thought-provoking book that is written with clarity, insight and humour. It takes you on an illuminating journey through the seven secrets of a successful business pitch. Paul Boross explains that he learned the hard way about what does and does not work when pitching. As a consequence he has used his vast and varied experience to create a book that is overflowing with practical ideas and techniques for preparing and delivering a winning pitch.

With subtlety and skill the book challenges the assumptions that the reader brings to it. To support this process Paul regularly offers questioning, reflection and information points for the reader. You are encouraged to work your way through each `secret' and reflect upon your thinking and practice in key areas of pitching. For example, when do you think a pitch actually begins? Who is vital in the process of making you win a pitch, is it you or is it your audience? How is it possible to always remain in control of your pitch? What type of language makes you more persuasive when pitching? Paul Boross offers solutions to every question that he raises. What I like about his solutions is that they are based on real-world experience and have real-world application.

This is an impressive book that actively engages you as a reader. When you finish reading The Pitching Bible you will notice that there is an eighth `secret'...buying a copy of this book will give you a competitive edge when pitching and will help you win more business. I recommend that you buy one.”

Dr. Tim O'Brien, Director of Consulting, Hanover Executive

“The Pitching Bible is a must read for all ambitious business men and women. This beautifully crafted and hugely enjoyable book, from probably the worlds leading expert on the subject, is crammed full with comprehensive and unparalleled authoritive advice on the art and science of pitching for business to optimal effect. The author's findings and persuasive propositions are accompanied by very helpful and often witty explanations, illustrations, exercises, puzzles and personal stories and insights which fully support his advice and add greatly to the appeal of this seminal work.”

Colin Campbell, former Head of Business and Legal at FIVE

The Pitching Bible is available from all good book shops, priced at £14.99.

Published by CGW Publishing, ISBN 978-0-9565358-2-5

Amazon Woes

2011-02-04T02:36:00.000-08:00

We've had a running issue with Amazon now for some months, so we're posting our tale of woes in the hope that you'll think twice before putting any of your eggs in Amazon's basket.

Firstly, our books are available through any book shop, anywhere in the world. Unfortunately, Amazon have adopted a very aggresive purchasing strategy in order to buy their way into the online retail market, and they are probably now the most recognised brand as a result.

Amazon dictate discounts and don't actually tell you what discount they're taking until up to 90 days after a book is purchased. They demand bigger discounts than any other retailer, and that is how they were able to buy their way into the book market by undercutting the traditional retailers.

The problem we have is that Amazon tried to order a copy of The Pitching Bible and the order failed because the wholesaler sent it to wrong distributor. The wholesaler cancelled the order without letting either us or the customer know, and Amazon then market the book as unavailable, which is obviously not good for customer confidence.

We contacted Amazon and asked them to correct this information, and they replied that the book isn't available.

We replied that, as the publisher, we're fairly confident that the book IS available.

Amazon replied that the book isn't available.

This little cycle went on for some weeks. It seems that the first hurdle to get over with Amazon is getting them to look at the issue rather than fobbing you off with an automated reply.

The next step was that Amazon took the book off sale altogether! Where it had originally been listed as available to order with an unknown delivery time, now you couldn't even buy it at all! We added a marketplace listing so that we can at least offer customers a way of getting the book.

So, another email to Amazon. I said that Amazon's book data is out of date. They replied by saying that the wholesaler said the book is not available. This infuriated me, as I had also spoken to the wholesaler and they confirmed the book is indeed available.

I sent Amazon the data record from Nielsen who supply ordering data to book stores, which showed the title as available.

Amazon replied saying that they didn't know what my enquiry was about!!

Aaarrrgghhhhh!

I'm getting to the point where I'm going to drive to Slough and physically shake someone upside down by their ankles until they take their heads out of their backsides and actually look at the real time ordering data from Nielsen.

I don't expect this to be resolved anytime soon, so the moral is, please stay away from Amazon. They don't matter, they are a nightmare to deal with, they don't control the market and they don't need your business.

Review for The Pitching Bible by Paul Boross

2011-01-29T14:37:00.000-08:00

I've worked in the media and advertising industry for 30 years, and The Pitching Bible by Paul Boross is the best book on pitching I've ever read. In fact, it's a breath of fresh air for an industry that is having to work harder and harder to get the message across when the answer, in my mind, is in simplicity and impact.

Reading The Pitching Bible is like reading all of the best tips that I've learned the hard way, collected into one easy, enjoyable, insightful read. It wouldn't be fair to call Paul's book common sense; it is uncommon sense – the stuff you know that you ought to know, the stuff that really makes a difference to you winning the business.

Not only is this book easy to read, it's easy to use too. With great examples, clear and practical exercises and beautifully simple checklists, it's a book that you can read from cover to cover and then dip back in to before an important pitch – and if a pitch is worth doing, it's important enough to do it right, with the help of The Pitching Bible.

I'll be recommending The Pitching Bible to all of my friends and colleagues, but not to my competitors, obviously. It really does contain the seven secrets to your competitive advantage.

Ian Haworth, Chairman and Global Chief Creative Officer, RAPP

Merry Christmas

2010-12-23T11:02:00.000-08:00

Personality

2010-12-22T08:53:00.000-08:00

If you are thinking about writing a book, or if you are indeed in the process of writing, pause for a moment and consider your book's personality.

Is it contained within the subject? Your style of writing? Perhaps the cover design or even the paper that the book is printed on?

You might take a dry, authoritative tone, a bright chatty tone or even an uplifting and inspiring tone. But this alone is not your book's personality.

When your reader picks up your book, they are entering into a relationship, a conversation with the author that transcends space and time. The connection is made in the here and now, regardless of how long ago you sat down in front of a keyboard.

The book's personality, then, is this. As the reader engages with the book, they create an imaginary narrator. That narrator is the personality of your book.

The personality of the book is made up of its title, cover design, size, format, paper weight, chapter headings, writing style and possibly more.

Don't worry though, getting it right isn't difficult. Just imagine that you are holding your book in your hand, and feeling just right about it. Perhaps proud, perhaps excited. How does it look? How does it sound? How do you feel about it?

Let all of those design elements come naturally out of the book's personality, and you'll ensure that you always create the right connection with your readers.

Latest Fry results - Jungle celebrities versus Internet marketing experts

2010-12-15T06:37:00.000-08:00

Following the interest in our introduction of 'The Fry' as the standard unit of Internet value, we have been researching who would be the best person to invest your social media marketing budget in.

We have compared the Fry ratings of the 13 celebrities to appear in this year's 'I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here' with the top ten Internet marketing experts, according to Google's search results for that phrase.

You can click on the graphs to see a larger version.

I'm a Celebrity 2010

Internet marketing experts

To compare our experts and celebrities side by side, we have to use a logarithmic scale, because if we showed them on a normal geometric scale, you would see this:

Celebrities v Experts (Geometric scale)

Here's the logarithmic version, so each vertical line is ten times the value of the previous one.

Celebrities v Experts (Logarithmic scale)

So, there you have it. You would be better off investing in 11 out of 13 celebrities than even the most successful Internet marketing expert.

Our selection criteria for the experts is that they call themselves an expert and they are within the top ten names to appear. Interestingly, while there are fewer people calling themselves an 'Internet marketing guru', their performance is no better.

The highest rated 'guru' is still no better than the experts, and the lowest rated of the top three 'gurus' is actually the worst of all, although his rating is perhaps understandable when you see that his website boasts, "His true specialty is his mastery of the Internet as a complete tool".

Introducing a new book from CGW and ABSEM

2010-12-08T02:03:00.000-08:00

Following the interest in our research into Internet value, CGW and ABSEM have decided to collaborate on a new book.

It will be aimed at start-up business owners and entrepreneurs and will strip away all the hype of marketing, especially Internet marketing. It will give you the practical reality of how to give your business maximum exposure and still leave you time to deliver your service or sell your product.

Between us, we have unique experiences that you don't see anywhere else, simply because everyone else is just selling the hype. We have both built successful businesses and we're going to capture that unique combination in the new book.

We haven't chosen a snappy title yet, perhaps you can suggest one? Leave a comment...

Announcing 'The Fry' as the unit of Internet marketing value

2010-12-03T02:22:00.000-08:00

(Read more on the Fry, Twitter and internet marketing here)

As social networking becomes the latest battleground of the Internet marketers, the value of individuals will be measured and quantified from the amount of news and relevant information that they contribute to the world.

To counter the hype coming out of the Internet marketing guru's camp, we've developed a simple way for anyone to understand the truth about Internet marketing through social media and ensure trust and credibility are given to the right people.

In the summer of 2010, we were working on a new book for hopeful business authors called Write For You. In writing the chapter on marketing, we began to research the 'Internet marketing gurus' who advocate using sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn as marketing tools, and what they found was startling. It turned out that the Internet experts had next to no value, while individuals who were traditionally newsworthy were very valuable.

Let's continue with the press release...

“This all started when we received a newsletter email from someone we know, a sales manager turned small business consultant and social media marketing expert', says Greenaway. “We knew that the image he portrayed bore no resemblance to the reality of his business, and so we started to look into what he was really up to”

Hartley adds, “We began to research Twitter, since this was the tool that the marketing experts seemed to be pushing most”. What she quickly found was that the Internet marketers were using a very simple and a very old trick to make it appear as if they were popular, when in fact they were extremely unpopular. In many cases, their real popularity was so low that they have a negative effect on the amount of information in the world.

“We live in the information age. We have twenty four hour a day news, advertisements pushed to our mobiles, advertising on just about every Internet page and TV program and possible more blogs, Facebook profiles and Twitter feeds than there are human beings on the planet. Socially, we have developed a thirst for knowledge, and therefore the marketers of the world have evolved to meet that need”, say Greenaway and Hartley as they expand on their idea. “In the information age, we value people for how much information they add. This isn't a new idea – we've always valued people who had news from the front line or gossip from the manager's office. Technology simply adds a new level of immediacy to the problem.”

Greenaway and Hartley continued to piece together the different pieces of this puzzle, and in July 2010, they developed a simple system that anyone can use to determine the true value of someone who purports to be an Internet marketing 'expert'

(See the chart at the bottom of this post for more Fry ratings)

In their book, Write For You, they tell the story of what happened next.

“The most popular British writer on Twitter, Stephen Fry, who on July 16^th 2010 was following 53,497 people and was followed by 1,616,454 people. This meant that Stephen Fry generates 30 times more interesting thoughts than he consumes, so we decided to use Stephen Fry as a measure of newsworthiness and give him a value of 1 Fry.

In comparison, Jerry Springer, the American TV host, is worth 50 Frys. He contributes 50 times the amount of news as does Stephen Fry.

Oprah Winfrey, the American TV talk show host, is worth 6,625 Frys, or 6.6 KiloFrys.

Clearly, people who are traditionally popular carry more authority, because people want to hear what they have to say.

Paul O’Grady, the British comedian turned TV presenter and author, changes the picture quite significantly. He has only 13,340 followers, but he isn’t following anyone, so his value is infinite. But for the purposes of calculating a number, we must assume that he is somewhat interested in at least someone, so we added an arbitrary variable to our formula which gives him a value of 441 KiloFrys or 0.44 MegaFrys.

The singer David Bowie, by our formula, has a value of 1.54 MegaFrys. He contributes 1.54 Million times the news value of Stephen Fry.

At the other end of the scale, an Internet marketing guru in America, who has lectured at Harvard Business School on the value of Twitter to businesses, scores just 0.03 Frys or 30 MilliFrys.

She is followed by 59,427 people but is following 59,080 people, a difference of just 447. While Internet marketing ‘experts’ focus on the 59,427, what we need to look at is the 447, because this indicates the value that the person adds.

The Internet marketers try to convince us that having 59,427 people following you is good for publicity, but the fact that she needs to follow 59,080 people in order to attract her followers is very bad indeed.

The way that Twitter gurus advocate building a following is to say to each other, “Hey, if I follow you, will you follow me? It will be good for both of us!” No, it won’t.

If you're lost in a remote jungle, you won't survive any longer by saying, “Hey, if I eat your leg, you can eat mine!”

A British sales manager turned small business consultant and social media expert has 1,216 followers who enjoy reading about the fact that it’s sunny today. He is following 1,235 people, so he produces less news than he consumes. His news value is less than zero Frys at -0.02 Frys, or -20 MilliFrys. What’s worrying is that he advises businesses on the importance of social media marketing.

The smaller the number of Frys, the less interesting the person is. A negative number means that on top of being grossly uninteresting, the person actually detracts from the amount of news in the world.

An American Internet marketing guru who says that he “helps businesses to elevate their status in the online world to maximise their marketing exposure” as he “travels the world imparting his wisdom” is worth -0.05 Frys, or -50 MilliFrys.

His unnewsworthiness is surpassed only by the British singer and TV presenter, Cilla Black. She measures in at -1.76 Frys.

In fact, none of the Internet marketing gurus who we found advocating Twitter as the latest business marketing tool scored any higher than 9 MilliFrys, which is disappointing when you notice that Dick Van Dyke of “Cor blimey Mary Poppins!” fame scores just over 3 Frys.

A dancing chimney sweep is a factor of a thousand more important than the most successful Internet marketer.

This is especially disappointing if you have paid Internet marketing experts people a lot of money to build a social media marketing campaign for you. You would literally be better off spending your money with a man who dances with penguins.”

A simple calculation of the difference between creation and consumption, between import and export, immediately reveals who is actually creating value. And in any business, creating value is the way to make a living.

The key is to use these tools to create a genuine following. Don’t simply follow other people, concentrate on saying something of real value. If you're not already interesting, and let's face it, most people aren't, then having lots of people following you doesn't make you interesting. Remember, in the world of social media, they're not following you; they're stalking you.

CGW Publishing is a British independent publisher of business books, working with expert authors to create a service business around their intellectual property.

(Read more on the Fry, Twitter and internet marketing here)

Fry ratings chart: click on the the chart to see a full sized version

Service Sales

2010-11-23T07:28:00.000-08:00

We have been developing service businesses for over ten years, and one of the biggest challenges we face is in overcoming all of the sales literature out there that treats service sales the same as product sales. Time and time again, we see our clients using product sales language on their websites and in their brochures.

For a service business, the single most important thing to achieve is to establish credibility.

Service sales is fundamentally different to product sales. You are not selling a tangible thing, and so the customer is not buying a thing. They are buying a result, and since they can't touch and see that result yet, you are essentially selling a promise.

And why would a potential client trust your promise?

Therefore the most vital thing is to establish credibility.

At CGW Publishing, we help service business owners to capture their expertise and credibility in a book, and there are some other ways of doing this that are important too, especially in creating a brand around your book.

Case studies are valuable, and by writing the case study around a clear purpose, you can position yourself clearly as a business partner rather than a provider of technical components or commodity services.

For example, here's a quote from a case study which sums this all up perfectly:

“We want freedom to move on and do different things, to grow our business and explore other ventures and ABSEM have given us that freedom”

Compare that with, "The widgets that XYZ supplied us with were very good and their price was the best in town".

If you want to sell on price, the latter is fine. The problem with selling on price, though, is that you are easy prey for your bigger competitors who can exert price pressure and not feel the pain as much as you will.

Many service owner businesses offer a free consultation, but if you do this, it marks you out as a small player. A free consultation is not a try before you buy, because you can't take your time and expertise back. Free consultations are a lazy way to sell, and you won't sell any more because of them. In fact, you'll just end up giving away a lot of your valuable time for free. Preventing our clients from giving away their time is one of the toughest things to do, because time=expertise=value.

Bakers don't give away free cakes - they give away tiny samples. This serves three fundamental purposes:

If you like the sample, you'll buy the cake and share it with your friends
If you don't like the sample, you won't buy the cake which saves the bakery from the negative impact of you telling your friends you didn't like it
It allows the bakery to get rid of yesterday's cakes

Service business owners consistently undervalue their expertise, and in doing so have no idea what to give a client that is analogous to a 'free sample'. The most important thing to bear in mind is that free samples are NEVER free. They are merely a way to reduce the risk of a decision.

How you describe your business is vital too, and the mistake that many people make is to describe what they do instead of what they achieve.

If you introduce your business by saying 'we do XYZ' then what you attract is people who just want to buy the components of XYZ, as cheaply as possible. If you start with a business proposition, you are more likely to attract people who are looking to invest in a partnership.

For example, in choosing to work with CGW, you chose to invest in a partnership. We're not the cheapest supplier of copy writing or editing services, compared to self employed providers from India and part time working mothers from America, which you will find in abundance on marketplaces such as Elance.

Marketplaces such as Elance, Freelancer and PeoplePerHour are overrun with job requests for SEO article writing at $1 per article. We're not in that market and so we don't say anything that suggests we are. There's nothing at all wrong with that market, it's just not for us. The bottom end of the market will always be under attack. Because clients are buying on price, they will always look to drive the price down, and there will always be suppliers willing to write articles at 99¢, then 90¢, then 75¢ and so on.

If you lead with what you 'do' then you are caught in the same problem; there will always be someone else willing to do what you do for less. But no-one can easily replace a relationship that you develop with a client at a business level.

Some service business owners try to demonstrate credibility by showing that they have a methodical process, but it doesn't work. A method is implicit in the nature of your business. If you go to a cake shop, you are already assuming that they know how to bake cakes. Bakeries don't tell you how they make their cakes, unless they have some special ingredient like locally produced organic flour. But even then they don't tell you how long they are baked for, how hot etc. They deliver an end product and the process to create that is implied.

Companies only list an ingredient or a process if it is a unique differentiator, e.g. beer being triple filtered or meat being 21 day aged.

If you are an Internet search marketing agency, your knowledge of search engine marketing is implicit. If you are a presentation skills expert, your knowledge of pitching is implicit. If you area hotel, the fact that you have bedrooms is implicit.

On your website, you need to distinguish between what the visitor already knows by the time they land on your home page and what they need to know in order to make a buying decision, which they have largely done by the time they contact you.

CGW and ABSEM working on a marketing partnership

2010-11-23T06:02:00.000-08:00

One of the biggest problems that faces any business is marketing, and marketing comprises two key factors: Credibility and Visibility

For your business to be successful, you need potential customers to be able to see you. On top of that, they need to believe what they see.

This is especially vital for service businesses who don't have a tangible product.

CGW Publishing gives the owners of service businesses a tangible product by encapsulating their knowledge and expertise into a book and using that as a marketing platform.

What about visibility? We still have to market the book, even though it gives the author the credibility they deserve.

Today, the Internet is probably the most important marketing channel, so we are working with search marketing experts ABSEM to deliver a complete package to businesses.

As this partnership develops, we'll let you know more about what it means for you as a business owner, marketing professional, expert or author.

Ebook distribution options

2010-11-23T05:46:00.000-08:00

We've just set up some new ebook distribution channels.

In addition to Ingram, who distribute through many of the major ebook retailers, we have added two large niche providers.

I say large niche, because of the ebook formats that they use.

The first is Amazon, who are advertising their new Kindle ebook reader aggressively on TV and in the press. Priced at £109, the Kindle device is an ebook reader, plain and simple. We've seen ebook readers come and go in the past and the key to success really has to be title availability. Kindle uses a proprietary 'AZW' file format, hence the niche position.

Unlike ebooks that come as ubiquitous PDF files, the Kindle format only works on the Kindle reader. Luckily, a software reader is available for a few other hardware platforms.

The second is the Apple iBookStore. Apple are rather more difficult to trade with because they only accept submissions to their AppStore and iBookStore via their authorized agents. Ingram have just signed up as an agent, and so we have signed up with Ingram. This means that you can get your book onto the Apple iBookStore through a professional and credible publishing imprint rather than one of the horrible imprints of some of the rather amateurish distribution channels that are available.

Apple iBooks use a rather stringent version of the 'epub' file format, so getting books published on the iBookStore is actually more complicated than getting a book into print.

One of the biggest problems is graphics; ebook readers are really designed for text novels, not for books with illustrations, so if your book has diagrams, charts and graphics in, we have to do a fair bit of work on the conversion. Also, if your book contains fancy fonts and formats for chapter headings or callouts, don't expect to see them in the ebook version unless you're talking about gold old fashioned PDF, where the ebook will look just like the printed book.

iBooks are available for iPads, iPods, iPhones, iMacs and probably anything else that begins with an 'i'.

The first title to hit Amazon Kindle and Apple iBooks will most likely be The Pitching Bible by Paul Boross.

Print on Demand in Australia

2010-11-23T05:38:00.000-08:00

We've been printing books in the UK and USA for the past 8 years, mostly using the services of Lightning Source.

Ingram, Lightning Source's owners, have just announced that they are opening a POD facility in Australia, which is excellent news for our authors and readers in that part of the world.

Their press release says, "Ingram Content Group Inc. today announced it will expand its presence in the Asia-Pacific market by establishing a full-scale Lightning Source print-on-demand book manufacturing operation in Australia.

Locating a print-on-demand book manufacturing facility in Australia gives publishers options to reduce or remove the need to warehouse local inventory and reduces transportation and potential stock write-off costs. For publishers that currently take advantage of book manufacturing and distribution from Lightning Source, adding expanded distribution to this new market will be seamless and straightforward.

The Lightning Source plant in Australia will be Ingram Content Group’s fifth networked book manufacturing facility. Lightning Source North American facilities include its headquarters in La Vergne, Tennessee, and a plant in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Lightning Source international locations include a large-scale operation in Milton Keynes, UK, central to London that serves the European region and a facility in Maurepas, France, a joint-venture with Hachette Book Group.

Ingram Content Group’s Lightning Source facility in Australia is expected to begin operation in June 2011."

This will make worldwide distribution of Print On Demand titles even more cost effective and we're looking forward to continuing to work with Lightning Source.

The Pitching Bible

2010-11-07T15:42:00.000-08:00

Paul Boross' new book, The Pitching Bible, is now ready for ordering.

It captures Paul's 25 years of experience in business pitching, bringing together his expertise from the entertainment, media and corporate worlds.

Paul, also known as The Pitch Doctor, has based The Pitching Bible on his successful lecture series, The Seven Secrets of a Successful Pitch, which he has delivered at various media and corporate events around the world.

The Pitching Bible is priced at £14.99 and is available from all good book shops now.

ISBN 978-0-9565358-2-5