I posted a press release today regarding the upcoming release of my new book Reality Check. I’ve never done anything with press releases, so it was a good learning experience! Feel free to check it out and read it here.
Category Archives: Books
Buying Books
Filed under Books
Since I’ve shared a few posts about books lately, I thought I would give a few ideas for how I get my books….
- Usually once every few months I will clean out my bookcases and sell off any books I don’t need any more. There are some books that you use during certain seasons of life that may no longer be needed, so instead of letting them collect dust, why not sell them off? I’ve listed books on eBay, Half.com, but most of the time I take them to local bookstores and either trade or sell them.
- Before I buy a book, I will usually see if the library has it first. It’s nice to be able to at least scan through it and figure out if it’s a book to just read once and be done with it, or does it have enough “meat” in it that I would refer back to frequently. If it’s just a good one-time read, then I won’t have wasted my money buying it.
- Rarely will I buy a book brand new. I almost always buy books used. It is much less expensive for the same product. I buy used books through local stores but usually through Amazon. With any book you look up on Amazon, you can see a list of used books to order. You will almost always save money ordering the book used.
- One other thing I almost always do is read user reviews on Amazon. I’m not always interested in what professional reviews have to say. Rather, I want to know what the average Joe thinks, because my opinion of the book is generally closer to the average Joe than a professional.
Any other good sources for finding books you would recommend?
Book Reading List…
Filed under Books
I always try to have something I’m reading but recently I went on a book binge and sold a bunch of old books and ordered a bunch of new books. Here’s some of what I’m reading…
The Starfish and the Spider – The subtitle gives a good summary of this book: “the unstoppable power of leaderless organizations.” If you cut off the legs of a spider, it dies, but if you cut off the legs of a starfish, it grows new legs in their place. So the authors talk about leaderless organizations like a starfish. Think of examples like Wikipedia or Craigslist. These are organizations that have offices and headquarters but for the most part, what they do is run by the people and the customers themselves. Anyone can go add or edit any Wikipedia listing and the Wikipedia organization isn’t sitting and waiting to police the system. The users do that. Same with Craigslist. So the argument is made that if you create organizations that let the people run the system, it creates a better experience for everyone. Very interesting read. I’ve really been trying to figure out how I can make this work in what I do with students.
The Spark – This was a quick and simple fiction story based on Cirque du Soleil. It is about a man who gets a major backstage tour of the inner workings of Cirque du Soleil and begins to find that creative fire for his own work. Because it is fiction based, it doesn’t have a lot of specific ideas and tips but getting a glimpse at how such a creative organization like Cirque operates through the eyes of a fictional story was very interesting.
Naked Conversations – This book is about blogging, so don’t think this is a new style of speaking I’m trying! I don’t plan on having naked conversations with anyone! I currently write a blog and am trying to do some new things with it. This book seemed to be a good intro into blogging but I didn’t find much beyond that. I will say that after the first few chapters, I ended up skimming through most of it, so there’s a strong chance I missed some of the nuggets that may been in there.
Here are some other books I’ve ordered and will begin reading shortly…
A Technique for Producing Ideas
Reality Check – This isn’t out yet, but I’ve heard it’s supposed to be pretty decent! I’ve also heard you can download some sample chapters here!
Book Update #8
Today, I was completely stoked to have the UPS man drop off the proof of my book, Reality Check. It wasn’t completely in book format, but it was one last chance to look over everything and make sure it was correct.
It was somewhat surreal flipping through the pages and realizing we’re almost at the finish line! I spent some time going through the little details of it and making sure everything looked good. Once I finished, I shipped it back to the printer and now that they have that proof approved, they will start cranking them out!
My birthday is September 23, so I’m shooting for a major book delivery by then!
In the meantime, if you haven’t had a chance to read through a preview of the book, you really should. At the top of the page, click the Reality Check link, or you can download the sample chapters directly from here.
The Book Is Headed To Print!
Strike up the band…
Cue the Hallelujah chorus…
The book, Reality Check, is nearly complete!
Yesterday, it was one of the greatest feelings in the world to be able to take the completed manuscript proof to put in the mail. I felt like literally hours and hours of work had come together for that moment. I’m so stoked and can’t wait to get the books back!
From here, the printer will get the book by Monday and will check over the files and develop a sample proof to send me, which I should get about a week and a half from now or so. Once I okay that, print time will be about 3-4 weeks and then they’ll ship out after that. So we’re looking at probably late September to have the finished product in hand!
Book Update #7
I just got back my book manuscript completely laid out in the book format. I must say it looks killer, and I can’t wait to get it printed up. I made a few more copies at Kinkos for myself and a few others to make some final changes and then we will go to print in the next few weeks!
I’m also in the process of uploading the book to Amazon.com, so I’ll let you know when it’s up there.
We’re so close!
Get A Sneak Peak At The Book…
We just added a new page to the website for the upcoming release of my book, Reality Check. On the page, you’ll find out how you can keep up-to-date on how and where you can pick up the book when it is released, tell others about it, and also get a sneak peak into the book.
You can now download a little preview that includes the cover, table of contents, introduction, and five FREE chapters! I’d love for you to check it out and let me know what you think. Visit www.grantbaldwin.com/realitycheck.php or you can download the file here!
Book Update #6
It’s been a little over a month since I’ve really said much about the book, so I wanted to pass along an update. The book is really coming along well and is right on track. I received back edits from several people and have been going through the book paragraph by paragraph, trying to reword, rewrite, and edit every little bit to make it as good as possible. We’re reordering several chapters, cutting some chapters, merging others, and adding some new ones.
It’s a long, tedious process but in the end, it will be worth it. Right now, I’m close to half way through the editing process and am hoping to be done by next week.
I think we have settled on the cover design which is pretty exciting. Here it is as we have it right now…
Let me know what you think on the cover…
We’re still on track to have the book printed and in hand by probably late September, so I’m pretty jazzed about that!
I’ve also put together five sample chapters that we will make available for download sometime next week.
What I’ve Been Reading Lately…
Filed under Books, Thinking Out Loud...
I’ve been meaning to make a post on this and just keep forgetting. I was on the road quite a bit in June and here are a few books I read:
- The Shack – William P. Young. A very interesting Christian fictional book to get you thinking. Not sure I agree with everything but definitely opened my eyes to some things.
- Meatball Sundae – Seth Godin. Finished this a few weeks ago on the plane and loved it. Seth Godin is a phenomenal marketing mind and really causes me to think about how I approach my business.
- Founders at Work – Jessica Livingston. Interesting book where the author interviewed about 35+ entrepreneurs about how they started their company. Primarily successful internet startups such as HotMail, Bloglines, Apple, and Craigslist. A little too computer-technical for me at points but I always enjoy hearing how businesses started.
- Self-Publishing Manual – Dan Poytner. I’ve heard this from others but if you’re going to self-publish a book, this is the resource to read. Great, practical steps and ideas for writing, printing, and marketing your book.
One thing I continually say is that 100 years ago in factory days, people were paid based on how many widgets they could produce on an assembly line. In today’s economy, you are paid based less on what you can do and more on what you know.
It is a knowledge based economy. The more you know, the more valuable you are.
If that’s the case, then what are you doing to learn something new and make yourself more valuable?
Book Update #5
I’m stoked to announce that I am done writing my book! It has been quite the process but I finished up basically all the writing elements needed for this project. I ended up with an even 50 chapters plus an introduction and a wrap up chapter. I also finished writing all the extra stuff you got to do…copyright page, acknowledgements (maybe you made the list), back cover text, about the author, and everything else that has to get written.
Now it is time to transition into editing mode. This is where we throw it all in the fire and hopefully only the best will come out. Of course the whole thing may just burn up and well, that would suck. We’re still on track to have the book out by this fall, probably in late September.
I can’t wait to have the finished product done but beyond that, I can’t wait for students to get their hands on it and hopefully it will help them with the difficult transition into the real world of life.
