Dreams Do Come True hits Number One on Amazon

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

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

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.

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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

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

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!

... in the Presentations category.

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.

Testimonial from Paul Boross

"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

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...