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Book Purple Cow Marketers

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Seth Godin is prolific. He’s written quite a few books in his 58 years.

He initially came onto my radar in 2002, after the book Purple Cow was released. I saw it as a modern day version of Reality in Advertising, the classic by Rosser Reeves. Reeves, who helped Dwight D. Eisenhower with his presidential campaign, astutely pointed out that products and services, in order to be embraced by the general public, needed to have a Unique Selling Proposition, or USP. If people understood what was different about it, and they agreed it was important to them, they would buy it. People that don’t really understand marketing might say a product has to have some kind of “secret sauce.” They’re only partially right.  

Reeves, a copywriter, was a regular guy who would try out the household products that he would write about. He felt it was his obligation to determine what set it apart from all the other “me, too” products out there.

Al Ries and Jack Trout called the concept Positioning. They wrote a book with that title. Their thought was the product had to stand out “in the mind of the consumer.” Godin, you might say, repackaged the concept, calling his rendition, or book Purple Cow.

The notion of the book Purple Cow is that if you were driving down the road and saw a herd of cows grazing in the grass – and one of them was purple – most likely you would pull over to the side of the road. Or stop and get out, depending on how safe the road was, or whether you would be trespassing or not. In fact, you might even jam on the brakes and insist on a closer look at this unusual animal.

The Milkman

The book Purple Cow sold over 150,000 copies in over 23 print runs in its first two years.

Other books by Godin include:

This is Marketing (his latest, which went to #1 on the WSJ list only months after it came out)

Linchpin (named by Business Week among its “20 of the best books by the most influential thinkers in business in 2015”)

Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers into Friends and Friends into Customers (published by Simon & Schuster)

All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low Trust World (updated to All Marketers Tell Stories: The Underground Classic That Explains How Marketing Really Works – And Why Authenticity is the Best Marketing of All)

The Dip (a New York Times and Business Week bestseller)

Free Prize Inside (a Forbes Business Book of the Year in 2004)

And many others (18 total, which have been translated into 35 languages)

In addition, his blog was named by Time among its 25 best blogs of 2009.

Recent Accolades

This past year he was inducted, along with Lee Clow and Esther Lee, into the American Marketing Association’s Marketing Hall of Fame. He’s also in the Direct Marketing Hall of Fame and may be the only person in both. Therefore, there’s no denying that the book Purple Cow, was his breakthrough.

Personal Life

He graduated from Stanford in 1984 and also went to Tufts. He was a former dot com executive and worked for Spinnaker. He and his wife, Helene, live in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY with their two sons.

Godin’s appearance is also unique. He obviously practices what he preaches by setting himself apart from the competition. I don’t think he would be successful in Japan, where the philosophy is “The nail that sticks up gets hammered down.”

Godin is a phenomenal storyteller and a good writer. Most importantly, though, he is a savvy marketer. Therefore, his books sell briskly. He knows how to get his material to the top in record time.  

He founded Seth Godin Productions with $20,000 in 1986. It was primarily a book packaging business. He’s a big believer in “shipping.” In other words, don’t spend time trying to make something perfect – send it out!

He sold Seth Godin Productions and focused on permission marketing. In March, 2006, he founded the company that he called Squidoo. He also launched Yoyodyne, which was later acquired by Yahoo.

Getting Buy-In

In 2010, he got rid of his longtime publisher Portfolio in favor of selling his books directly to his readers. A few years later, he returned to Portfolio with a Kickstarter campaign and three new books, The Icarus Deception, V is for Vulnerable and We Are All Weird.

He tested online the viability of his books before they actually hit the shelves. He felt this approach minimized risk.

At that time, he was quoted as saying, “The pressure on the bookstore and the publisher is to pick stuff that will work… I’m saying, ‘Hey, Mr. Bookstore Owner, the world has spoken. There are lots of people talking about these books.’”

The reality is it’s hard to convince traditional publishers to take on some authors unless you can prove you have a solid fan base. “The future of publishing,” he is known to have said, “is about having connections to readers and the knowledge of what those readers want.”

He sought pledges on Kickstarter with this approach:

For $4 or more, pledgers got a digital preview edition of The Icarus Deception.

For $49 or more, they got four copies of Icarus, plus access to the preview digital edition.

$111 or more got pledgers eight hardcover copies of Icarus, two signed copies of V is for Vulnerable, a limited edition essay collection and a digital preview.

And, for $1150 or more, Godin would interview each participant and write a brief account of an artistic accomplishment that would be included in Icarus. Pledgers also got eight hardcover copies of Icarus, two signed copies of V is for Vulnerable, an essay collection and the digital preview.

If I were pledging, I would’ve held out for a partridge in a pear tree as well.

About the Author

Frank Felsburg is a writer, publisher and marketer in Western North Carolina. However, he lived outside of Philadelphia for six decades.

10.5 Million Gets You on the List

Nora Roberts on Goodreads

The Forbes list of wealthiest writers over a one year period hit the newsstands recently. And there are a few surprises. James Patterson headed the list (no surprise here). Bill Clinton recently collaborated with him on a novel entitled The President is Missing. Patterson sold nearly 5 million books in the U.S. alone this year, earning $86 million, according to Forbes.

J.K. Rowling of Harry Potter fame is right behind him (or $32 million behind him, anyway). Many know her story as an author. She grabbed $54 million over this time frame, $41 million less than last year. Pretty rough year.

Stephen King, writer – and Boston Red Sox fan, was number three. He still writes macabre stories and gets paid very well for them. That’s scary. In many ways, he’s kind of the modern day Alfred Hitchcock. He made $27 million – much, much more than Hitchcock ever dreamed of (or had a nightmare about).

The Rest of the List

John Grisham was fourth. I have a great deal of respect for JG — and not just because he, too, is a huge baseball fan (see my blog post of January 1, 2018 for a deeper dive into what I think of him). He wasn’t too far behind his friend King, as his haul reached $21 million.

Number five was a tie. Jeff Kinney must’ve been some wimpy kid, so I didn’t think I’d ever heard of him. However, Dan Brown, the author on the list that Kinney tied in the rankings, I have heard of. Danielle Steele and Nora Roberts are names that most people recognize. They tied for eighth on the list. I’m not that familiar with Rick Riordan and E.L James, perhaps because I don’t generally read fiction. They pulled up the bottom of the list with ONLY $10.5 million in earnings (each) this year.

One More Gainfully Employed Individual

Michael Wolff made the Top 10 after the release of his book, Fire and Fury, this year. Apparently, Trump got him a job, too, since DJT’s been in office. Wolff is the first nonfiction author on the list in 11 years. The book sold 1.7 million copies, flying off the shelves in hardcover, e-book and audio formats in the first three weeks alone. Wolff earned an estimated $13 million from June of 2017 to June of 2018. This placed him seventh on the list of the year’s wealthiest writers.

Persistence is a Plus

You can buy kamagra 100mg online with or without prescription like on line viagra , cialis, order cialis online, Lipitor, ladeegra, Ed trial pack, Crestor & more. Medicinal help to treat men’s erectile dysfunction has developed as the PDE5 inhibitor class of drug that can work to oppose and restrict the impotency favored mechanisms carried out by this body enzyme helps to restrict the blood flows to the penile tissue structures in order to turn cialis generic mastercard them lifeless and incapable. The produces are available at any authorized medical store. cialis without prescriptions San Soo Gab San What makes this course extra special is the fact that free viagra 100mg you get to see the desired results. Persistence pays off. Thirty-one (31) publishers turned down Patterson’s first book (see my blog post of October 31, 2017 for additional info about the author). He didn’t give up. He finally got it published. And now he is worth three quarters of a billion dollars.

Rowling didn’t give up either. She was a single mom who lived in a small flat while going to cafes to write Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. She often took her daughter Jessica (named after Jessica Mitford, the British investigative journalist and activist, who was J.K.’s favorite author). Jessica slept in a pram next to her while J.K. scribbled away.

J.K. said she was as poor as possible without being homeless — severely depressed and considered suicide. Christopher Little, an “obscure London literary agent,” finally accepted Rowling’s book, after she was on the receiving end of many rejection letters.

Grisham didn’t give up either. He felt that the fact that he had successfully completed law school – persevered through years of study, then taking the bar exam – was ideal training for the task of persisting through the obstacle course that is publishing.

All earnings describe June 1, 2017 thru June 1, 2018. Figures are pretax; fees for agents, managers and lawyers aren’t deducted (and you can be sure they’ll get their share). NPD BookScan and Box Office Mojo collected the data. Industry insiders, along with some of the authors themselves, were interviewed for the study.

The world’s 11 highest paid authors sold nearly 25 million print books combined in the U.S. alone over the one year period. Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train, was most likely #11.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

FJ Felsburg, ghostwriter, publisher and marketer, lives in Western North Carolina with his beautiful wife and hyperactive dog, surrounded by woods infiltrated with snakes, raccoons, bears, bobcats, white squirrels and turkeys.

The PINK Panther vs. The GREEN Hornet

One of the hottest thought leaders out there these days in Daniel Pink.

One of Pink’s claims to fame is he is a former speechwriter for Al Gore. He has also delivered a very popular TED Talk. And he has written five “provocative” books, including Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us and To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others. He is now releasing a new book entitled When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing.

Regarding To Sell is Human, I was in sales for many years. You can analyze the topic of selling until the cows come home. Libraries and bookstores are filled with books on what motivates people to sell effectively. As far as I am concerned, the best philosophy on selling is compiled in the book, What it Takes to Succeed in Sales: Selecting and Retaining Top Producers by Jeanne and Herbert Greenberg. You could make the argument that it isn’t so much a book about “how” to sell as much as it is a book about whether someone should be in sales or not. Nevertheless, it is a classic.

The Four Tenets

I also think it is easier to remember the Greenbergs’ four tenets than it is to remember Pink’s three tenets of selling. To Sell is Human, as I understood it when I read it six or seven years ago, distills selling down into three categories, which he contrasts with the Alec Baldwin character, Blake, in Glengarry Glen Ross. While Blake insinuates it is as easy as ABC – Always Be Closing – Pink says the ABC’s of selling are Attunement, Buoyancy, and Clarity. That may be true, but I think the Greenbergs make a better case.

The late authors of What it Takes to Succeed in Sales were cochairmen and principals of Caliper Corporation, a Princeton, New Jersey – based HR consulting and psychological testing firm. Their thesis was that there are four elements: Empathy, Ego-drive, Service and Ego-strength – that are paramount in a salesperson’s motivation to succeed. They even concur with Pink that the “carrot-and-stick” approach doesn’t work any longer.

One of the reasons I feel the Greenbergs’ case is rock solid is, I confess, subjective. I remember the four things, even after six or seven years. So that you don’t think I have an ax to grind with Pink, I think Drive is a masterpiece. After all these years, I also remember Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose. Perhaps it’s because my wife’s name is Pam. Or, that I realize that it ie is Pam. Or, that I realizered is a blogger, a runner and a golfer in Western North Carolina.

My favorite joke is “The Calipes good to have a MAP when you drive. And, it doesn’t hurt to be AMPed up to sell.
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Performance Improvement

Herb Greenberg, who passed away two years ago, was instrumental in the development of assessments in the HR industry. The Caliper profile has assessed the potential of more than 3.5 million applicants and employees. Pink, on the other hand, seems to be just hitting his stride. He is presently on a book tour to promote When. To incentivize you to buy the book (which I find ironic since he favors intrinsic motivators), he has been offering 1) a free T-shirt, 2) a 30-minute interview with he and Adam Grant, and 3) a PDF daily planner.

Pink has sold more than 2 million copies of his books. He combines psychology, biology and economics in his writing (he seems to like threes). In Drive, his seminal book, he defines Autonomy as “the urge to direct our own lives.” Mastery, he says, is “the desire to get better and better at something that matters.” And Purpose, he describes, is “the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves.”

Perhaps A Sports Analogy Will Help

As an avid sports fan, I can see how true this is. I see teams win it all, then implode, primarily because they have lost their purpose (somehow, Bill Belichick hasn’t seemed to have gotten the memo). The owner then often has to gut the entire team to get the chemistry and initiative back. The players’ salaries are so astronomical that they are not motivated to the extent they were before.

I absolutely agree with Pink that it is better to be motivated intrinsically than extrinsically. After all, I often tell people my favorite joke is “How many psychologists does it take to change a lightbulb?” The answer: “One, but the lightbulb has to want to change.”

As for getting around to reading Pink’s new book, I will do it when the time is right.

As a new resident of North Carolina, I am having trouble embracing their sports teams. Am I a Carolina Panthers fan? Not particularly. Am I a Charlotte Hornets fan? No. Nor am I either a Pink Panther or Green Hornet fan. But I wholeheartedly agree with both Dan Pink and the Greenbergs that whatever you do, it is better if you want to do it.

About the Author

Frank Felsburg is a blogger, a runner and an avid golfer in Western North Carolina.

A Movie in Your Head

The slogan “A Thousand Songs in Your Pocket ” introduced the iPod. It was a breakthrough technology that really caught on. The slogan even made sense. It explained the problem that it solved – portability – or the lack of space. Of course, Apple put its marketing muscle behind the campaign.

Imagine if books had a slogan. What would it be? “Books don’t need a slogan,” you might say. “Everyone understands their benefit.” Well, yes, most people do, but slogans often make the case better (for proof, see “Yes We Can” or “Make America Great Again”).

While most would agree on the benefits of books, there is ongoing debate about which format – digital or print – people prefer to read them in.

Why would anyone want to read a digital book?

Some people argue that digital books are overtaking print books. For example, Neilson reported that 50% of all fiction sales are in e-book format. I wondered about this and other similar claims and contemplated whether they are hype or reality. To put it in the vernacular, “Is it fake news?”

My wife has an e-reader but we never use it. We recently moved and we don’t even know where the device is. It is most likely still in a box in the workroom. But we don’t miss it.

I read a report that said that E-book sales plunged nearly 20% earlier this year. And sales of e-readers declined by more than 40% between 2011 and 2016. Then I realized that many people are reading e-books on tablets and smartphones, rather than dedicated e-readers – so there are a significant number of people that pick digital over print. Some people just prefer multi-functional devices to e-readers such as Kindle and Nook.

In Defense of Print

“I like to hold the product” was the reason most people prefer printed books. Many admit that print books are a break from electronic devices or social media. Some people feel print books are the new vinyl.

I recently read a study that indicated that 65% of Americans reported reading a printed book in the last year or so – vs. 28% who read an e-book.

And, while I couldn’t help but wonder if e-readers were more hip, I now find out that younger readers are driving the appetite for print.

My Own Research

I recently sat down with a 72 year old avid reader, and asked him why he liked e-readers. Not surprisingly, his answers were mostly financial. He had downloaded the Kindle app onto his laptop.

I came away from the discussion realizing that, like many other things, preference often comes down to price. People don’t want to pay $19.95 for a book anymore. Especially when they can buy a used copy on Amazon for $1. Or an e-book version of it for $5.99-$9.99.

It is just a matter of preference. Some people like vanilla ice cream while others fancy chocolate.

In my mind, there is no doubt that the debate will continue. What isn’t debatable is that people still like to read. Pew Research ran a study and the results showed that 26% of readers indicated that they do so for three main reasons: learning, gaining knowledge and discovering information. Other reasons people read are:

  • 15% escaping reality
  • 12% relaxation
  • 6% the variety of topics
  • 4% spiritual enrichment
  • 3% mental challenge, and
  • 2% physical properties of books (feel and smell)

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If you’re big into digital, check out Digital Book World October 2-4, 2018. Next year’s conference will be held in Nashville, TN. Score Publishing, the producer of the iBA Conference, acquired Digital Book World’s event from F+W Media. The event will be held around the time the company normally holds its iBA conference. Score Publishing is best known for VoiceFirst.FM, a media network centered around voice technology such as Amazon’s Alexa, Google’s Assistant and Apples’ Siri.

If you prefer print, a better conference for you might be BookExpo, to be held at the Javits Center in New York City, May 30-June 1, 2018. I hope to see you there.

By the way, the best slogan I have seen for books is “A movie in your head.” The slogan holds up – regardless of whether you have a print, or digital, copy of it in your hands.

About the Author

Frank Felsburg ghostwrites books, articles, blog posts and whitepapers. He can be reached at frank@spokenandwrittenwords.com, 828.595.2485 or @fjfelsburg.

“Terrible” Writing Takes Time

There’s a novelist who has become very wealthy in the cut throat world of publishing. His name is James Patterson. Perhaps you’ve heard of him. He is presently writing a crime fiction book with Bill Clinton.

What you may or may not know about Patterson is he worked his way up in the advertising industry from junior copywriter to become CEO of J. Walter Thompson North America. JWT was one of the premiere ad agencies in the world with accounts like Kraft Foods, Burger King and Toys ‘R’ Us.

Patterson has written nearly 150 novels. He has been the world’s best-selling author since 2001 (ahead of J.K. Rowling, John Grisham – and even Dr. Seuss), with over 300 million copies of his books in print. He has a team of co-writers, several TV deals and an annual income of nearly $100 million. His total income over a decade is estimated at $700 million and Forbes lists him as the wealthiest author.

Humble Beginnings

Out of high school, Patterson worked at a psychiatric center and read books while there, to pass the time. He went to Manhattan College for his undergraduate degree and then Vanderbilt University for his masters.

His first book, The Thomas Perryman Number, about a Nashville newspaperman on a murderer’s tail, was rejected by 31 publishers before Little, Brown published it in 1976. He wrote it while he was working at J. Walter Thompson. It sold about 10,000 copies. He moved up from junior copywriter at JWT to become the youngest creative director in the firm’s history.

Breakthrough

Patterson’s breakthrough book, Along Came a Spider, was the first of his Alex Cross books. Alex Cross is an African American homicide detective in Washington, DC. The author promoted it using advertising, which was unheard of in the publishing industry.

The ad rolled out in three thriller markets: Washington, DC, Chicago and New York. The book debuted at #9 on the best seller lists and rose to #2. The #9 ranking afforded it favorable shelf location near the entrance of the store. This prime physical position is probably the biggest single factor affecting book sales. There are now over 5 million copies of Along Came a Spider in print. Alex Cross became a booming franchise.

He changed the model

His books include short chapters and reminders of what happened prior, in case readers put the book down the night before. And the books also include a bonus “free preview” of another book he has written. He knows what’s going to grab people. His books beckon the reader, as if to say, “Buy me, read me. I’m not Ulysses!”

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These days

He is very involved in the designing, marketing and advertising of his books. His target market is largely women, who are Patterson’s faithful readers. The writer works with a special staff at Little Brown, which is owned by Hachette, and is believed to account for 30% of their revenues.

He now produces a dozen to 20 books a year. He writes seven days a week, 365 days a year. His books are published in 38 different languages. At 67 titles, he has the most NY Times bestsellers. One out of every 17 novels bought in the United States is one of his.

He owns a home in Palm Beach, which he paid $17.5 million for, and is now worth much more.

Nearly all of his books are published several times – first as traditional books, then as pocket-sized, mass-market paperbacks. It reminds me of the Beatles’ White Album (formally called The Beatles). It is their only two record album. The rumor was that if you played it backwards, you heard someone say “Paul is dead.” Those who bought into that myth and tried it had to go out and buy another copy of the group’s most expensive record because playing it backwards ruined the grooves. That’s some pretty astute marketing.

Patterson has written in just about every genre – science fiction, fantasy, romance, graphic novels, YA and non-fiction. His fastest growing category is YA.

Stephen King called him a “terrible writer.”

About the Author

Frank Felsburg works with professionals who want to communicate their value through writing, speaking and marketing. He does this in a number of ways including ghostwriting books and helping Subject Matter Experts create, prepare for and deliver speeches – and positioning them so they stand out in a noisy world. He turns speakers into authors and authors into speakers.

Are Books Still Relevant?

The lowly book. Books in general. I’m not talking about any one in particular. But in a high tech world, are they still even significant anymore?

These days, people seem glued to their mobile phones, often at their peril. Books have lost their luster, one could argue.

There are many people, and I confess I am one, who sit on the couch and alternate between looking at their device and the television set. People have fallen prey to what I call the “Shiny Object Syndrome.”

Is Journalism Dead?

The rule of thumb in journalism is “If it Bleeds, it Leads.” This has led to a “Who can be the most outrageous?” mentality. It’s the world we live in. In a soundbite society, sensationalism sells. No wonder there is so much fake news. People’s attention spans have shortened. And their interest in checking sources is even less vigorous.

Books to the Rescue

Books were in the limelight last weekend as the Frankfurt Book Fair was held once again. It is the largest publishing event of the year and its attendees include nearly 300,000 visitors, 7,275 international exhibitors (from locations as diverse as Kazakhstan, Mauritius and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) and 10,000 journalists, bloggers and influencers. The “Frankfurter Messe” (the book fair) originated (some say around 1478) not many years after the first book came off Johannes Gutenberg’s printing press in Mainz, a short volksmarch away.

Meanwhile, that same weekend, back in the good ole USA, Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, was banned because it “made people uncomfortable.” I couldn’t help wondering about the times we live in. “How can this book, or any book for that matter,” I pondered, “be censored in a free society?”

Mockingbird was trending on Twitter, so I followed the thread. Tweets appeared such as (from @michelledaviso6) “You know what makes me uncomfortable? Censorship. That’s what makes me uncomfortable. Say NO to book banning!” @jamilsmith tweeted “Teach only “comfortable” books about racism in America, and you get students raised to be comfortable with racism.” And @CharlesMBlow posted “Uncomfortable? Who said the job of great literature was to make you comfortable? The opposite is true…”

Any Publicity is Good Publicity

Why there is a book out there entitled The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck and yet To Kill A Mockingbird is banned – is beyond me. Apparently, Mark Manson, author of The Subtle Art …, has a good PR agent – but Harper Lee, who died last year, didn’t. Another book that has been condemned is The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Even Dr. Seuss got thrown under the bus. It makes me wonder if Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood would air on television today.

Powder long pepper (2 or 3)and fry it in a spoon of cow’s ghee and add viagra generika in österreich it to your cart and make payments. viagra levitra online However, few oversensitive men may experience prolonged erection, shortness of breath and skin rashes. Nonspecific buy cialis overnight is a professionally prescribed prescription along these lines expediting erection. When a person smokes, harmful chemicals are absorbed by his purchase female viagra lungs. Fortunately, there are still good books out there. And many of them can also be read. You might have to disguise them by reading it on a Kindle (if you insist) – or reading it at home – but there are nevertheless copies in circulation.

Many think the book is dead and that people are resigned to watching TV and checking social media. But the book will never die.

We live in an information explosion. So we get to pick and choose what we digest (unless you’re a student and you have to read something as exciting as Thus Spoke Zarathustra).

Takeaway

Perhaps the tweet I liked the best last weekend was “As an AP Lit teacher, I used to give the annual banned list to students. They made it a point of honor to read them to see for themselves.” This reminds me of the philosophy that there are three ways to get something done: 1) do it yourself, 2) hire somebody to do it for you, or 3) forbid your teenage child to do it.

So perhaps the banning will cause people to read more books – and seriously consider where we are as a society.

Now, if only they would ban Plutarch’s Lives.

About the Author

Frank Felsburg is a ghostwriter of books, blog posts, white papers and web content. Recent projects include a stint for Forbes magazine on angel investing, as well as articles on commercial real estate and medical technology.

 

When is a Good Time to Curl Up with a Book?

We’re all so busy these days. And information is coming at us at warp speed. There’s a lot of drinking from a fire hose. It’s exhausting!

With everything going on in the world, and all the various opinions out there – right or wrong – wouldn’t you like to get away from it all – at least for a few hours?

You probably would. But do you ever take the time to curl up with a good book and enjoy the simple pleasure of reading a page turner? Some people do. Many don’t.

As I look out my window and see the snow coming down, I can’t help but think of simple pleasures like hunkering down with something that will be good for the soul. I don’t drink coffee or hot chocolate. Instead, I get a high from running or by reading a well written book.

You must have one on your shelf. If not, they are abundantly available at your local library. You could even order one from Amazon and have it delivered to your door in the next 24 hours. So even if you are snowed in – you have no excuse.

A Good Selection

Here are a few books on many peoples’ radar which are either new or seeing a resurgence:

A Dog’s Purpose (published by Tom Doherty Associates), by W. Bruce Cameron, is written by the same author that wrote 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter and How to Remodel a Man. The general consensus on Goodreads is that it is a feel good book worth the read.

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Political Books

Depending on which side of the political spectrum you are on – or whether you watch Fox News or not – there are 1984 by George Orwell (published by Penguin) and Killing the Rising Sun by Bill O’Reilly (published in 2016 by Henry Holt & Company). Martin Dugard wrote O’Reilly’s book. The Fox News commentator promotes it on his platform.

In addition to 1984, which was published in 1949, also being recycled from a bygone era are It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis (published by Doubleday) and Fahrenheit 451 (published in 1953 by Simon & Schuster), written by Ray Bradbury.  

On a personal note, I once attended a Philadelphia 76ers basketball game where Monica Seles, the former professional tennis player, was in attendance. Signing autographs, she came up the aisle I was sitting in. My friend Paul fished for something in his attaché case for her to sign. He pulled out a copy of Bradbury’s classic and she signed it.

I recently read that Seles is engaged to Tom Golisano, the owner of Paychex, since June 2014.

According to Wikipedia, “In February 2011, Golisano became the spokesman for National Popular Vote Inc., a non-profit organization seeking to implement a popular vote system for presidential elections by harnessing the electoral college.

I guess in some ways we can’t get away from it all. But we can try.

About the Author

Frank Felsburg is a content strategist, publisher and marketer of books. He can be reached at 828.595.2485, frank@SpokenAndWrittenWords.com or @fjfelsburg