A New Business Model and a New Bestseller?
Every so often a literary agent gets the chance to represent a book that is so unique in every way that it is a privilege to represent. Last week I was given the opportunity to handle such a property. However, I must confess, that I did not immediately “get” the book, largely because it breaks most every rule of business book publishing. First a bit of history.
Two European authors—Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur—spent years putting together a stunning book on business models entitled BUSINESS MODEL GENERATION. The two authors had a great deal of help with the design and content of the book, as it was co-authored by 470 Business Model Canvas practitioners from 45 countries, which in itself is highly unusual for any book, business or otherwise. The authors self-published two versions of the book, starting with a gorgeous 4-color hardbound version that lays flat when you set it down on a desk or table.
Some weeks ago I was contacted by author Alex Osterwalder asking if I would represent him and the book (I was referred to him by one of my other authors). My first reaction was to refuse taking on the book. After all, even though the author self-published 5,000 copies of the book and sold them all through his website (businessmodelgeneration.com) , there was no “official” record of those sales so I knew that publishers would be quite skeptical of the book. And that was only one roadblock. There were also several other obstacles the book faced that would make selling it to a top notch publisher an uphill battle:
* The authors were not based in the U.S., which often complicates matters
* The book has a “clunky,” awkward title (Business Model Generation does not roll smoothly off the tongue)
* The book has a very high price tag of $46.99, more than double the average price of a bestselling business book—and in an impossible economy to boot
So I did not take on the book. Then, some weeks after the authors sold out their 5,000 copies, they reprinted 10,000 copies of the book. Now here is where things get really interesting. On February 3rd, 2010 the authors managed to get a third party seller to sell the book on Amazon. Finally, the authors would get some help in selling the book beyond their own websites (the other site is businessmodelalchemist.com). But once again, there were obstacles that made it very difficult to sell the book on Amazon:
* It’s not even Amazon selling the book on Amazon, but a third party vendor
* It is very difficult to even figure out the price of the book on (see the Amazon page for the book)
* There is absolutely no discount offered for the book (usually Amazon discounts books by 40 percent)
* The Amazon page is so bleak, it makes the book appear as if it is out of stock
One would think that all of those obstacles would derail the book, but a funny thing happened to the book on the way to the bestseller list. The minute the book became available on Amazon, buyers came out of the woodwork to purchase the book. Within 48 hours the book ranked as high as #74 on Amazon, an amazing feat for most any business book and especially this one. Since then, the two versions of the book have occupied two of the top 25 slots on Amazon’s list of bestselling management books every single day. This kind of success is so rare that I would classify this book as a “phenomenon” book, one that beats huge odds to become a bestseller (and this is before any publisher has entered the picture). This time I did not repeat my mistake and happily agreed to take on the project.
Last week I contacted a handful of my favorite editors/publishers and this time I was not surprised when every publisher I notified expressed interest in the book. Given the success of the self-published versions it was hardly surprising that interest among publishers would run high. By this time next week we should have found a great home for the book, with a publisher that sees the book for what it is: an exceptional product that is helping to build a community of people who appreciate all of the blood, sweat and tears that make this a one-in-a-million book and opportunity.
Winning in the Zero-Growth Decade Ahead
This week marked a milestone for me and my relatively new publishing business: I signed on to ghost write my first major book project. The book—a much anticipated watershed book that is the brainchild of one of Wall Street’s most sagacious former money managers—will be published by McGraw-Hill, the same great publisher that employed me for more than a decade. Although in months past I had been offered the chance to work on other books as a ghost writer and/or book doctor, none of them felt quite right until this one. But I am getting ahead of myself. Let me back up a bit.
A few years back I contacted Gary Kaminsky, one of the managing partners of ”Team Kaminsky” at Neuberger Berman to see if he might like to write an investing book. Gary—a money manager with nearly two decades of hands-on experience—was both cordial and professional when he told me that he simply couldn’t. His day job of helping to manage more than $13 billion in assets consumed all of his time and taking on a book project then was simply out of the question. However, I knew Gary’s record as a money manager—he was simply one of the best around, routinely outperforming both the averages and the returns of most other money managers. He also made scores of appearances on CNBC, and his presence and platform was only building. Given his track record and rising star, I was not about to give up. I kept Gary’s cell phone number on speed dial in the hopes that one day he might be able to do the book.
That hope became a reality in late 2009. Gary had left Neuberger Berman—which had been acquired by Lehman Brothers—four months before Lehman crumbled. Gary, a visionary in the markets, also had the vision to recognize that Lehman was headed down an inescapable road of ruin and wanted no part of it. He was now free to pursue a book project and I was determined to be his guide and partner into the world of business book publishing. Luckily, Gary and I hit it off from the start. After only a few conversations and a meeting at The Ritz Carlton in Chicago, I interviewed Gary for a full day in his suite at the Ritz. Unlike most first time authors, Gary was focused like a laser on his message. He knew exactly what kind of investing book he wanted to write—a book that would make a bold prediction about the future while peeling back the murky layers so that retail investors would learn Wall Street’s dirtiest secrets. We called the book WINNING IN THE ZERO-GROWTH DECADE AHEAD: HOW TO MAKE MONEY WHEN MARKETS GO NOWHERE and we spent the next ten weeks collaborating and refining the book proposal. We were then ready to meet with publishers.
Every one of those meetings went well. Every publisher we met with was enthusiastic and brought something special to the table. However, it was clear from the start that McGraw-Hill felt that this was a book they had to have. They brought a talented team to the meeting with us (represented by editorial, marketing and publicity), and then described how this book would be their tent pole for their fall 2010 list. Another upside in selecting McGraw-Hill was that I would have the chance to work with people I truly loved when I worked there.
Now comes both the hard part, and the fun part. Gary and I have to write the book. But if the proposal process was any indication of what it will be like to work together, we should have little problem putting together one great book. After all, neither of us are strangers to hard work, and we both share Gary’s vision for the book. If all goes as planned, look for the book on store shelves by year’s end.
Business Book Editors at the Top of their Game
Last week I had the chance to meet with many editors from the most prestigious publishing companies in the industry. All of these smart people publish business books, although many of them publish in other non-fiction categories as well (e.g. history). I am writing this post to tell you how completely blown away I was by the collective intellect of these publishing professionals.
I visited these publishers in my capacity as a writer (a ghost writer) and/or as a literary agent, but my purpose for meeting with them did not alter the fact that some of the smartest people in the industry publish business books. That makes perfect sense, given the fact that business publishing continues to outperform many other publishing categories. Put another way, people buy business books even when the overall economy is limping along (although they buy fewer when things are really tough—but the drop-off is worse in other disciplines). Given that reality, it is no wonder that publishing companies assign some of their most talented editors to the business category.
You may be asking, didn’t you expect these editors to be bright? Yes, but their level of thoughtfulness, their vision and their intellect surprised me. For the most part, these people were not only gifted, but they were both interested and interesting as well.
So if one of your book proposals gets turned away by a business book editor or group of business book editors, do not take it personally. Business is still one of the most competitive of all business categories, and the collective intellect of business book editors does not change the fact that every successful business book must be fresh and innovative, and every winning business book author still must possess a mighty impressive platform—the kind that will help the publisher sell thousands of copies of the book.
My Publishing Outlook for 2010
I must forewarn you that I am an optimist at heart and always will be. However, I am also a pragmatist and have learned that “facing reality” is one of the most important business philosophies if one is to succeed. That said, I believe 2010 is going to be a very good year for business books.
2009 was anything but.
Many publishers were forced to scale back their programs, lay off scores of good editors, marketing people, and other professionals—all while combining and reorganizing various imprints. They did all of this against an ugly backdrop of an awful economy and a liquidity and housing crisis that sunk the Dow to multi-year lows in March of 2009. If you are wondering what the Dow has to do with business book publishing, the answer is “everything.”
Sales of business books—all business books, not just investing and finance titles—are very much dependent upon a strong stock market. Now that the Dow is over 10,000 once again and consumer confidence is up for the second month in a row, sales of business books will likely improve in the first quarter of 2010. However, we are not out of the woods yet. We are still seeing publishers continuing to cut positions and reorganize publishing divisions. But I believe that we are in the seventh inning on that—much nearer to the end than the beginning. Those publishers that do not cut back so sharply will fare the best when things turn around. Some publishers are positioning themselves to come out on top by continuing to aggressively acquire new titles to be published in 2010 and 2011. Of course, a great deal depends on the books and publishing programs of various houses. Unfortunately, several topics have already been over-published—think Bernie Madoff and the Liquidity crisis— and that trend will continue (publishers always follow trends and tend to saturate markets very quickly).
However, there are many great business editors out there who are acquiring and publishing original and compelling books. These innovators will be the ones most amply rewarded when the economy comes back. And the economy and the financial markets always come back…eventually. I happen to be one of those who believe that it will be sooner rather than later.
The Killer Book Proposal
The most common question I get from first time (0r even second time) authors focuses on how the publishing process works: How do I get started? How do we make sure that publishers will be interested in my book ideas? How do I set my work apart from the pack? These are good questions, and the answer to them are all the same.
It all starts with a killer book proposal.
Much to many authors’ surprise, it is a rare event that a publisher gets an entire manuscript in the mail. Instead, publishers get book proposals to review. And while no two proposals are constructed exactly the same way, the best of them contain the same elements—those key segments that all editors look for. The purpose of this posting is to give you an idea of exactly what needs to be included in every business book proposal. For those “big” books—one that you feel could break out and make a bestseller list—your proposal should run about 50 pages in length. That’s what is required to give editors and publishers a complete, three-dimensional picture of your book. As to what should be included, consider the following:
* A synopsis of the book, describing the book as vividly as possible. Make it sound compelling. Draw a picture of what the final book—the finish line—will look like. This overview of the book should not only paint a vivid picture of your book, it should also be written to draw readers in. This first critical section of the proposal should run about four to six pages but could be longer or shorter depending on the book topic, what you intend to write in other parts of the proposal, etc.
* The primary benefit of the book: also known as the USP, or unique selling proposition; what will readers get out of your book that they can’t get elsewhere? This could be part of the synopsis of the book or could be written as a separate—albeit brief—section of the proposal. The key here is to make your book sound like a “must have,” rather than a “nice to have.”
* A quick description of the target audience: this is important, since it will tell us who you are trying to reach. Is it a general Wall Street Journal audience, or higher level, such as financial professionals? If it is a leadership book, is it for “C suite” executives? Or is it for most anyone who sits in a cubicle? This section can be written in a couple of paragraphs, but is nonetheless important.
* Competing books:tell us what books are closest in content to your book. However, this is a bit tricky. The key is to include books that are not only similar to yours, but have also sold well. You may not know which books are successful, so this is one key area for your literary agent to step in and help. Most agents subscribe to a service which includes the sales records of all books published in the U.S. One additional note of caution: you should not include books that have sold hundreds of thousands of books, especially if you are a first time author or someone with anything less than a spectacular track record. Including blockbusters as competitors will make editors think you have unrealistic expectations or even a bit delusional.
* Books specifications: all relevant specs—the length of the book, number of tables, graphs or other pieces of art, and how long it will take you to write the book should be included. Is this a 150-page book or a 350-page book? This is the section that gives editors real insight into the length and level of the book you intend to write.
* A chapter-by-chapter summary: These are crucial, and should run one-to-two pages in length. This is where you put the meat on the bone and give editors real detail on the content of the book. Make sure you include a table of contents first, and then list every chapter title followed by a detailed description of all of the key topics to be included in the book. This is the longest part of the proposal. If you have, say, a fifteen chapter book, then this section should run about 20-30 pages.
* One complete chapter: This is particularly important, especially if you are a first-time author. This shows publishers how talented you are as a writer, while also providing the most amount of detail on one particular topic in the book. Make sure you select a chapter that really is pivotal to the book, and one that you know very well. It should also be one of the most interesting chapters in the book.
* Your bio and platform: This is yet another critical—and usually the final—part of the book proposal. However, your platform—those things that you do that will help sell copies of the book, re: seminars, speeches, TV appearances, social networking presence, etc.—is so important that I usually ask authors to include aspects of the author platform throughout the proposal. For example, if you are an author that appears three times a week on a cable news channel, then you might even lead with that way back in beginning, in the synopsis of the book. The key here is to use your judgment, and remember that the author platform is one of the most important determinants of whether or not a publisher (or multiple publishers) will make an offer on your book.
Find a Writer that Speaks Your Language
Many of the best books that I have worked on over the years have had a ghost writer. There is absolutely nothing wrong with bringing on a professional writer to help you to repair or write your book from scratch. I have always believed that if you’re not a “natural” scribe, then bringing someone on board to help transform your idea into a reality makes perfect sense.
I am also of the school of thought that it is best to hire a writer at the beginning of the process—not in the middle or the end. I learned this lesson the hard way. Once a project goes off the wheels, it is a difficult task to get it back on track. Starting out with the correct writer gives you the best chance of success—and will help you to complete the job much faster than if you have to find a “book doctor” months down the road (I have worked on scores of books at all points of completion and have produced the best books when facing blank pages at the project’s birth).
Once you establish the point that you need a ghost writer, it is best to find someone who speaks in your tongue. An example: when I worked at Portfolio (Penguin), I signed an author who told me he decided to publish with us because I spoke the language of finance/investing. That worked out very well, as it allowed us to collaborate much more closely than would have been possible with the publisher he eschewed in favor of us. That book ultimately garnered incredible reviews and sold close to 100,000 copies.
History and experience are the keys to finding the right author. I have been investing in the stock market since I was 13, and held the title of Publisher of Investing and Finance unit when at McGraw-Hill. It was at McGraw that I worked with investment titans Jack Bogle, Jeremy Siegel and Charlie Ellis.
So if you are writing a management book, make sure that the writer speaks management, a finance book needs someone who knows investing, and so on. You may have to pay more for the right author, but this is not the place to be stingy. Good business authors are in very short supply; that is why they are expensive, and exceptional authors even more so. But remember, this is a book that has your good name on it—one that you will have to live with for many years to come.
When No Track Record is Better than Some Track Record
I talk to dozens of authors who have written one book without the benefit of an agent who realize the error of their ways, and search out an agent for book number two. That makes perfect sense. They tried doing everything themselves first time around, so they look for professional help for their next outing. However, in the majority of these cases, Book 1 did not sell well, and might have even been an outright bomb. That usually makes the next conversation with that author a difficult one.
But isn’t the mere experience of writing a book and getting it published something that editors like?
The answer is an unequivocal no—if that first book bombed.
In this difficult sales environment—or any sales environment—you are only as good as your last book. That’s why it is better to have zero track record, a clean slate, than to have a poor track record. And it does not matter why the first book failed. Publishers and booksellers don’t care why a book failed, just that it did. That’s why it is so important to make sure that you put your best foot forward in Book 1, and not “experiment” with a marginal idea. Here is where a good literary agent can really help. An experienced business book editor has a pretty good idea of what kind of business book has a reasonable chance of success. So the moral of the story: get a literary agent as early in your book writing career as possible. If a book writing career is important to you, securing an agent may save you years of heartache down the line.
The 4E’s of Leadership: Still the Best Management Model
Long before The Unforced Error, there was one of the best management models I have ever learned. In fact, it was the subject of an entire book entitled JACK WELCH AND THE 4E’S OF LEADERSHIP and it turned out to be one of those quiet classics that still sells today—five years after its original publication.
That’s because this management model is timeless and works in any kind of organization, of any size. It’s also a simple model that anyone could grasp quickly (although the detail in my book helps to make this model operational in no time). First let’s define the 4E’s:
Energy: People with energy go 75-miles-per-hour in a 55-mile-per-hour world. People rich in this “E” jump out of bed in the morning ready to take on all challengers. They need no caffeine to operate at peak performance.
Energize: Energizers articulate a vision and then get others to turn that vision into a reality. They spark others to perform. They take the blame when things go wrong but give others the credit when things go well.
Edge: People with Edge know how to make tough decisions. They know when to say yes and when to say no. They avoid the maybes. These solid decision-makers are more valuable than ever due to the turbulent times in which we do business.
Execute: At first there were only the three “Es” above. But GE discovered that some managers who were rich in the E’s above still did not make their financial targets. That’s when the fourth “E” was added. Managers who possess this “E” get things done. They make all of their commitments and make their numbers.
Those are the E’s. If you are an employee or a manager, you should work toward improving your “E” quotient. If you are a hiring manager, look for people who have these traits. If you want to learn how to put them to work in your organization—and you will forgive the self-promotion—get your hands on the only book that explains how to implement this model step-by-step—Jack Welch and the 4E’s of Leadership.
A Person Could be the Biggest Unforced Error of All
Tennis players often get to choose their doubles partners. In the world of business, you can’t always choose the people you work with. As a new employee or manager, you are assigned to a particular team or unit. However, one of the big responsibilities that comes as you rise into the ranks of management is the authority to hire new teammates. And it is in this critical area that managers often make the biggest unforced errors of all.
The best managers understand this. Under Jack Welch, less than one percent of GE’s “A” [best] managers jumped ship, demonstrating how well GE hired and developed people under his leadership. The legendary CEO Alfred Sloan, who turned General Motors into the world power it became in the 1920’s, 30s, and 40’s, would spend hours interviewing potential managers for positions that seemed insignificant from his vantage point on the org chart. However, when Peter Drucker asked him why he spent four hours interviewing a manager for his Toledo plant, Sloan answered unflinchingly: if I don’t spend those four hours now, he said, I will have to spend 400 hours cleaning up the mess. And that’s time I do not have.
Hiring bad partners or colleagues is obviously not restricted to sports and business. In my new book, The Unforced Error, I use the example of Sarah Palin. At a time when the Republican candidate was five to seven points behind his Democratic challenger, McCain panicked. Even though his strongest case for voters was his experience—veteran senator, war hero, foreign policy experience—he abandoned all of that when he chose the inexperienced Alaskan governor, Sarah Palin, as his running mate. The junior senator from Illinois, in contrast, ran a near-error-free campaign. At first, Palin energized the base. However, when Katie Couric interviewed Palin in prime time, the Alaskan governor choked. Not being able to answer what magazines or newspapers she read was a huge unforced error that proved to the world that she was not ready for prime time. When she said she could see Russia from her living room as evidence of her foreign policy experience her fate was sealed. Soon after her numbers sank and along with it any chance for a Republican victory. While very few of us get to run for any office at that level, the story illustrates how choosing the right people is one of the most important decisions any manager ever makes.
Where Have You Gone, Jack Welch?
In the last post I described how most people who work for large organizations are eliminated—not fired. However, at the highest levels of U.S. corporations, executives are getting fired by the boatload. I am talking about the CEO, the person at the top, the one who must be held accountable for the organization’s actions and results.
CEOs are getting fired in record numbers in recent years. As in tennis, the higher you go the more costly the unforced error. In one recent year, one out of every five CEOs of the top 200 companies were fired (that according to a Booz Allen study). Research also shows that between 1995 and 2006, CEO firings shot up by sixty percent. These are terrible numbers and point to a disturbing trend. CEOs are making more mistakes than ever—especially more serious, career-altering errors.
All of this CEO turnover is wreaking havoc on the publishing world. In the 1990’s, books by—and about—CEOs were a cottage industry. Led by Jack Welch, CEO books sold like…well, CEO books. There was of course Welch, but also other CEOs like Bill Gates publishers could count on. However, since Jack Welch retired most of a decade ago, there has been no one to take his place (the only one who has come close is Warren Buffett). The celebrity CEO is a dead phenomenon, and book publishers along with company stockholders are left weeping at the graveside.
Will the superstar CEO ever make a comeback? Perhaps. But more than half a century ago, Peter Drucker wrote that “no institution can possible survive if it needs geniuses or supermen to manage it.” Maybe Drucker was right. Maybe we don’t need celebrity CEOs to run our companies. Perhaps all we need are leaders with more humility than hubris; executives more concerned with the fundamentals than the fame. This won’t do anything to reinvigorate the CEO part of the business book category, but it might be just what we need to help lead us out of these recessionary times into a more prosperous era.
- A New Business Model and a New Bestseller?
- Winning in the Zero-Growth Decade Ahead
- Business Book Editors at the Top of their Game
- My Publishing Outlook for 2010
- The Killer Book Proposal
- Find a Writer that Speaks Your Language
- When No Track Record is Better than Some Track Record
- M&A, The “Mad Men” Way
- Thanksgiving and Publishing
- Dow 10,000: A Sign of Things to Come?
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About Jeffrey
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As former Vice President and Publisher of McGraw-Hill's trade business books division, Jeffrey Krames has personally edited and published more than 275 business books, including many award-winning, best-selling titles on business luminaries that include Jack Welch, Michael Ovitz, Ross Perot, William Paley, Michael Dell, Bill Gates, Herb Kelleher and Lou Gerstner among others. Read more...
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The Unforced Error
Sneak Peek - Chapter One!
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