Special Christmas Offers on Books

Here are three special offers on Peter Freeth's books for Christmas - half price (plus a contribution towards shipping costs):

Genius at Work
Cover price £20

Shipping options

UK Shipping £10.00 GBP US Shipping £10.00 GBP International Shipping £12.00 GBP

The NLP Practitioner Manual
Cover price £25

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UK Shipping £12.50 GBP US Shipping £12.50 GBP International Shipping £14.50 GBP

The NLP Master Practitioner Manual
Cover price £25

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UK Shipping £12.50 GBP US Shipping £12.50 GBP International Shipping £14.50 GBP

The Business Cohesion Model

Roger Payne's new book is due for imminent release.

This thought provoking book challenges leaders to think and take action if they are to improve the offering and performance of their organisation... it should be read and acted on by every Chief Executive and their senior leadership teams.

Howard Betts

Centre for Leadership Studies

Exeter University

What is The Business Cohesion Model? It is a concept based on the basic premise that no individual is perfect. Thus, all organisations are made up of imperfect people. The imperfections vary and have different effects on the performance of the business. The aim of The Business Cohesion Model is to minimise these organisational imperfections by aligning people and teams within the brand.

If you agree with the imperfection argument, then you have taken the first step in addressing what is necessary for an organisation to achieve optimum brand performance. Everybody, irrespective of their position or status, has a duty and responsibility to develop, deliver and sustain the brand offering of the business.

The Business Cohesion Model takes you through a sequence of topics, each encouraging you to think about the different issues that face your business. It will challenge and test any preconceived beliefs, values and operational standards, so be prepared, and willing, to follow your instincts as you develop your own ideas and your own Business Cohesion.

The Business Cohesion Model will be available from the 15th July from all good book shops at £19.99.

Corporate Godfathers contending for CMI's Management Book of the Year

The Chartered Management Institute are holding their annual Management Book of the Year awards and Corporate Godfathers by Segreto Uno is being considered in the category of 'Commuter's Read'.

http://yearbook.managers.org.uk/commuter%E2%80%99s-read/corporate-godfathers-career-management-handbook-hell

Please go to the website and vote for the book!

Your career is your future - are you going to let your competitors climb over you to get to the top?

Or are you prepared to take a leaf out of the Mafia’s book and use their career guide to get to the position that you want, and deserve?

Corporate Godfathers is the Mafia’s secret career guide, issued to the new recruits that are being placed into corporations everywhere. You can either stand back and let them take those promotions from right under your nose, or you can learn their methods and play them at their own game.

The Mob is infiltrating its bright, ambitious and loyal young men and women into top corporations, their goal being to do whatever is necessary to advance their careers until they're occupying the top positions.

You might think that, in reading this book, you can use these methods yourself to gain an unfair career advantage. But look over your shoulder; the newcomer in your company may be an undercover gangster. Whatever you do, don't cross that person. Not if you value your career... or even your life.

It's going to take twenty - maybe thirty - years to complete the takeover. But leaders of The Mob are patient. Corporate Godfathers is the Mob's future.

You might think that, in reading this book, you can use these methods yourself to gain an unfair career advantage. But look over your shoulder; the newcomer in your company may be an undercover gangster. Whatever you do, don't cross that person. Not if you value your career... or even your life.

It's going to take twenty - maybe thirty - years to complete the takeover. But leaders of The Mob are patient. They predict that operations such as gambling, prostitution and drugs will be taken over by legal businesses or governmental bodies.

Corporate Godfathers is the Mob's future.

The Pocket Pitching Bible Hits Amazon's Number One Spot

Paul Boross’ new book, The Pocket Pitching Bible, has already hit the number one position in its sales category, just a few weeks after its launch.

The book builds on the success of Boross' first book, The Pitching Bible, and the new book has been created as a pocket companion guide to it.

Paul Boross said, "I am very happy to see that so many people have wanted to get The Pocket Pitching Bible in addition to The Pitching Bible. My new book is the perfect aide memoir to the original and people are already reporting that they are The Pocket Pitching Bible just before they go into pitches so that they can make sure that they remember all the key ingredients of a perfect pitch"

The new book is much smaller than the original at 210 pages versus 350, and it packs all of the author's 25 years of experience in pitching into a handy format that readers can take with them on any business trip.

Not only is the new book a condensed version of the original with just the key points, checklists and practice exercises, it also features all new content in several key areas, all with the aim of making it as easy as possible for the reader to prepare quickly for an important presentation.

"I'm very excited at this news about The Pocket Pitching Bible's Amazon sales rank”, concludes Boross, "and I feel very grateful to all of the readers of my books who have given me such valuable feedback on how they are using them. I know that a lot of people are still worried about the state of the economy and feel that any edge in a pitch situation can make the difference between failure and the survival of a business. I've spent 25 years developing these skills with clients all around the world, and the one thing that stands out above all else is that making a real and genuine connection with your audience is what makes that difference, every time. I’ve really worked hard at creating two books which capture the essence of how to do that, and my readers tell me it works, so that works for me!"

The Pocket Pitching Bible is available from all good book stores. Published by CGW Publishing and priced at £7.99 ISBN 978-1-9082931-2-1.

Thompsons' Book Signing a Success

Trudie, Lloyd and Jaja Thompson were all at Waterstones in Preston, Lancashire on Saturday to launch their book, Dreams Do Come True.

We understand that Waterstones are keen to have them back because of the popularity of the event, so if you missed them on Saturday, don't worry, we'll let you know when they're due to return.

Coaching Authors Choose CGW Publishing for Their First Book

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

“I was thrilled that a publisher was interested in my work and have not been disappointed”, says Oliphant, who had previously been considering self publishing as an alternative to every author’s worst nightmare; endless rejection from the traditional, risk averse publishing houses. However CGW’s Christopher Greenaway recognised the quality of writing in the book and the potential of the subject as fitting with the existing range of 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 range of minor celebrities and business gurus, down to every street corner life coach publishing a book or ebook.”, says Amelia Hartley, CGW’s co-founder and Director. “The proliferation of ebook readers such as the Kindle, iPad or Kobo have also lowered the barriers to producing a book, and that has definitely impacted on the quality of what’s out there. So when we see a book that is genuinely well written, with clarity, passion and strong case studies, we know that it will stand head and shoulders above the rest of the books out there.”

CGW Publishing specialise in working with authors whose books are written to support their service businesses, by packaging their intellectual property, providing additional revenue and demonstrating credibility.

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

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

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

Oliphant summarises the publishing experience by saying, “CGW Publishing have been professional and thorough. They delivered a quality product 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 both text and eBook formatting and we remain very grateful to everyone at CGW Publishing for all their hard work.

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

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

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 their unconventional love story as they deal with a 12 year course of IVF that sees them lose two businesses and eventually file for bankruptcy before finally realising their dream of becoming parents. 

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

Trudie added: "I started writing my feelings down as over the years I came to realise that until I had my beautiful boy I was addicted to getting pregnant as it was all I wanted in the world. Throughout our IVF I experienced a range of emotions, so I really wanted this book to help others who might be experiencing the same. It is also very important to us as a family that with this book we are be able to give something back to the hospital that set us off on our journey – Saint Mary’s Hospital."

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

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?

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.

Corporate Godfathers due for November release

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

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

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.

Testimonial from Trudie and Lloyd Thompson

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.

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

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

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...

Revelation 2011 Survey - corporate politics and hidden agendas

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

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

An Author's Role in Book Marketing

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

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

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.

How to Get Published

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.