BWPrice's Marketing U

Happy Monday

I have no idea why one would want to do this, however, it is interesting nonetheless.  Ladies and gentlemen, I give you "How to Hollow a Book 80 in Easy Steps" (complete with pictures). This is not for the faint-hearted nor those who consider the defilement of a book sacrilege but, on second thought, might be a nice way to hide valuables around the house in plain sight.

This is, I believe, the result from step # 73. 

New Book: The Bank Director's Valuation Handbook

I was posting quite regularly for a while, then things dropped off to only "Happy Mondays."  Why?  Because we were in the midst of launching yet another book.  This one is entitled "The Bank Director's Valuation Handbook: What Every Director Must Know About Valuation."

Per Mercer Capital's website:

Why Is This Handbook Important?
Valuation issues intersect with a bank’s affairs more often than you may imagine, and they are likely to arise during your tenure as a director or manager. These valuation issues might include merger and acquisition activity, an employee stock ownership plan, capital planning, litigation, or financial planning, among others. Mercer Capital has been working with financial institutions for over 25 years and has provided valuation and other financial consulting services to thousands of clients. We find that most of our clients have the same basic questions about these important valuation issues. This handbook is written to address many of these questions and to provide useful information for bank directors and managers when valuation needs emerge. It is unique in that it focuses specifically on valuation-related issues, and is designed to be a ready resource rather than an academic treatise.

Who Should Read This Handbook and Why?
This handbook is written specifically for bank directors and managers. It provides basic information and insight into those circumstances that involve valuation and other financial consulting. Each chapter addresses a valuation issue that might surface at your financial institution. Meant to stand alone, the chapters summarize the key issues on which you should focus and provide insight and a vocabulary to assist you in asking the right questions of your professional advisors.

You can get your copy here.

New Book, Revenue Ruling 59-60 at 50, is at the printer!

One of our newest books, Revenue Ruling 59-60 at 50: Rediscover Fair Market Value is at the printer.  We are expecting delivery any day.  From the text on the back cover:

Tagging a text with the label “classic” should not be done carelessly.  But 50 years after its initial release, few would disagree that Revenue Ruling 59-60 deserves the title.  Written in the spare, unadorned style of a government publication, the Ruling is a compact storehouse of enduring practical wisdom for business appraisers and the users of appraisal reports.  

At Mercer Capital, we decided the 50th anniversary of the Ruling’s release was a fitting time to compile this book.  Having been actively appraising privately held businesses for over 25 of the 50 years since the Ruling’s issuance, we find ourselves often returning to the Ruling, whether for guidance in novel situations or simply to confirm some intuition.  In short, it is a trusted companion.  

Our purpose in writing this book is twofold: first, to offer a guided tour through the Ruling, pointing out some of the most prominent features of the landscape (and providing the occasional warning about rough terrain); second, to pull back the curtain a bit, granting a non-technical view of how appraisers (at least this group) attempt to translate the guidance found in the Ruling into actual valuation engagements.

To review the chapter list, keep reading.

Gettin' out there

Just because some of the new books (Buy-Sell Agreements: Ticking Time Bombs or Reasonable Resolutions?) are falling apart, doesn't mean we're still not marketing!  (We're just not selling them right now.  The new non-defective books should be here today or early next week - I hope!  If you have no idea what I'm talking about, see here.)

Radio Days - If you're interested, tune into the Heartland Business Roundtable radio show tomorrow (Saturday, March 17 at 10:00AM CST) via the internet (streaming at www.kxtr.com) to hear an interview that Steve Johns (of Value Added Mentoring) did with Chris Mercer, our CEO, about the new book, Buy-Sell Agreements: Ticking Time Bombs or Reasonable Resolutions?.

Viral Internet - Professor Bainbridge likes the book ("I recommend it very highly." - emphasis his).  Given that Professor B likes the book, another blogger picked it up.  We've sent the book to two other influential bloggers hoping they'll read it, like it, and blog about it.  Only one problem - they received books from the pool that was defective.  It's always something. 

I am now afraid to use the book, because I do not want to have to do that again

Our latest foray into self-publishing has hit a snag.

My book "exploded" and the pages went all over the floor.  I picked them up, sorted them, and put them back in order-I think.  I am now afraid to use the book, because I do not want to have to do that again.  I would really like to get a new book.

I left the book on my desk with the first 10 or 20 pages turned back to mark my place.  When I came into the office in the morning, the first 10 or 20 pages had separated from the binding.

My first reading was through page 17; the title page through page 4 came loose. Pages 170-176 have already fallen out.In my book, the outside cover has come away from the spine a little bit and a few pages “look” like they could come loose.

... the book (which I think is excellent) is unfortunately falling apart!

However, the positive news is this is what we're hearing about the content:

... the book itself is terrific - sophisticated, refreshingly thoughtful and the first really new ideas (to me, anyway) in this area I've heard or seen in a long time.

So what do you do when you find out that books you are self-publishing and selling are falling apart in the hands of readers?  Well ...

Where did I put my keys to this thing?

I'm back.  Hopefully somebody missed me.  I missed you, dear readers.  I was away not because I'm a slacker (although I felt like slacking many times) or because I had run out of things to say (this is a blog which, unfortunately, by it's very nature tends toward vapid discourse so why should that stop me?). 

I was away because I was too busy to be here which I know is a mortal sin in the blogosphere, however, please forgive me because I was working on the printed word in another form - I was bringing a printed book to life (that's it over there to your left designed in-house by our very talented Matt Washburn).

Now that sounds more interesting (and a bit more dramatic) than it was/is.  And, no, I didn't write the book. Our CEO, Chris Mercer, wrote the book and did it quite well - using his blog (www.merceronvalue.com), by the way, as a drafting tool.

The title of the book is Buy-Sell Agreements: Ticking Time Bombs or Reasonable Resolutions?. 

While that may not sound like a page-turner to some of you, it's a very readable and useful book (350+ pages) and of interest to many more people than an average reader of this blog might think. 

This is a self-published book that we have been working on for over a year.  Several folks here provided review and editing.  When I picked up the manuscript in November thinking that we were almost done, I discovered that it still needed quite a bit of editing.  We had to get it to market by the end of 2006 and if I didn't stop everything I was doing right before Thanksgiving and work almost exclusively on the book, it wouldn't have happened.  I won't go into all the details here.  I will share those with you in a future post.

I will say, however, that this book was our first experience with print-on-demand.  I'll share the advantages and disadvantages of this technology in a day or so.

In the meantime, if you want to purchase the book, it's only $79 - a steal!

Status of book project

I've been out of town for several days and in my absence not much has been accomplished on the buy-sell agreement book.  Ugh.  However, there is a new wrinkle ... on-demand publishing which was suggested by our CEO and the author of the book. 

We're checking out this option because of the flexibility it provides.  By using on-demand printing, we can change the cover and co-brand the book with, say, industry associations who want to offer it to their members.  If law firms want to send the book to their clients, one of their attorneys can write a forward and we can produce a number sufficient for them.  You get the picture. 

I'll keep you posted as to the pros and cons of on-demand printing vs. traditional printing.  Should be interesting.

Bookstores are Lousy Places to Sell Books

The title of this post is true and is often stated by Dan Poynter, the self-publishing guru.  Now we have some outside confirmation.  In yesterday's "Just an On-Line Minute" by Tobi Elkin of Media Post, comes this information (keep reading):

According to a survey conducted by BizRate Research for comparison shopping site Shopzilla, bricks-and-mortar bookstores are becoming good venues for meeting blind dates. After restaurants, bookstores are the second most popular locations to meet blind dates for both women and men (61 percent versus 52 percent).

Yet when it comes to buying books, 78 percent of respondents say they are regular shoppers at online bookstores like Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble.com, and big discount retailers like Target.com and Wal-Mart.com.  (emphasis mine)

For you who are considering self-publishing but really wanting to see your or your firm's book at Borders, get over it!  Remember, one of the primary goals is to sell your book so make sure it's on Amazon.com. 

Regarding Barnes & Noble, the last time I checked, you had to have a distributor which not all self-published authors do.  We don't.  We stick to Amazon.  Anyone can get on Amazon.  I have no idea how you get your book into the big box retailers but I'm positive that most self-published works have no chance. 

So, give up the dream of seeing your book on the shelves at Borders or Books-a-Million in favor of actually selling the book through direct channels and the internet.  And, as a brief aside, don't spend an inordinate amount of time and money on the cover since most covers are designed to catch your attention, where?  ... at the bookstore!  That doesn't mean the cover is unimportant.  It is.  It, alone, however, will not sell the book.

And, as for a bookstore being a great place for singles, I have to think that's true.  If I were single, that's one place I would hang out.

"You can find out a lot about a guy in a bookstore," Rebecca Opp, a production manager from Los Angeles, Calif., told BizRate. "I especially look for single men in the cookbook, business, and pet sections of Barnes & Noble."

Good luck, Rebecca!

  -- Barbara Walters Price