We're Launching a New App Development Service for Authors

Android and iPhone apps are becoming an everyday part of life for most people these days, with apps to help you catch trains, bake cakes, apply for jobs, convert currencies, play games, read books, control your TV and much more.

Many business authors have books which readily lend themselves to app development, for example creating a particular tool or checklist in a handy electronic format, or enabling a customised communication channel between the author and their readers.

To support this, we've launched an app development service where we'll design, create and publish an app for just £200*

The first app to be launched using our new service is The Unsticker, an interactive problem solving tool first created by Peter Freeth over ten years ago.



* £200 is for Android. iPhone apps require additional setup costs because Apple are greedy.

Genius at Work joins BI Worldwide for Learning at Work Day

This year's Learning at Work Day is on May 23rd and Revelation Consulting Ltd will be supporting the Campaign for Learning's annual celebration of workplace learning by spending the day with BI Worldwide, helping a number of their managers to understand how to use the modelling toolkit from Peter Freeth's book Genius at Work.

Karen Minto, BI Worlwide's Head of HR & Development, said, "I felt the offer was very topical for us as we are in the midst of some real growth in the business and are on course for a stretching set of targets and goals in 2017. Going hand in hand with this, the managers have been so busy managing the work and operational perspectives, the people side may have been overlooked, or not running as efficiently as could be. This is confirmed in some of our Best Companies results we are just starting to review."

Peter Freeth of Revelation says, "All too often, companies look externally for knowledge and skills, bringing in consultants and trainers to provide easy answers. However, the most valuable knowledge of all is already within your business, and it's evolving every day as staff interact with customers, solve problems and make business processes more efficient. Getting access to this tacit knowledge means that the whole business can benefit from this ongoing process of learning that always takes place within any organisation, and the skills to do so can easily be learned so that staff don't just know 'what' to do, they also know 'how' to do it successfully."

Revelation's research over the past twelve years shows that the performance of an individual is the result of a unique combination of their attitude, their practical skills and the culture within which they're operating, so part of the Genius at Work modelling process also involves mapping the organisation's culture so that it enables high performance rather than getting in the way.

"One thing that we have consistently found about high performers is that their results are achieved in a counter-intuitive way. They rarely set out to achieve the result that they are recognised for, and so it's understanding these hidden thought processes that is at the heart of the Genius at Work approach.", adds Peter. "When organisations work so hard to develop intellectual property and business processes, it's absolutely vital to protect and develop that knowledge so that it continues to serve as a valuable asset, supporting current and future staff and helping the business to deliver real value to its customers".

The Pitch Doctor

Paul Boross aka The Pitch Doctor is going to be supplying a series of guest blogs for the Financial Mail Women's Forum on the subject of career development.

Based on his new book, Pitch Up!, the series kicks off with "ten ways to charm your interviewer".

Why not check in and pick up some valuable interview skills?

Nook fails to save Barnes and Noble

Barnes and Noble, America's biggest book retailer, is in trouble with declining sales of both print books and ebooks through its Kindle-clone ebook reader, the Nook.

"Retail sales from the company’s bookstores and its Web site, BN.com, decreased 10.9 percent from the comparable nine-week holiday period a year earlier, to $1.2 billion, the company reported. More worrisome for the long-term future of the company, sales in the Nook unit that includes e-readers, tablets, digital content and accessories decreased 12.6 percent over the same period, to $311 million." (NY Times)

We were very interested to see the Nook being advertised on TV before Christmas, with its differentiator being its unique nightlight feature. Except it's not unique, there's a Kindle with a backlit display too. And a Kobo. And of course, an iPad is nothing but backlit, which would be useful if you could hold the thing up for more than a few minutes at a time.

B&N's Nook has a problem: Amazon's Kindle has been for sale in the UK since 2009. Kindle has a 3 year lead on Nook.

In the UK, you can only buy ebooks for the Nook from WHSmith, however, "Underlying sales at WH Smith have continued to fall in the first 10 weeks of the retailer’s financial year." (FT)

So far, we've seen nothing to slow Amazon's tightening grip on the supply chain...

Support Your Local Book Shops

Here's a message from the owners of two independent book shops.

We run the Warwick and Kenilworth bookshops, independent retailers which have been a proud part of our local high streets for many years.

As we run into the busy Christmas period, we face unrelenting pressure from huge online retailers, like Amazon, undercutting prices -- and it's pushing businesses like ours to the brink.

But what’s even worse is that Amazon, despite making sales of £2.9 billion in the UK last year, does not pay any UK corporation tax on the profits from those sales.

In our book, that is not a level playing field and leaves independent retailers like us struggling to compete just because we do the right thing.

That's why we've started a petition on Change.org calling on Amazon to pay their corporation tax in the UK. Click here to join us.

All Amazon UK book and toy sales are routed through its Luxembourg subsidiary. So when the British public buy goods from Amazon, they are in fact paying a Luxembourg company.

This means Amazon can avoid paying British corporation tax on the profits it makes. Tax experts say if Amazon's total UK sales profits were not funnelled to Luxembourg, it could be paying as much as £100m a year in British corporation tax.

As Independent booksellers, we are happy with competition in the market but believe it should be on level terms and by dodging corporation tax in this way, Amazon start with an unfair advantage.

As they grow bigger it’s inevitable that shops like ours will be under even more pressure. That’s bad for customers, bad for the high street and bad for the UK.

Amazon may be obeying the letter of the law - but they’re certainly not being fair. Recently Starbucks announced that they had caved to public pressure and would look at their tax affairs in the UK. It’s time that Amazon did the same.

We pay our taxes and so should they -- please take a stand with us and tell Amazon to pay their fair share.

Thank you for your support,

Frances and Keith

Warwick & Kenilworth bookshops


PS - The Independent has already picked up on our campaign. Please share this campaign with your friends by forwarding this email or sharing this link: www.change.org/amazon

See Michael Heath's New Video for 40 Interview Icebergs

Michael Heath has been busy promoting his new book, 40 Interview Icebergs and How to Sail Around Them, and he's just released a new promotional video for it.

Take a look on YouTube and also on Michael's website, www.mhconsult.com

Revelation Launch a New Website

Revelation have launched their new website today.

The new book, Genius at Work, is featured, along with the Business Model Canvas toolkit that is getting more and more attention in the consultancy marketplace.

See what you think: www.askrevelation.com

The Revelation Survey is Back

The authors of the upcoming book Revelation have asked us to let you know that their new survey into the business impact of office politics is now up and running.


www.askrevelation.com/survey.htm

Please take part and help us to build an even better picture of the business impact of corporate politics, and share this with all your colleagues and friends too.

Learn How to Sell More and Support BBC Children in Need

Peter Freeth was again interviewed on BBC Radio earlier this week as part of the BBC's Children in Need annual charity fundraising event.

Mike Zeller wanted to know how they could make more money in an Apprentice-style cake selling competition.

Peter drew on all of the best performance that he could think of, across the various industry sectors he has worked with as well as The Apprentice itself, to give Mike and Sara a head start and of course raise a lot of money for a great cause.

Listen to the radio interview here and find out how you can sell more too!

And of course, if you're in Carlisle on Saturday 16th November, go along and buy some cakes - and tell them that Peter sent you!

Visit us on LinkedIn

We're now building up our social media strategy, so if you're on LinkedIn, why not connect with us?

uk.linkedin.com/pub/christopher-greenaway-independent-business-publisher/5b/705/721