First Word

I've had several partnerships over the years. You could say I've had the good, the bad and the severely unattractive. Partnerships in business are no different than partnerships in marriage or life. Your husband leaves the cap off the toothpaste; your partner doesn't like the cap off the pen. Well, it's not quite that petty (most of the time). I've rarely seen partnerships that flourish over the long-term. I do think for overall success once you entered a business relationship/partnership, you should use this checklist. Tip : Take your time in evaluating a prospective partner! Like a marriage it can end badly or it can work wonderfully over the long haul . Are you like-minded in a good way ? Oh, you can be like-minded in a bad way, believe me. For example, strengths and weaknesses. It's better to be yin-yang and then simpatico in thinking than yin-what-the-heck? Like-minded thinking in the positive means your outlooks match on how to do things or how to mana...

Writers tend to think first about just writing a book. Most of them don't think about marketability and business. If they do think about it, they don't consider the broader demographics and factors. When you write in a niche genre, for example, it's already going to have a narrow audience. A narrow audience though is relative when it comes to sales. What does this mean? A narrow audience is like a narrow river. You have about "this much opportunity" in that space. It flows and people come in and out (your audience and customers).  You probably don't have that much competition in that space, because it's not a common theme or idea you're writing about. You do want to attract people from the narrow audience to your book. Because you don't have much competition than your book might be one of a handful or the ONLY one on the bookshelf to select. If you're one of a few, your chances of capturing those few buyers goes way up. So fewer consumers...

"The book business is hard," said an author. "Yes, the book business is a business ," replied the publisher. The glamor of publishing seems, well, glamorous. Book signings, parties, congratulations, book reviews, and attention. Reality is though -- it's a business . No getting around it. No matter how you look at publishing and books, it requires effort, time and pressure. Have you ever been to a dozen signings in three weeks? Is it fun? It's always fun. But after the 200th signature and a lot of talking and selling, it hits home -- this is work. Doing the marketing and supporting the book -- work. Staying the course with book when you're exhausted and maybe worked a whole other job during the day -- work. Writing marketing material and blogs and social media posts and generally trying to be consistently brilliant and clever -- work. Would I trade this business for any other? No! When authors want to publish their books, I always try to ensure they...

It's one thing to want to do something, it's another thing to actually do it. They can teach theory in the classroom, but until you've dug deep, gotten your hands sublimely dirty, and really entrenched yourself in the experience, you can't learn the most important lessons and realities. So, to help anyone else (and these are life lessons) here are some general tips. Do not beat yourself up if you're an editor and there's a mistake or even two . All those meticulous copy editors out there who are single minded about not making one mistake in a 50,000 to 75,000 or 100,000 word book have truly put too much pressure on themselves into a never-good-enough reality. If I have learned nothing else in editing ... there is going to be a mistake ... somewhere. It requires minimally two sets or preferably three sets of eyes to clean up a manuscript. If you're sense of "perfection" (which there is no such thing) is about the erroneous belief you will see ever...

I am one of those overly concerned CEOs who somewhere along the way of leadership and success in the middle of it lost her way ... a bit. Over the last couple of years, an eroding of net profit began. Under the idea that it was okay, I began getting too relaxed about collections and ensuring that 3L Publishing wasn't paying unintended costs. Then I noticed something that was eating away at my leadership skills. We'll call it "client guilt". I felt like even though not a single client made a single complaint that our work wasn't somehow measuring up (especially on the public relations side where results are very "airy-fairy"). I felt awesome about the books for sure. Our books are award-winners. But self-doubt and that "guilty" feeling despite all of the efforts going into it, were eating at me -- but MORE important EATING our bottom line and profits as I devalued my time. I devalued myself. Are you identifying with what I'm saying? I bet ...

*****Five Stars Yet another really well-done movie from the incomparable Clint Eastwood -- and another amazing film in the middle of some really great and new films just released. The movie is the true story of Chris Kyle AKA "The Legend" who shot down the most terrorists during four tours of the Iraqi War. The movie depicts a beautiful balance between Chris the man and Chris the sniper. In-between taut war scenes, we come to understand this is a man driven by intense personal integrity, humility, sensitivity and love of family and country. The movie begins with an authentic foundational scene where we discover Chris' gift with the rifle, but also what his father and mother taught him about life, bullies and heroism. The movie then shifts to right before the 9/11 and finally the war. As we watch Chris meticulously take out one insurgent after the other, we also understand the emotions behind the acts. While Chris might have made the "shooting" look almos...

Reviewed By Joy Hannabass for Readers’ Favorite There once was a little bear named Cubby who had big, big dreams. Bigger than he could ever imagine! You see, Cubby Bear wanted to learn to fly. He could do it, couldn’t he? As he sits high on his tree branch, looking out through the forest, he sees two of his friends watching him, probably wondering what he was up to. Couldn't Cubby Bear see that his friends were worried about him and wondering why he was acting so strange lately? Would little Cubby Bear let them in on his thoughts and secrets so they could help him? This is the cutest story for little ones. The first time my now 6-year-old niece saw it, I ended up reading it to her about 5 or 6 times. Then she sat for an hour or more looking at the pictures, making up her own stories. This is a big book with an awesome message for those who read it. In The Little Bear Who Wanted to Fly, Cubby, Chatter and Crunch show kids of all ages that it is okay to dream, and ...