First Word

We now live in an e-mail and text-crazed society. You can't walk into a room these days without noticing at least one person bent over his/her Smart Phone with his/her fingers going crazy. What totally blows my mind is that most of that texting is completely unimportant dithering. I once worked with someone who couldn't stop texting. At first, I thought it was work. Then over time, I realized it was meaningless and probably not terribly scintillating texts going back and forth with men, friends or family. If you started to add up all of the time wasted texting back and forth, I bet it would be four or five hours easily of nonsense texting. Whatever happened to real conversations? Email can be just as time-consuming. But what I find particularly amusing are the people who are in the same room together and text back and forth. You're at a party and you're texting back and forth with your friend across the room? Here is an idea! Walk over and talk. What's up with that?...

Absolutely fantastic article came out in the Wall Street Journal yesterday on eBooks. It was the first article I've read that made sense and the projections for the marketplace were absolutely unreal. They showed eBook sales projections through 2015 -- and the numbers were impressive. Today eBook sales comprise roughly $18 million of total book revenues; however, projections suggest that by 2015, sales will be in the billions. The article discussed the publishing business and cited legacy costs as the major difference for publishers in the market, with the buy-backs being the biggest issue. eBooks eliminate buy-back costs. Publishers like 3L Publishing can ill afford the buy-back situation. In fact, we recently faced a terrible situation where we had not even received payments for books sold and the distributor was crediting buying backs $6 over the paid price (which as cited, we were not even paid). We were and are being held accountable to what is nothing more than fraudulent...

I don't know if I should say this surprises me or not, but I am constantly shocked when I see business owners treat poorly their own clients. What I've come to realize is that these business owners are either too "green" to know better or just don't get that poor treatment of one leads to a bad reputation with others. As important and referrals are to new business, the converse applies to bad customer service. The old "and he told two friends and so on and so forth" goes -- and in a culture that gets caught up in gossip and negativity, that kind of reputation can easily do harm to your bottom line. So, here are three things you should never say or do to a client. I can't make your deadline because of my vacation . We all need vacations absolutely. Time off is important to re-charge your batteries and prevent burnout. No one will begrudge you time off; however, if you missed a deadline or failed to make appropriate progress on a project, best to kee...

Lots of fun plans for fall 2011 her at 3L Publishing . I thought I would share some of the upcoming books and projects to whip up some interest and excitement. First Word Radio -- do you tune in each week and listen to Sonja Fisher and I verbally jest? We air two shows a week, and each one can be found in our archives. Listen to this week's show by going to the 3L website , scroll down, and click on the blue dashboard's arrow. The current show will air. We have a tremendous line up of guests scheduled to appear this fall. You will be surprised by many famous names that will be popping up. We've already had a True Blood actress, a producer and a director. We try to focus on entertainment, publishing and promotion. Our guests, however, talk about any number of topics. Here is the thing ... you will often hear about underground gossip and fun you will not find anywhere else. The True Blood hottie's admission about a certain yummy star on the show left our chins on the...

I launched my business in 2006, and along the way, I learned important, valuable lessons. You will be surprised that some of the most important things to do to be successful often have nothing to do with what you think they should. The most important outlook to whether you fail or succeed has to do with your attitude. Your outlook on your business and what you set out to accomplish will contribute to the net results. Many of you are probably thinking more along the lines of cash flow and dollars and shaking your head. I'm not suggesting cash flow and dollars don't count; however, not all success is defined by how many Franklins you have in your bank account. For the moment, this discussion defines success as your ability to get to your goal -- whatever that may be. So here are, in my mind, the two critical factors that affect the outcome; your ability to get to the goal. Persistence ! I know you've heard that one before. Persistence is your ability to stay in the game and...

I read a post about the rise of eBooks and the potential fall of authors as an outcome. One of the premises of the article was that eBooks will bring about the downfall of writers forced to accept subpar wages in exchange for their work. I found this premise interesting and mulled it over. First, I know many authors don't have access to some of the information I have access to. I also don't know what are the arrangements for eBook payments in traditional publishing; but here is why I don't agree. The rise of eBooks has been driven by increased demand. In a capitalistic society, increased demand means increased prices. Just look at the average cost of an eBook just two years ago. The average eBook cost perhaps $3.99 on the high side. Now the average eBook on Amazon costs $9.99. When you consider that for every 100 print books sold today 200 eBooks are sold on Amazon, that's a big leap. eBook royalties at 3L Publishing are very high -- although I will not disclose them...

Before I launch in this morning's rant about bad sales techniques, I have to give you a warning. I hate aggressive sales ... period. So as you read this, realize I would not feel all aglow about any of these techniques even if I was an infomercial host looking for a new job. If you are in sales, I strongly recommend you avoid the following: Recorded voice messages sent to my smart phone -- let me be clear, anything impersonal and recorded sent over the phone is ineffective. The only time this works is when my kids' school sends out a notice about an open house and I don't want to talk to the school secretary anyway. Do not send marketing or sales messages either a) recorded or b) to my expensive smart phone where each minute you waste costs me money. My smart phone will think you're a dumb drone! And I don't mean the mobile kind. Infomercial Irene Strikes Again -- another super annoying way to sell is what I call the 21st century snake oils salesman aka infome...

California Girl is now in production! Hello Friend-Os! I wanted to share the latest cover mock-up that is pretty much finished for my new novel California Girl Chronicles . I have amazingly began Book II, which "chronicles" Brea's adventures as a screenwriter, Hollywood politics, and of course, her many men. My focus group readers have sent me notes about the cliffhanger, complaining that now they have to read Book II, and come on! That's the point isn't it? I have received few notes about revisions, and so the final proof went to design this week. I am excited to get the Advance Review Copies (ARCs) out to reviewers in wait, which includes Newsweek, NY Times, Sacramento Bee, San Francisco Book Review and others. Plans are set in motion to do a major launch party here in Sacramento followed by a second one in Los Angeles where the book is set. I also plan to send my favorite actor du jour  Alexander Skarsgård  a copy of the book with the role of Kale, th...

After listening to my seven-year-old daughter explain life to me, I've decided that we should all live life by the simple philosophy we'll call the "Whatever" theory. Here is how that goes ... Do you want to go with me to Target? Whatever Do you want breakfast? Whatever Do you want to go to school? Whatever Do you want to swim? Whatever It hit me the other day that if we all lived by the "Whatever" theory stress and high blood pressure would be nonexistent. Yes, I think I've found the cure for all ills. The "Whatever" theory suggests we don't really care about anything in particular BUT it shows a positive to willingly to go along with the game. So, if we all lived by "Whatever" we wouldn't care and we would go along -- hey! There is something to that I think.

Sonja Fisher and yours truly. Our radio show First Word Radio begins today at 5pm (PDT). Each week we tell funny stories about entertainment, books, movies, and more. This week's guest is Dr. Cecil Forte, author and relationship expert. If you read my newsletter First Word, then you know it's never a dull moment. If you like the show, please also send the link to a friend.

I've noticed many people don't know how to start a real conversation on Facebook . You've probably read already my rants about the perfunctory use of the word "hi" in chat mode. You've probably also realized that a simple "hi" will not incite a conversation. Well, I got to thinking that if I was going to rant and rave about not using hi as a means to start a conversation with a user than perhaps I ought to give you some tips on openers with new friends that don't involve a one syllable word that goes nowhere except in my delete box. These tips are super valuable for connecting with people or business owners you want to build an authentic relationship with, and here you go: Always participate in your social media community . No, this tip does not mean actually attending the hundreds of events you are invited to. It means checking out the Top Headlines where your new connections are sharing with each other. If you don't stretch outside of you...

I put out a weekly newsletter also aptly titled First Word . It is a regular Sunday morning read for my 400+ list, which consists only of people I have met and a few new subscribers from my 3L Publishing website. I have to say, though, I know my list pretty well. Anyway, I digress ... each week the newsletter is delivered to those 400 mailboxes with various serious, irreverent and humorous observations about publishing, PR and marketing. The newsletter has become such a Sunday staple that should it go missing, it would cause a four-alarm fire of concern among some Friend-Os, as I call my loyal readers. (The term Friend-O came about when I referenced Cheerios once a long time, and somehow I liked the term Friend-O, because it sounded so cheerful.) The other amusing part is that now some readers will specifically ask me to make certain points to spread the message about something. You know your newsletter has hit home when people specifically make requests. Now many people squirm and cr...

When I speak in public, I always caution people about what they post on You Tube, Facebook or Twitter and other social media. I remind my audience that the Internet is like nuclear waste; it never goes away . So last night I went out with my dear friend Cheryl Mullick, owner of Exquisite Esthetics by Cheryl, for some girl chat and drinks. We were talking about just frothy fun and my upcoming book California Girl Chronicles and just giggling about the book's sexy fun. Well, I mentioned that I have a particular actor in mind for one of the male leads when I develop the TV series, and then I mentioned how I had stumbled on this super weird video of my favorite actor on You Tube doing some strange stuff -- one was this bizarre shower scene where my favorite actor did nothing but suds up for the camera with two guys? I think it was supposed to be sexy, and he did it early in his career, but what an odd thing to post. While Cheryl and I were cracking up about the strange video, I went t...

My new novel California Girl Chronicles: Brea and the City of Plastic is finished and in production. I am over the moon and thrilled. I have been pitching Advanced Review Copies and so far it has been a major home run. In fact, I got the editor over at Newsweek to laugh and requested a copy. I got the New York Times to (finally) respond with submission guidelines, and the Sacramento Bee and San Francisco Book Review also asked for copies. To your left is the early prototype of the book cover. My longtime friend and graphic artist Erin Pace is working on some refinements to it, so this isn't quite the final, but I was so excited to see it come to life, I wanted to share. Our joke was that Erin needed to work on the "boob job," meaning (a-hem) give her bust some assistance. We'll be adding endorsements too. Now my favorite endorsement comes from Cheryl Mullick, dear friend and part of my focus group, who said, "Dirty girl! I love it." That statement made ...

I have found that you constantly have to be able to change or as the cliché suggests, "Go with the flow." Each year, I think, "OK, I've nailed it. This model is it. This is how we do business." The next year rolls around, and my preconceived notions fall to the wayside. So, it seems this is not how we're going to do business. So, many new changes are coming to 3L Publishing in the Fall 2011. I am now officially working with my long-time friend and now staff member Justine Brown. She is more than qualified to help me push 3L forward to the next level. Justine and I met back at our magazine jobs in the '90s. I know I am making it so we sound so old . She used to freelance for me and over the years has picked up jobs here and there. She recently left Deloitte, and I'm excited that she decided to join our team. I've toyed with the idea of hiring her for quite sometime, but the sun and the stars never lined up until now. Since Justine and I have w...

New trend in Facebook "headless" shots. Guys using a chest-only shot without a head. I am completely mystified by this new way to include a profile shot? What is that about exactly? These shots are not shirtless, mind you. They are simple shots from the chest down. All of them are wearing shirts -- sometimes ugly shirts. My favorite was the "vintage" Le Tigre polo shirt (remember those). I don't get it. Why would you make your profile head shot headless? Isn't the profile picture supposed to let us know what you look like? I know some people use them to make statements about their personalities or looks, but how does a headless, chest shot convey either? Some of these shots aren't even good photos -- they are often dark, grainy, hard-to-tell-what-you're-looking-at pictures. The only thing your headless shot conveys to me is that you (a) don't know how to take a photo with your head in it (b) you take bad photos in general or (c) you're a tad ...

I've decided I don't mind that some of the people I meet while networking are slightly crazy and half-baked business people. If I didn't run consistently into them, I wouldn't have half as many entertaining stories for my blog and newsletter. In fact, whenever I am in a boring, fallow period creatively just hit the networking scene and something is bound to pique my interest. I've gone to three recent networking events that I gathered some new "whoppers" to share and keep you either nodding, "yes," or wondering if you've ever done that. If you're wondering, then my best advice. Don't feel guilty or bad about it. Just quit doing it. This is the best 10 cent advice you'll ever get in a blog. So, here are some recent encounters to amuse you. Confrontational Connie -- polite conversation rules the day. When networking no need to be up in anyone's face about anything no matter what it is. A networking event is not the time to st...

In the highly competitive book business, most authors come to 3L Publishing with their sights set on making the New York Times best-seller list. While that is an admirable goal, those authors always make me nervous. First, the desire for your book to climb to the top of the list is a fun and fabulous goal, but only when you put everything into perspective and realize that accomplishment should actually not be used as a lofty measure of your success. I don't discourage my authors' dreams. What I try to do is redirect and redefine their ideas of success. When you write a book and put it there, you face several competitive realities. First, did you know that literally thousands of books come out each day? Second, only a tiny percentage of those books ever come close to becoming best-sellers. What I like to do is redirect the author's attention to the easy wins. What opportunities will having a book give you? Here are some examples of winning opportunities these authors would ...

In business, we make mistakes. If you claim you don't make mistakes I will give you a nod, grin and say, " Really ?" Mistakes made in business are akin to the old cliché, "Nobody's perfect." You might come into your business with a level of assurance and expertise, but as you get your arms around your business, you will may stumble and maybe even fall. I've made my share of missteps in business. The real success in each mistake is to learn from it, because as the other old cliché goes, "What you don't learn you will repeat." So when you stumble and error your number one priority should be to figure out what you did wrong, and then (hopefully) don't repeat it. So, the only real failure will be your failure to learn from it. And if you don't learn from it, you can count on this much like death and taxes, you will fail again ... and again ... and again. Do make sure each time you hit a misstep, analyze it. What did you do right? What d...

Ever had one of those moments when you thought, "Man I am just out of it." I had one of those moments last night when I was at a presentation for Sacramento eWomen Network. It was on the emerging Quick Reference Codes (QRC ... for you acronym consumers out there). These ugly codes are like instant readers that you put an app on your smart phone and it automatically reads these codes like a business card or directs the user right to your website or special promotion. Now some early adopters out there are nodding and thinking, "Yeah, I use those all of the time." The fact that I, the person once immersed in technology and ate it for breakfast every day, had never seen or read about these was a bit alarming. When over half the room comprised mostly of middle-aged chicks knew about them, super alarming. I suddenly realized in a flash I am truly out of it. I wonder if that's what senior citizens finally realize when they don't know how to turn on the ignition in ...

I am easily inspired. Today I woke up at my usual late morning wake-up -- a gift I give myself as a reward for not punching someone else's clock. I was talking to someone last night who is also an entrepreneur, and she mentioned she hardly thinks about the days when she was a corporate worker. She put it out of her mind, which is a good thing. As for me, I keep it front and center in the back of my mind. Why? Because it's no place I ever want to be. I have always been aware of the blessings of my freedom and choices. I know that these choices and the freedom I have to live life my way require dedication and hard work. It requires keeping my eyes forward and pushing my business toward new levels of success -- that I don't become complacent. When I did entered into business relationships, in the past, that might somehow get in the way of my designed life, I always protected myself. I would never allow anyone to get in the way of my goals and dreams. This fact is one thing tha...

I took this photo in Alaska in front of the Indian House Restaurant. Yes, I was surrounded by some of the most beautiful scenery in the world, and I snapped the daisies smiling all sunny at me. Meg Ryan said it best in the old movie You've Got Mail when she stated, "Daisies are the happiest flowers." I agree. And so moving on ... So here is another astute (and I use these terms loosely because I would wager some of you might not find my so-called wisdom "astute" anytime soon) observation about the social media world. Now I've been focused on social media a lot lately because I've put in more desk marketing time than usual this past month. So yesterday I said the new break-up methods involved new media. Today I want to point to the "new popularity contest." This so-called contests involves collecting. Collecting what? you ask. Followers! Now the business or person who collects the most followers wins! We have this whole new measurement of spe...

I had this revelation while I was writing First Word , my weekly newsletter, and I thought I would entertain you with it. Did you know that people now use their social media "actions" to make a statement. It's the new way to tell your "friends" you're mad at them or more like you don't want to be associated with them. It's actually pretty funny when you think about it. You said something I didn't like in my "share" ... bam! I can delete the whole post. It's quite an interesting way to end an argument in that respect. I don't want to know what you're doing anymore ... bam! I can "de-friend*" you. How's that for, "I don't want to see you anymore!" Same goes for my newsletter First Word . People can use the unsubscribe to make a similar statement. I don't like your newsletter ... bam. Unsubscribe. See how powerful that is. It could even become kind of cathartic I think. I'm in a bad mood -- a...

If you own a business where you have to rely on vendors to deliver certain parts of your products or services, realize those are critical relationships. Your vendors will produce your products, and whoever you elect to work with should offer high-quality service that mirrors your own. If your vendor's services don't reflect the same quality of what you offer then your own reputation and quality of products will be hurt. In the case of 3L Publishing , we work with key print vendors and now with eBooks conversion vendors. We look not only at their customer services, as poor or excellent customer service will also reflect on us, but we also look at their end product. Does the end product reflect the kind of product we want to represent our company? How is the paper quality? How is it cut? Yes, the paper cut matters. Inside pages overlapping the cover look bad. Covers being cut too wide also look bad. How does the cover quality compare to expectations? Even with eBook vendors, the ...

Here is what I've learned about resilience. Resilience is the ability to not just get back up and keep going, but know that by doing so you will be able to move on. In the past, I used to dwell on the situation. Dwelling on any situation does not change it, but it does distract you from something very necessary -- healing and moving on. Just know when faced with a difficult situation -- be it personal or business -- that if you can understand the process, not dwell but reflect, and then move on, time will heal everything in its proper course. You just keep getting up and on, and pretty soon, it won't feel as hard to get up and get on. And then you'll start feeling better. So, I am getting up and getting on. And within that, I know in due time I will feel better and will be back on track. And guess what! I am on my way. Get up, get on, heal and feel better -- new mantra. If you want to know more, pick up a copy of my book Second Bloom available on the 3L Publishing website ...

One my associates made the comment about how hard it is to sell unique story ideas. It seems like Hollywood, publishers like to stick to tried-and-true subjects that have sold in the past. You know like Hang Over 2 . Problem for the writers is that it forces them to stick to retread topics or form a highly persuasive marketing proposals within their book proposal to persuade publishers to take a leap of faith. When you're already working in a highly competitive area, asking a publisher to leap and possibly fall isn't always a persuasive argument. When I decide on a book, I always base it on a little bit of gut and a little bit of knowledge about the marketplace. For example, when the Fertile Kitchen Cookbook authors approached me, I considered my own experience with infertility. I remembered the hunger for knowledge and solutions -- and the library I accumulated. Knowing that couples experiencing this sort of crisis would also be just as hungry for knowledge, I knew that boo...

I love both movies and books no doubt. Fans of books, though, tend to get all riled up when the movie doesn't precisely follow the book. Although the difference between novel and screen writing is tremendous. Now that I've officially done both, I have a much better understanding as to why it's not easy to keep the film version married to the book. As a novel writer, I have a much greater canvas to paint. I can take my time (to a point, of course, lest we bore the reader) developing my story and characters. I'm not constrained necessarily by parameters of length. A feature film, though, cannot be more than 120 pages. Now that's not to say that some screenwriters can't write a mini-series or even a series. But if you're a new writer and you break from tradition you greatly increase your chances of being largely ignored by the Hollywood community that does stick to protocol. Even within that community, different studios have different requirements. I've hea...