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What are You Reading?

This past Saturday, Mack meme tagged me. My mission, should I accept it, is to share what I'm reading now and what I'll be reading next. I also must share the 6th through 8th sentences on page 123.

Currently Reading: Word of Mouth Marketing by Andy Sernovitz.

Excerpt: "Put something amusing at the end of every message, just to get it forwarded. The last story of my newsletter is always funny, often weird, and rarely related to the rest of the message. People love to pass along odd stuff..."

Reading Next: The Speed of Trust by Stephen M.R. Covey.

To keep the reading alive, I'll tag Karen, Connie, Steve and David.

Step Into the Spotlight

I just can't finish this book. About every 10 pages, I have to stop. I have to put it down. And  that's a good thing.

How do I judge a business book? If I have to stop reading in mid-sentence, race off to my computer, and create something, change something or jot down an idea, then I am reading a book that offers value.

Look, I read a stack of business books every month. Few of them reach their way onto these pages. And those that do sometimes get whacked.

Here's the review in total: If you are looking for better ways to sell yourself and to promote your business in authentic, colorful and creative ways, read Step Into the Spotlight by Tsufit.

In other words: Do you want to get noticed? If the answer is yes, you want this book. You will find yourself putting it down to jot yourself a note often.

P.S. Check out Anna Farmery's interview with Tsufit. It's a must-hear.

Join the Conversation: Let's Chat!

Note: I agreed to receive a free book in exchange for writing a review of Joseph Jaffe's Join the Conversation. That declared, I liked Joe's book, and recommend it to all business decision-makers, in all sizes of businesses. It is an important book on an issue that confronts all of us in business today or who plan to enter business tomorrow: How do we talk with our consumers in order to engage them?--Lewis Green

Since book reviews on Joe's book are hitting various blogs, I decided to take Joe's advice and, in place of a review, engage my readers in a conversation about something he wrote that really hit home for me and resonated deep within me. It is, for some, a warning shot across their business and personal bows--that engaging people in discussion can be harmful and hurtful. There are no guarantees.

Following, in Joe's words, is a truism that every business person and everyone who engages in conversation (online and otherwise) must be aware of and prepared for:

Excerpted from Page 5: "In social media, everyone is a critic--This is a critical point and one which you're just going to have to come to terms with. You're just never going to please everyone all the time, and your real test will be in how you deal with the critics and dissidents. In fact, I would go so far as to say that how you deal with this element of conversation might very well define you (your career) and your brand."

Amen, brother. In the last 18 months of sharing my thoughts here and visiting others at their social media sites, I have read and heard every emotion, from love to hate, and have been both a beneficiary and a receiver of those emotions. I have not found it to be a problem. At the end of the day, we should say and write only what we believe to be true, even if it offends those with whom we disagree. Otherwise, we offend the truth. On the other hand, we should write and speak carefully, choosing positive words when possible, and using a tone showing respect and dignity to all people. But going without disagreement is a bit liking never taking a risk: Not much--good or bad--will ever result.

As Joe says, what matters most is how we react. Since happiness is far more important than being right, let's make every effort to work through solutions. Compromise, forgiveness and even an apology occasionally work better than confrontation. However, sometimes confrontation happens, and sometimes forgiveness doesn't. In business, the brand takes a hit; in life, our heart takes one.

Therefore, social media may not be for everyone. Although I believe firmly in its power to do much more good than harm for both your business and your personal life and that it is a strong platform for doing good, non-risk-takers and the very sensitive may want to choose other ways to reach others.

So, I want to engage you in conversation. Tell us your stories about critics and dissidents. How did you deal with them? How did or do they make you feel? What, if anything, would you change to avoid a specific instance or to find a solution once the bomb exploded?

Book Details:

Join the Conversation, How to Engage Marketing-Weary Consumers with the Power of Community, Dialogue, and Partnership; by Joseph Jaffe; John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; Hoboken, NJ; 2007. Available at Amazon.com. The book’s website: www.jointheconversation.us.

I give the book a big thumbs up!

Create A Book Proposal That Sells

My fifth book, Lead With Your Heart, came out on November 1, 2007. It took six months to research and write, six months to find a publisher, and one year to get published. This is typical for most books. In my case, I understood the process, so I was able to avoid the frustrations that take place over six months of proposal submission and a year of editing, proofing, cover design and approval, printing and finally publishing. Having an agent also helped. And let's begin there.

I recommend an agent. Agents have the inside track with manuscript editors and publishers at the various publishing houses. They take his/her telephone calls, whereas they don't often take calls from writers who they have not previously published. I found my agent through a referral. I called him up to discuss my project, and then I sent him my proposal. He worked with me to polish the proposal, and when we were both happy with it, the submission process began. If you cannot get a referral from another writer/author, you can find agents via a web search. Getting their attention is as difficult as getting a publisher's attention without an agent. At the end of the day, whether you get noticed and published most often is determined by the quality of your proposal.

Following is what a winning proposal looks like. I include snippets of copy from the Lead With Your Heart proposal to show you style and tenor and what an agent and a publisher expect to receive. The front matter of this proposal is 16 pages, and included with the front matter were two draft chapters. I hope this helps to get you published. (Remember: The copy is neither whole not contiguous. These are just sample snippets.)

[Book Proposal proper starts here]

Who Will Read Lead with Your Heart?
Lead with Your Heart: Sell Happiness, and You and Your Business Will Flourish, authored by Lewis Green, Founder and Managing Principal, L&G Business Solutions, is destined to become a must-read for entrepreneurs, small business owners, and managers and executives in small and mid-sized businesses throughout America. It is a business book based on a business model that changes people’s lives for the better.

What Makes This Book Different from the Hundreds of Other Business Guides?
Lead with Your Heart: Sell Happiness and You and Your Business Will Flourish combines the no-nonsense, straight-forward, easily read writing style of Lewis Green, whose previous books and writings have appeared throughout North America. It presents the good, the bad, and the ugly sides of running or managing a business, and it pulls no punches in recommending a new business model for those executives, leaders, managers and entrepreneurs looking for new ideas to grow a business profitably, but one that is centered on people instead of money.

Green offers a philosophy that great businesses—large and small—make better places to work, contribute positively to their communities and to the environment, and produce products and services that result in happy customers and clients when they embrace the law of reciprocity—giving is getting—and are people-focused, not money focused. Green calls this The Happiness Quotient™.

Here is what Green does and does not mean by “Happiness.” According to recent book reviews in The New Yorker entitled Pursuing Happiness , Jonathan Haidt, author of “The Happiness Hypothesis,” tells us that “We have been hardwired to emphasize the negative….” In the same article, Darrin McMahon, author of “Happiness: A History,” reminds us that “shit happens” and in reference to the famous phrase from the Declaration of Independence that we often quote, McMahon says that “We are pursuing happiness to this day, and it is by no means clear that it is a happy process.”

Happiness, Commitment and Hard Work
Lewis Green is a Capitalist at heart and believes capitalism works as well as any other economic system. Smart and favored people make lots of money and those not so smart and not so favored don’t. And as in most systems, the poor mostly stay poor, the middle class shrinks and the wealthy get wealthier, so it is a flawed system. But Green believes those of us who live in democracies and practice a form of capitalism can fix whatever flaws exist—if we lead with the heart and care about The Happiness Quotient.

Leading with the heart is not about being a bleeding heart, nor is it about throwing money at social problems. Instead, it is about creating and managing a powerful and profitable business by applying best practices and innovation for long-term and lasting results. If practiced and executed properly, leading with your heart and applying The Happiness Quotient creates better jobs, happier customers and employees, and better places to live.

Leading with the heart is about passion. It is about caring not only for products and services, but also for the people who create them and the people who purchase and use them. It is about creating an environment blessed by The Happiness Quotient, where business leaders invest more money in people than they do in products and services. And businesses invest in ways that improve people’s lives.
Leading with your heart is a way of running a business so that the world we live in becomes a better place, and creating that world is the business’s core purpose, its reason for being.

Contents Summarized
Chapter One poses two questions every business person should ask: Are You Sure You Want to Play in this Game? and Can We Be Trusted to Run Our Businesses? From that point on, readers discover an idea-rich guide to the essentials, including:

• The Prologue: Being a Business Built on Values
• Chapter One: Redefining Greatness
• Chapter Two: Do You Trust Your Heart Enough to Run A Successful Business?
• Chapter Three: The Keys to Building Your Business with a Heart While Practicing Smart
• Chapter Four: Build A Brand that Reaches Out to Serve People and You Develop A Brand that People Become Passionate About
• And so on to the last chapter (Note: By the time the editing process was complete, every chapter title changed as did some of the chapter contents and order.)

Who is the Target Market?
 Entrepreneurs
 Small business owners
 Managers and executives in small and mid-sized businesses
 C-level executives and managers at large businesses who want to change the way they do business

What Separates Lead With Your Heart from Other Business Books?
Business books abound and many are well-written and offer sage advice. The common thread that runs through most of them is the rehash of best practices mixed with a sprinkling of psychology about the need to be brave and bold. The focus of nearly all of these books is making money using short-term strategies and tactics. The following represent the kinds of books from which Lead With Your Heart will differentiate itself:...

Lead With Your Heart is not about short-term thinking, nor are the book’s ideas, strategies and tactics focused solely on making money. This book separates itself from the pack because it emphasizes building a business focused on people, and urges business leaders to think about how what they do impacts the world and the people who live in it.

While it includes smart business practices, the book’s angle never bends toward profits as the only key to success. Lead With Your Heart describes a new business model, one that currently exists in one form or another in a few companies, but is absent from the vast majority of businesses. For the first time in print, Green shares a formula for building a business that exists to create a better place for all to live because the business model is people-centered. He explains and offers research that supports this paradigm: when businesses care more about people than profits, they create a Brand that can become great and one that can become loved and respected in the marketplace, thereby bringing the success the business seeks.

How Will the Book be Marketed and Sold?
As a sales and marketing thought leader, a former publisher and editor, and a practicing business consultant, Lewis Green is the rare author who specializes in marketing and sales and knows how to market himself and his books.

Green promoted his previous books with book signings, workshops and lectures, TV and radio guest appearances, and marketing directly to book stores. How did he make this happen?

Green is a passionate writer and believes in his work and in his ideas. To make three books regional best sellers, he called radio and TV producers of news and daily talk shows and, through his knowledge of their audience and his passion for his subject, in every case he was invited to personally appear on TV or in the radio studio or in the instances when distance was a challenge radio hosts conducted telephone interviews. Furthermore, he called and visited with book reviewers, resulting in each of these books receiving positive reviews. He also worked diligently to get his books placed in Barnes & Noble and other such chains and never refused a book-signing opportunity, despite the pain experienced by every author at such events.

He will do so, using such hands-on techniques as:
 Telemarketing
 Face-to-face Meetings with People who Matter
 Press Releases
 Book Reviews
 Direct Marketing
 Networking
 Testimonials
 TV and Radio Appearances
 Trade Show Appearances
 Talks and Lectures

Biography
Lead With Your Heart is written by a hands-on practicing business person who learned his craft not in a classroom but on the rugged terrain of business competition and entrepreneurship. Each of his three businesses has succeeded, while in the corporate world he was recognized as a manager who would always deliver return on investment, using both street smarts and book smarts.

Lewis Green, Founder and Managing Principal of L&G Business Solutions, brings three decades of business management experience. L&G Business Solutions, LLC, represents his third successful business venture. Additionally, he held management positions with GTE Discovery Publications, Puget Sound Energy, and Starbucks Coffee Company.

Jacket Endorsements
The author will approach the following people for jacket testimonials:
• List names here

Testimonials:
• Lewis Green and L&G Business Solutions have always helped us identify what our long-term business goals and objectives should be. I would recommend his services to both my clients and colleagues without hesitation and look forward to working with him again in the future—Kate Terricciano, Promotion and Events Manager, General Motors
• Lewis has always provided the highest level of customer service. Through understanding the customer’s needs, Lewis has consistently been results oriented — high quality, timely and cost effective—Michael Mansbridge, Financial Planning Manager, GTE Directories Corporation.
• I worked with Lewis on a consulting proposal and had a chance to learn firsthand about his commitment to his clients' needs. His insights into solving client problems are first-rate, and he truly understands what customer service is all about—Fred  Wergeles, President, Fred Wergeles & Associates LLC
• Always candid, challenging popular thought, adding a creative twist — I could count on Lewis to bring my article, presentation or suggestion alive within our Starbucks language and culture—Leslie Thornton, Vice President, Total Pay, Starbucks
• And so on.

Clients & Work Experience
• AT&T Wireless
• Advanced Technology Systems, Inc.
• Archdiocese of Seattle
• China Power & Light
• And so on.

Attach your sample chapter(s). Good luck and remember: The first step to getting published is writing. So get started.

Lead With Your Heart and Sell Happiness

  I started writing Lead With Your Heart in the summer of 2005 and submitted it to my publisher, HRD Press, Inc., in December 2006. After much sweat and a few tears, the book is now available from the publisher and Amazon.com.

We must be the change we wish to see in the world—Mahatma Gandhi

Lead With Your Heart introduces a business model that will result in business success as measured by business growth, revenues and profits, as well as create a better world in which to do business, to work and to live. Of course, for any model to work, you must believe, you must be passionate in that believe and you must work hard to make the business achieve its goals and objectives.

This book is about changing the way we do business. It is written to inspire business executives, managers and entrepreneurs to invest in a new business model that can be a first step to changing the world we live in.

If you are an entrepreneur, business owner, executive, director, manager, or wannabe leader and you suspect that leading with your heart, working with passion, and caring about the bottom line are good for you, good for your shareholders, good for your employees, and good for your customers, this book is for you.

Be warned, however: I may shake you up some, and I will propose strategies, ideas and recommendations that require total commitment from you and everyone in your business, if you are to reap the rewards of your maximum potential. The research and the ideas come from some of the best business people in America. I learned and borrowed and put them into practice myself and share them now out of a passion for the wisdom they represent.

NOTE: If you would like a review copy, send your name and address to Lewis Green. I am available for interviews, book signings, speaking engagements and workshops.

Lead With Your Heart Soft Launch

I started writing Lead With Your Heart in the summer of 2005 and submitted it to my publisher, HRD   Press, Inc., in December 2006. After much sweat and a few tears, the book is now available from HRD Press, 22 Amherst Road, Amherst, MA 01002, 1-800-822-2801 or online at and at Amazon.com.

We are in the soft launch phase, meaning the book is available from my publisher and is listed at Amazon.com. But, Amazon.com is awaiting delivery, so if books are ordered from them there will be a delay in mailing. So, I am sharing a brief note with my readers and closest friends and peers, for the soft launch.

Here is what my publisher says about Lead With Your Heart:

"Lead With Your Heart is about changing the way you do business. It introduces a business model that will result in growth, revenues and profits and a better world in which to do business, work and live. It is written to inspire executives, managers and entrepreneurs to invest in this way of doing business and make it the first step to changing the world we live in."

Here's the fun part: Very few writers have the pleasure of their publisher marketing their books. That only happens for the stars. So I am about to begin the hard and challenging work of getting the word out. Here are my ideas and some from my friend CK:

• Messages on MySpace, Facebook, Plaxo Pulse
• Blog Posts
• Review Books to Press (print and electronic)
• Press Release
• Blog Interviews
• Review Books Blog Reviewers
• Interviews
• E-Mail
• On-site seminars and workshops at potential clients
• highlight a chapter a month
• Presentations

Now, being that she is one of the smartest people I know, CK suggests that I reach out to you for your marketing ideas. How can that be a bad thing? What am I missing in my marketing tactics?

P.S. If you are a writer planning to do a book, feel free to as me any question and I will do my best to answer it.

"Now Is Gone" Author Tells Us Why

Over the weekend, I had the pleasure of reading Geoff Livingston's just-released book, Now Is Gone. It  is a good read, and it is full of ideas and information everyone interested in social media should be paying attention to. If you are a business manager or an entrepreneur, this is a must read. You can read more about Now Is Gone at Geoff's blog.

Today, I interviewed Geoff. Here is that interview.

Q. Geoff, what inspired you to write Now Is Gone?

A. Last spring it seemed like every business contact I had was calling me to buy me a free cup of coffee or lunch to explain social media (blogs, Facebook, etc.). It got to the point where it was detrimental to my business. In my opinion, the role of a consultant is to be of service, and I was in a position where I could no longer do that. So I found a way. In order to meet the need for this information, I decided to write a book. It would save these executives money as it only costs $10 on Amazon because of an intentional decision to keep costs low with a paperback edition. And it would save me time so I could focus on the business at hand.

Q. Who should read your book?

A. Companies and entrepreneurs trying to figure it out. We have a pretty straightforward methodology and discussion to get someone engaged in their community and make a good start. I think more experienced veterans may get something out of it, some new tools and ideas, but for them it's more of a brush up. The real benefit for social media pros will be in the latter chapters on future and strategy.

Q. On page 54, you ask: How do you know if new media will work for you? The question implies that social media is not for every business. Is that what you believe?

A. Yes, I do believe that. Eventually all companies will need some sort of social media, but right now it's not a must. The facts are out there. Sometimes a business's culture does not lend itself towards a successful social media campaign. While most folks cite astroturfing incidents I prefer to look at boring dead corporate blogs with no comments and few in-bound links. The tools are not right for these companies. And if a cultural barrier exists, it's better to iron that out or let the market bring more pressure to bear (forcing a change) than to engage and fail.

Q. You seem to believe social media is not about replacing traditional media but about adding to it. Can you explain?

A. Like all things, there's a time when the pendulum swings far in one direction. We may be in one of those times. The rise of social networks demonstrates a need to aggregate content. Why? Because there's too much of it! So eventually, it will come down to quality. Quality may be a healthy mix of new and old media, but ultimately the best news sources will never go away. People want them! Even bloggers want them (for example, I'd love to be featured in Wired some day)! Tim Russert will always be welcome in some homes. The difference is with all of the choices, low quality content falls to the bottom. Social and traditional media outlets alike must create great content consistently if they are to retain readership/viewers. Otherwise, fickle communities move on.

Q. What one thing would you most like readers to get from Now Is Gone?

A. A change of ethos. It's hard sitting down with companies to discuss brand control, how they can tell the marketplace what they need, and resist negative comments. Yet, every time I meet with a company for the first time, this is what they want to do. Instead it would be great if we can start these conversations by thinking about the community, how to engage them and serve them. It should be about building goodwill between an organization and its stakeholders. Social media is about the larger picture, and how an organization fits into it, not the other way around.

Q. What do you say to those who believe Social Media cannot be measured for ROI?

A. Let me know how that works out for you. Seriously, you cannot tell a business to spend $300,000 on social media for a great conversation and expect them to engage. Quite frankly, I think it's unprofessional. The old John Wanamaker adage, "I don't know which half of my advertising is working" just doesn't cut it. Especially in a digital era with digital media forms that allow tracking by IP address. I think the "conversation supersedes metrics" ethos is why a lot of companies have been sitting on the sidelines. There must be metrics to measure and monitor outcomes. Period. It's part of every plan we build, and to be frank, companies expect that from marketers. And any bloggers/social media types who say differently should look in the mirror and ask themselves how often they check their own stats.

Q. Are you planning another book?

A. Yes: It focuses more on the culture clash between the business and social media worlds. There are some exciting players lined up, too. But I cannot reveal more details until we get a book contract, which is probably a month or two away.:)

Q. What words of wisdom do you want to leave for the readers about the use of social media.

A. Doc Searls had it right. It's the generous web. Give, and when you're tired of it, give some more. If you help other community members out, all of the other stuff we're so concerned with -- subs, readers, click-throughs, sales -- seems to work out. It's the law of attraction versus the old ways of promotion. By doing the right thing, good things happen.

Note: You can order Now Is Gone at Amazon.com and and Bartleby Press.

The Age of Conversation Is Here!

The Age of Conversation, a book to benefit children’s charity, is here and available to you. The book has an unusual story behind it, involving online connections between people around the world who have never met each other. Orders are being taken online here.

Drew McLellan, who heads McLellan Marketing Group, an advertising agency in Iowa, has been writing a blog online for since September 2006. His blog, is among the 25 most-read marketing blogs in the world. McLellan’s partner in this adventure is another marketing blogger in the top 25, Gavin Heaton. Heaton is the Interactive Director of one of the world’s leading marketing and promotions agencies, Creata, located in Australia, where he is Director of Interactive.

In March, McLellan wrote about Wharton’s effort to create a collaborative book and Heaton commented, “And it sounds like it could be fun ... but you know what, Drew? I reckon between a few of us we could knock out a short book and publish it. All we need is a theme and a charity ... “

“Three e-mails later, we had named the book and the charity. It just fell into place," McLellan says. “The Age of Conversation was the perfect topic. The marketing industry is abuzz about how the citizen marketers are changing the landscape. This book captures that new phenomenon,” he adds.

McLellan and Heaton, through their blogs, invited other marketing professionals and other bloggers to commit to writing an essay about conversation. They set what they thought would be an impossible goal – 100 bloggers. They received commitments from 104 authors in less than seven days.

“What began as a comment online has grown into a major collaborative effort by marketing professionals from 24 states and nations," McLellan says. “Gavin and I were overwhelmed with the response.”

“We heard from people, telling us what they planned to write about,” Heaton adds. “We’ve been amazed at the variety of approaches that have been taken, and with hardly any duplication or overlap.

This book really explores the art of conversation and how that is changing the face of marketing from virtually every angle possible.”

I contributed an essay titled Conversation that Connects You to Me. For all of business history, one of our primary goals has been to talk with our customers in ways that grow our businesses and meets their needs. Today, it is more important than ever, as new technology allows customers to easily compare our products and services to our competitor's products and services.

CK, a friend and fellow blogger, had just lost her mother and many in the marketing blogging community were looking for a way to comfort her from afar. The book is dedicated to her Momma, Sandra Kerley.

The Age of Conversation is now available in all three formats.

Prices are:

e-book: $9.99 ($7.99 going to charity)

paperback book: $16.95 ($8.10 to charity)

hardback book: $29.99 ($8.55 to charity)

Orders are being taken online here.

The authors of The Age of Conversation are:

Gavin Heaton
Drew McLellan
CK
Valeria Maltoni
Emily Reed
Katie Chatfield
Greg Verdino
Mack Collier
Lewis Green
Sacrum
Ann Handley
Mike Sansone
Paul McEnany
Roger von Oech
Anna Farmery
David Armano
Bob Glaza
Mark Goren
Matt Dickman
Scott Monty
Richard Huntington
Cam Beck
David Reich
Luc Debaisieux
Sean Howard
Tim Jackson
Patrick Schaber
Roberta Rosenberg
Uwe Hook
Tony D. Clark
Todd Andrlik
Toby Bloomberg
Steve Woodruff
Steve Bannister
Steve Roesler
Stanley Johnson
Spike Jones
Nathan Snell
Simon Payn
Ryan Rasmussen
Ron Shevlin
Roger Anderson
Robert Hruzek
Rishi Desai
Phil Gerbyshak
Peter Corbett
Pete Deutschman
Nick Rice
Nick Wright
Michael Morton
Mark Earls
Mark Blair
Mario Vellandi
Lori Magno
Kristin Gorski
Kris Hoet
G.Kofi Annan
Kimberly Dawn Wells
Karl Long
Julie Fleischer
Jordan Behan
John La Grou
Joe Raasch
Jim Kukral
Jessica Hagy
Janet Green
Jamey Shiels
Dr. Graham Hill
Gia Facchini
Geert Desager
Gaurav Mishra
Gary Schoeniger
Gareth Kay
Faris Yakob
Emily Clasper
Ed Cotton
Dustin Jacobsen
Tom Clifford
David Polinchock
David Koopmans
David Brazeal
David Berkowitz
Carolyn Manning
Craig Wilson
Cord Silverstein
Connie Reece
Colin McKay
Chris Newlan
Chris Corrigan
Cedric Giorgi
Brian Reich
Becky Carroll
Arun Rajagopal
Andy Nulman
Amy Jussel
AJ James
Kim Klaver
Sandy Renshaw
Susan Bird
Ryan Barrett
Troy Worman
S. Neil Vineberg

So You Think You Want to Write A Book, Part 4

Yesterday was not a good day. In case I haven't made this clear, the most painful part of getting a book published and on bookstore shelves is the editing process. Yesterday, I screamed enough is enough.

Like anything else we do in collaboration with others, the best work happens when we respect each other's time and effort and work hard to get along in what may otherwise be a relatively painful process. I have been a Golden Boy up until my editor, a smart and detailed woman, sent me an e-mail yesterday asking me to do one more thing. (Except, you and I know it never stops at one.) I pushed back hard!

If you are a basketball fan, you might remember the uproar between Alan Iverson, a great player, and Larry Brown, a legendary coach, both at the time with Philadelphia's NBA entry. Brown was upset with Iverson for being late to practice. For context, Iverson leaves it all on the court during the games. He hates practice. Eventually, they worked it out. My button was pushed yesterday because of the writer's version of practice... endnotes, footnotes and chapter notes.

We include them for reader reference and to give credit to those from whom we quote and cite. We hate doing them, and once we have them as accurate and complete as possible, we expect the editor and the typesetter to handle the rest. Primarily, asking questions, fact checking and formatting. However, to be a good team player, I had previously gone over them a third time to update and fact check at my editor's request. After that, I wanted nothing more to do with them. I write for my readers, not my publisher. Yesterday, my editor asked me to format the endnotes to comply with the Chicago Manual of Style.

Hell no, I responded. Format them anyway you want but leave me out of it. This is editor's, not writer's stuff. And I angrily copied the Publisher. This happened in the morning. I heard nothing until late afternoon. Throughout the day, I worried about my response and wondered whether or not I did the right thing. In my heart, I knew I had, but the brain isn't always on the same page. Look, at the end of the day, my name goes on the book. Authors need to do what they believe is right, and we need to guard our time jealously, as we also need to make a living. Formatting endnotes is not a good use of my time, for me or my clients.

About 4 p.m., my Outlook rang, telling me an e-mail had arrived. It was from the publisher. I was terrified. Was I about to be chastised like a 5-year-old and sent to the corner to get over my ego-driven tantrum?

To my relief, he agreed with me. And he wrote that they would do their job and take care of this. Lesson learned: No matter the job, sometimes we have to push back.

Maps for Modern Magellans: Charts for Captains of Commerce

Maps for Modern Magellans by Roger Anderson captured my interest for two reasons: the unusual title  for a business book and the book tag reading, every business can use a good map. In author Roger Anderson's own words, "This book is filled with maps, charts and tools to help you navigate the world of business."

Roger is a scientist by training, and his vehicles of choice--maps and charts--attest to that. To be honest, most of the visuals are useless to a word guy like me. I'm not sure I understood any of them. On the other hand, the text is written in a simple, easy-to-understand manner, and is full of good ideas, business strategies and tactics, definitions, case studies and questions that every entrepreneur needs to ask.

In my opinion, this book best serves entrepreneurs who don't have much business experience and newly promoted managers within any company. Those of us with lots of business experience in the corporate world and as entrepreneurs will find little new. However, those without experience will find lots to like about Maps for Modern Magellans. From the basic lesson that is often overlooked and causes more harm to business than one would believe to questions every business person must ask, to case studies that teach us both what and not to do. (By the way, the basis lesson: "Charge more than it costs." This is a lesson I frequently have to teach my clients.)

If you are an entrepreneur or a new manager buy this book. I recommend skipping Chapter 1, which seems a bit like filler, and start with Chapter 2, entitled Mind Your Own Business. Be cautious about some of the claims, such as this book will help you create great advertising. No book will do that. But pay attention to the concepts and to the life lessons that creep into the chapters. These are little jewels that help us better understand who we are and why we do what we do. Some of them may even convince you to change what you are doing, especially if you are unhappy.

Note: Roger Anderson provided a free preview copy of his book for me to review.