Reviews

Book Review: The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur

Beware The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur has a potty mouth, but that’s what makes it endearing and an engaging read. Author and TP entrepreneur (TPE) Mike Michalowicz uses it as his brand. Anyone who doesn’t like potty mouth is probably not his ideal audience anyway. While potty humor — especially in the movies — tends to gross out, Michalowicz uses the humor well without disgusting the reader.

Michalowicz advice comes from his experience. In fact, he has lived in a retirement village because it was all his family could afford while he was trying to start his business.

The book gives you the playbook for your business whether starting out or already going. With less than 200 pages and plenty of examples, it’s a fast and engaging read thanks to the simple conversational writing style. He doesn’t do framework, concept or academic talk (read: boring) — at least not much. Instead, he tells you what you need and urges you to go do it plus throws examples to show how to put the idea in action.

He gives you idea how to get something for very little or nothing. That’s what it means to be a TPE: making the most of the little bits of toilet paper left on the roll with no full roll within reach.

Throw away the business plan. It’s useless. I agree with him because I’ve seen businesses grow and succeed without a business plan. However, he encourages cobbling together a one-paged prosperity plan that makes you cry and hits home along with a quarterly plan and daily metrics.

The book makes an effective first step for anyone thinking about or diving into entrepreneurship. It contains most everything you need to know including what you stand for, focus, marketing and financial management.

No. B.S. Just what you need to get off the pot and make the most out of what you already have.

I’ve added The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur to my list of short and powerful reads.

• Title: The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur
• Author: Mike Michalowicz
• Publisher: Obsidian Launch, LLC
• ISBN: 0981808204 / 13: 978-0981808204
• Date: 2008
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 199 (my copy shows 175 making it a short and powerful read)
• Cover Price: USD: $24.95

Book Review: Tuned In

“Tuned in” explains the difference between Apple Newton’s failure and iPod’s success. Apple wasn’t tuned in when it created Newton, but when it promoted “1000 songs in your pocket,” Apple solved several problems: giving people a way to carry their songs in something small, making it easy to get songs from computer to iPod and creating a product that is easy to use.

Not all stories in Tuned In: Uncover the Extraordinary Opportunities That Lead to Business Breakthroughs come from big and innovative companies like Apple. In fact, we learn about a tuned in magician (one-person business), niche camera (not a well-known brand), StubHub and a company’s newsletter.

Many companies fail to ask prospects what problems they need solving. Instead, they create a problem and a solution that they think people need. An excellent example comes from Magnavox. Did the company think people needed more features on their TV sets?

No. Instead, Magnavox interviewed customers to find out what problems they had with their TVs. Sometimes customers don’t know that answer and it’s up to the tuned in company to help them figure it out. Through this process, Magnavox stumbled on a problem we all have (including my own household) — we lose our remotes on a regular basis (as hard as I try to teach my kids to put things back, they conveniently forget to do it).

So what does the company do? Added a button on its TV sets to locate the remote. Now I wish I knew about this before I bought my last TV. And this feature should become a standard for ALL TV-related products that come with a remote.

Some employees think talking to friends and family helps them tune in. But really, it doesn’t. They can’t always be the dream customer for a company’s products and services. Here’s where knowing customers enters the picture. When a company knows its customers well enough, it knows where to find them and interview them to tune in.

The book could use more examples especially of one-person or very small business stories like the magician who found his niche. The start of the book captivates, but then it drags by the middle as it falls in the trap of what some business books tend to do and starts spending too much time on its framework. The examples draws the reader in more than anything else.

For the most part, the Tuned In: Uncover the Extraordinary Opportunities That Lead to Business Breakthroughs is a fast and breezy read offering valuable insight into the six-step process for tuning in by using real-life examples.

• Title: Tuned In: Uncover the Extraordinary Opportunities That Lead to Business Breakthroughs
• Authors: Craig Stull, Phil Myers, David Meerman Scott
• Publisher: Wiley
• ISBN: 047026036X / 13: 978-0470260364
• Date: 2008
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 224
• Cover Price: USD: $27.95 / Amazon Price: $16.77

Links: 2009-01-09

• Manta: Database with the profiles of over 40 million companies.
• Best Internet Marketing Posts of 2008 [Link: Jason Falls]: Amazing list.
• How to Write Fast.
• Minimal Web Sites for December.
• 80 Best Lifehacks of 2008.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• Notebook: Amazing animation. Amazing patience.
• Jane Austen Facebook: Humorous phony Facebook page with her characters.
• Tilt Shift Photograph: Are those real or toys?
• Fail Blog: Fail moments in pictures.
• Adtunes: Find music in commercials, soundtracks and more.
• blippr: twitter of reviews. Reviews in 160 characters or less.

Hey! Your Book Review Sucks!

Having just read two great articles about book reviewing, it felt appropriate to make this the next, “Hey!” blog entry.

Joanna Young and Joyful Jubilant Learning ask what do you look for in a book review and Lillie Ammann reviews The Slippery Art of Book Reviewing.

Bad Quotes

These quotes tell the story of what not to do in a book review:

Now that this book is here, I can’t imagine not having it. My copy will be worn out before long.

We could easily insert this in almost every book review

A simple (and great) way to show that the choice of being a leader just depend on us.

This is the ENTIRE book review!

I read the book prior to its release. It’s a really interesting and informative read.

We don’t care when you read the book. (Puts on Freud hat) So, tell me why you feel that way?

This book is really badly written.

Tell me why you feel that way? The rest of the review doesn’t back up this statement.

A Book Reviewer’s Template

I agree with Joanna that I like Tim Milburn’s template:

When I read a book review, I want the following:

Ultimately, I read book reviews because I want to make an informed decision about investing in a book or bypassing it. A good review will pique my interest in a book or throw up red flags.

Me, the Book Reviewer

I admit that as a book reviewer, sometimes I feel pressured to produce a “good” review especially when connected with the author or to do a review of a book I don’t want to review. I’ve turned down email requests for book reviews directly from the author or publicists, but some manage to compel me to do it anyway.

When I write reviews, I think of readers first. My words could help them to decide to buy or not to buy. I don’t want to waste their money any more than I don’t want other reviewers wasting mine.

Obviously, I’m not a perfect reviewer as my Amazon reviewer ratings have plenty of “not helpful” votes.

Readers’ tastes and mine won’t be the same. Therefore, I need to give an overview of the book and its style (without rehashing the publisher’s summary), so readers can judge if it meets their tastes. I identify strengths and weaknesses.

An Example

A great example is 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die (1,000 Before You Die). Read the reviews and you’ll see comments such as “not enough (genre)” or “how can the author forget (song)?” The better reviews discuss a missing genre and why it needs to be included. One reviewer made an excellent point of how some songs won’t have the impact alone as it’s the reviewer’s experience with another one of a composer’s songs that made a difference to one of the songs listed in the book.

Some reviewers list the table of contents, which is silly because most online book stores provide that. Now, if they provide a summary of the major chapters — that’s a different story. It’ll get boring fast to list every chapter title followed by a brief comment.

Long reviews don’t mean better reviews. I’ve seen one- or two-paragraph reviews blow away eight-paragraph reviews.

Feel free to share your thoughts about good and bad reviews — even if it’s my own.

Book Review: The Perfect Board

Knowing how to balance a checkbook provides us with an important life skill. A person who can’t balance a checkbook (or these days, reconcile a credit card as few write checks) will struggle to ensure s/he has enough money to pay bills.

Not everyone needs to understand how a board works, the process for running board meetings, and the rules of order. However, the knowledge comes in handy throughout our lives whether as a volunteer who sits on a board, a parent who belongs to a school PTA, or an employee who attends meetings.

Let’s say a PTA dad joins the PTA and volunteers once a month. He receives the general meeting minutes and the budget. With a fresh eye and an accountant’s background, he catches an error. He cares about the school’s PTA and wants them to operate on sound principles, so he reports the error to the president or treasurer.

In a time where ethics fell by the wayside, we need to educate ourselves on board practices. The Perfect Board helps the reader who has never been on a board, a member of an organization that wants the organization to function effectively, the chair who needs to understand the process, and the freshman politician stepping into the walking on eggshells world of politics.

People become afraid of making change to ensure the board and organization stay on track. Understanding official guidelines will support a person in any efforts to steer things back on course.

The Perfect Board begins with meeting a newly appointed board member, Rebecca Mayfield, who doesn’t know what to expect. She receives a referral to meet with EJ, a man who knows about boards. The start and end of the book uses a fictional story to ease the reader into the book and make it a fast read at about 100 pages. A fast reader could read the book in 20 or 30 minutes.

Rebecca makes herself comfortable and reads EJ’s The Perfect Board notebook, which starts a new page for every topic presented in a logical order covering the basics from quorum and bylaws to reimbursement and audit committee. Each section contains an overview of the topic without weighing the reader with cumbersome details.

The book follows up with Rebecca after settling in her job and establish new policies based on what she learned in reading EJ’s The Perfect Board notes. This short ‘n sweet lesson teaches the critical action a board member should take to ensure the organization functions well.

The title would serve better as “The New Board Member’s Guide” or something along those lines because the book covers the topic at a high level and doesn’t dive into details to help experienced members build better boards.

The Perfect Board would make a perfect gift for Incoming presidents and board members especially first-timers. Considering many who join a board have other roles and responsibilities (parenting, full-time jobs, etc.), the book’s easy and fast read gives readers what they need to know without feeling bogged down by technical details found in policies and rules of order.

• Title: The Perfect Board, second edition
• Author: Calvin K. Clemons
• Publisher: Ovation Books
• ISBN: 097902756X
• Date: 2008
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 110
• Cover Price: USD: $16.95

Book Review: The Thing About Life Is That One Day You’ll Be Dead

The Thing About Life Is That One Day You’ll Be Dead contains a mixture of an autobiography and facts about the body’s growing and aging. The stories told and the given facts both humor and depress readers. Rather than linearly cover author David Shields’ life from childhood to adulthood sprinkled with quotes and stories about his and his father’s lives, the chapters jump around with random thoughts and stories.

One chapter might tell a story about Shields’ teen years, or another support facts that his father’s quite the stud, while another does nothing but quote statistics. Whether a reader will like this roundabout tactic probably largely depends on the reader’s life, age, and gender. The description of Shields’ father sowing-oats lifestyle might turn off a woman in her 30s. However, I can relate to some of Shields’ writing as a fellow parent. He discusses living and thinking as a father.

Though Shields explores the father-son relationship, it won’t tap a female reader’s memories much as it would a male’s. I recently lost my own father and had a great relationship with him. This book didn’t compel me to think about our times together. However, men past their 30s might recall their relationships with their fathers or see hope for them as they age.

Sometimes the reader will think, “Who cares?” or “That’s fascinating.” Sometimes readers will laugh and sometimes readers will turn depressed at the thought of aging and dying. No matter the age, readers will go through a range of emotions in reading this stream of thoughts writing.

Readers wanting to understand the aging process without the scientific-speak might appreciate Shields’ approach with its mix of storytelling and giving facts in a flowy way instead of the way a doctor would describe aging. Shields’ writing easily captivates, whether or not readers like the contents.

Shields shares embarrassing and personal things about his teen and adult years that many wouldn’t share with anyone. This provides readers — especially men — with the opportunity to know they aren’t alone in experiencing similar situations. As a woman, I know I would appreciate a female sharing such experiences to confirm I’m not the only one who experienced something or felt a certain way about something.

Truth is - whether you’ll like Shields’ writing depends on your experiences, taste for a non-linear style book, and the flip-flopping between story and statistics. The Thing About Life should please those who’d love to be fly on the wall in a man’s life or read about health and living in the same way as a history book, only without the dull educational writing style that tends to appear in many health and history books.

• Title: The Thing About Life Is That One Day You’ll Be Dead
• Author: David Shields
• Publisher: Knopf
• ISBN: 0307268047
• Date: February 2008
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 256
• Cover Price: USD: $23.95 Amazon: 16.29

Book Review: Sell Your Book on Amazon

Despite a way too long subtitle and “salesy” claims, Sell Your Book on Amazon surprises. Its format simplifies finding the sections of interest - couple that with the ratings from five stars indicating “a must do” item to one star meaning “Don’t waste your time.” Authors who publish their books using a print-on-demand (POD) service will benefit most from this book.

However, authors with books published through traditional publishers will find useful tactics. Nowadays, authors must do their own marketing instead of relying on the publisher. Most authors don’t reach the popularity of bestselling authors like the John Grishams, J.K. Rowlings, and Malcome Gladwells. These authors need not worry about marketing.

But that’s not the case for most of us. So we have to research and figure our way around sites like Amazon from a different point of view than a shopper’s. You may already be doing some or most of the recommended activities discussed in the book. Or maybe you could do more to boost sales.

Naturally, Sampson spends most of the book discussing Amazon’s Profile Page (which he often references as Author Profile Page, but that’s not what Amazon calls it) and Book Detail Page. Despite my using Amazon since the early ’90s when it was just an online bookstore, I’ve picked up a few things from the book.

For instance, I didn’t know that authors can set up a “Search Inside” page. I thought that was under the publisher’s control. You may have to deal with your publisher in terms of your contract and Amazon’s contract. These little tidbits may justify the cost of buying the book.

Authors certainly can request reviews. Sampson, however, recommends asking for a five-star review, rationalizing the advice by saying a book will get plenty of reviews that aren’t five stars. It’s just not right for an author to tell me (a reviewer) this.

Yes, a highly rated book will get a boost, but I believe requesting a review is enough. Ironically, in the letters I received for reviewing the book — they make no mention of recommending I provide a five-star review.

In the intro, the author mentions BXGY. What’s that? I look for BXGY in the index and find other pages covering the abbreviation that explain it. Most, if not all, writing style guides say to expand an acronym or abbreviation on first occurrence. Or else you waste the reader’s time in trying to figure out little things like this.

The tactic ratings are imperfect. For example, I disagree with the five-star rating on Amazon’s blog feature. Blogs do have a place — just not in Amazon. I would rather read the author’s blog on the author’s own site. It clutters Amazon with more marketing material. Furthermore, Amazon offers other ways to get your URL listed. Nonetheless, many probably find value in authors’ blogs. The important thing for authors remember is to use their best judgment in prioritizing what features to address. They know their target market and their needs.

Sell Your Book on Amazon works well as a resource. Authors can browse the tactics for what interests them. Then study those tactics and put them to work. The ratings offer a general guideline of a tactic’s importance — but ultimately the author can decide what’s best.

Not all tactics in the book are about things authors can do. A couple — like Amazon sales rank and Latest Activity features — explain what they are and how the processes work.

While the book’s description makes promises of increasing sales by 20 percent at a minimum and thousands of dollars in royalties — don’t expect a quick fix. It takes time to put the tactics to work and build on them. These tactics can increase book sales, if authors follow up and follow through.

Successful authors tend to read a lot. As such, they are also Amazon’s target market for the book section. Writers keeping this in mind will examine at other author’s profiles and book pages. In doing this research, they will discover what they like and don’t like about these pages. Authors who apply what they’ve learned to their own profiles and book pages will improve their Amazon presence.

Amazon lists the number of pages in the book as 184. The book only has 164 pages. Regardless, the book contains less content since the narrow margins stretch out the content. Notes appear on the sides for highlighting points, but there aren’t many to justify putting the contents in a narrower than normal margin.

Content nitpicks aside, the formatting speeds finding tactics you want to work on. Although this review points out issues, Sampson does a nice job of organizing Sell Your Book on Amazon and showing step-by-step how to do each tactic. Overall, the author offers common sense tips and advice for taking advantage of Amazon’s features. Since the book is an easy and light read, it won’t be difficult for overwhelmed authors to “get around” to using the book.

• Title: Sell Your Book on Amazon: The Book Marketing COACH Reveals Top-Secret “How-to” Tips Guaranteed to Increase Sales for Print-on-Demand and Self-Publishing Writers
• Author: Brent Sampson
• Publisher: Outskirts
• ISBN: 1432701967
• Date: March 2007
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 164
• Cover Price: USD: $14.95

The Success Effect Book Review

The Success Effect takes a different tack to many books with interviews by printing them in question and answer format. Such an approach doesn’t always succeed. However, Eckberg successfully culled great material from past interviews and put them together to create a conversational and educational resource.

A chapter consists of an interview and interviews range from a couple of pages to over ten pages and every bit — no matter the length — is worth reading. Eckberg adds a dash of color to the interview by including the interviewee’s current music and reads. These appear as “Books on the nightstand” and “CDs in the changer” (obviously these interviews occurred before MP3 players became commonplace). Some interviewees share their favorite meal or what’s on their coffee tables.

The chapter titles for the interviews come from the interview’s main theme, which covers risks, persistence, communication, loyalty. Interviewees hail from various careers and industries including doctors, entrepreneurs, professors, and inventors in the industries of high tech, real estate, sports, and more.

Eckberg, a business reporter with The Cincinnati Inquirer, kept his tapes from interviews he conducted as a reporter. He discovered he had a gold mine in his tapes as the interviews together offer unusual tidbits and insight into the minds of these successful, innovative, and intelligent people. The result is a lovely quilt where the patches come from the leaders’ stories.

Neil Rackham of Huthwaite, Inc. discusses how people buy today and how sales personnel must change to remain successful. David Pelz, golf coach, advises that practicing good habits helps players improve. If you repeatedly practice using bad form, you don’t improve — instead you “become a more consistently mediocre player.” It doesn’t take much to see how valuable this advice would be in other aspects of life.

Thanks to Eckberg’s atypical questions, the answers don’t sound like anything you’ve read or heard before in a business magazine, a news interview, or a Web site’s contents. Furthermore, these interviews could be over a few years old, but most of the shared thoughts are timeless.

Whether you’ve heard of the person interviewed doesn’t matter. In fact, the interview with Donald Trump wasn’t insightful. Reading The Success Effect resembles listening to a conversation between two intellects without the big words. This coupled with Eckberg’s conversational style writing makes the interviews with successful people who have become significant an enjoyable read.

• Title: The Success Effect: Uncommon Conversations with America’s Business Trailblazers
• Author: John Eckberg
• Publisher: Sterling and Ross Publishers
• ISBN: 0976637243
• Date: March 2007
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 256
• Cover Price: USD: $22.95; Amazon: $15.61

Cradle of Persia PC Game Review

I enjoyed, Cradle of Rome, the predecessor to Cradle of Persia, so I was excited when I heard this one was coming. It took longer to get into Cradle of Persia. Eventually, it hooked me, but not as much as its ancestor hooked me.

The major difference between the two comes in how you make the match three. In Cradle of Rome, you select three or more items to make the match. Cradle of Persia not only requires selecting three or more items in a row, but also deciding which direction to go in making the match. If you make the match starting with the first object and moving to the right, the objects behind the first match will move right to replace the matched items’ spots. The same goes for all directions.

It took time to get a handle on this new thinking because the direction you move in can create a new and needed match or break an existing match. Despite the need to use the brain in making the right move, I still prefer Cradle of Rome.

What made Rome appealing was the process of building the city and adding citizens. It’s a great feeling when the screen pops up saying, “You’ve earned a new citizen!” Persia does the same and changing the theme, of course, and the music fits well with the Persian backdrop.

Unlike Rome, Persia lets you know what you need to do to add a citizen with an associated building. In Rome, you had to hope you made the right move. Right-click any building and Cradle of Persia provides the details including the building type, what you earned, and — if applicable, as not all buildings have one — what task to complete to add the citizen. Having this knowledge does not make the game too easy as some tasks are HARD.

Power ups are included, but they work differently. The power ups are not the same as the original and they each have four levels of power. Level 1 provides the least amount of power. For example, dynamite at level 1 only explodes one box while it explodes more at level 4 power.

The good thing about the four levels of power is that you can gain level 1 quickly and have something to use. In Cradle of Rome, you had to wait until the power up filled up to use it. Waiting for each level to power up can make a person antsy. A power up has a thin green line that glows as you destroy its associated power up. The green line proceeds around in a circle. When the circle completes, you gain another level of power.

Some gamers complain about developers releasing a similar version of a hit game, but Awem Studio did a lovely job Cradle of Persia with giving fans of Cradle of Rome the opportunity to get more of the same game play without being too similar. Awem took care to change the power up types, themes, objects, and tasks for earning citizens.

I’m all for Awem doing another. Maybe the company could explore a different one than the often-used Greek (though I do love Greek myths) or other frequently used themes. American history? African theme? Shakespeare theme?

Cradle of Rome fans will enjoy Cradle of Persia and those not having played Cradle of Rome will discover playing Cradle series as fan as a magic carpet ride (well, unless you’re afraid of heights then it’ll be like discovering a Genie in a bottle.).

• Windows 2000/XP/Vista
• 1.0 GHz processor
• 256 MB RAM
• DirectX 8.1 or later
• 81 MB hard drive space

Peggle PC Game Review

Well, I had my 10 best casual PC games of 2007 all ready to go… then Ken Edwards from Blogcritics.org’s gaming section asks me if Peggle Deluxe is on the list. When I told him I hadn’t played it (I’d never get work done if I play and review every released game), he told me to check it out before posting the top 10.

Oi! Within minutes, I know this game deserves a spot in the top 10. But what unlucky game am I going to knock off the top 10 list?

Before digging into the world of Peggle Deluxe, let me tell you a story. My parents had a classic Pachinko machine with a door handle. It only worked some of the time, but I loved the noise when you hit a jackpot. Years later, Paul and I went to Atlantic City for the weekend and saw modern Pachinko machines with the round handles for sale.

So the first thing that I thought about when playing Peggle Deluxe was that it was a twist on the Pachinko. Sure enough, I found an article about PopCap’s creation of Peggle. Yes, it’s PopCap’s fault that many of us are addicted to several games… Bejeweled (originally Diamond Mind), Chuzzle, and now Peggle.

In Peggle Deluxe, shoot a ball anywhere and let it do the work. The goal is to clear all the orange pegs. After letting go of the ball, sit back and hope it hits lots of orange pegs along with a green peg for a power up and a purple peg for bonus points. Once it makes it through the jungle of pegs, hope that it lands inside the moving bucket that you can’t control. It simply moves side to side. It’s nice not having pressure to control the bucket on top of everything.

The game begins with a unicorn as your guide. Every guide has its own special powers that you earn when hitting a green peg. The unicorn reveals a guide so you can see where your ball goes next after it hits the first peg. I won’t mention the others as finding out their powers is part of the fun. Each character has its own theme that changes the pegs and background to match that theme.

The pegs often line up to look like an object or create a challenging shape. One level had three infinitys, another shows one of many animals, and still another has moving circles. Lots of variety! Impossible to get bored and almost impossible to tear yourself away.

The game compels you to cheer and whoop when you hit that last orange peg thanks to its cool close up slow motion effect. The view zooms in to the last orange peg, which slows down like a dramatic moment in a movie. Now, sometimes you might miss, but when you hit it — Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” plays with booming enthusiasm like a running back scoring a touchdown.

Would you believe that one of the best features — “Ode to Joy” — was originally a placeholder? That’s what the previously mentioned article says.

Occasionally, you’ll be amazed by a move. Watch it again with the “Instant Replay,” that does exactly that… replays the last move. After you play through the quest and conquer all the games with all of the characters, you unlock more game modes including Quick Play for playing a previously played puzzle using any character you want, Duel (to play against someone or the computer), and Challenge that contains 75 puzzles.

Each level comes with a specific amount of balls. The fewer balls you use to clear the orange pegs, the higher the bonus. You can also earn free balls by scoring a specified amount of points or dropping the ball into the bucket.

Just try it — play Peggle Deluxe for at least 15 minutes and you’ll love it. Download Peggle Deluxe from BigFishGames or Playfirst.

System Requirements

• Windows Vista, XP, 2000, ME, 98
• 256 MB RAM
• 700 MHz or faster processor
• DirectX 7.0 or later