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Reflections, Accomplishments, and Regrets

Baby
Newborn baby and stork ushering in the New Year. Saturday Evening Post Illustration (1907) by J. C. Leyendecker. Public Domain. Wikimedia Commons.

So here we are—a New Year—a time when everyone looks back to the prior year but more importantly, everyone looks forward. I’m no different. It’s good to sit back and reflect on what you have accomplished but it’s even more important to stop and think about the strategy and goals for the next year. In other words, build onto your prior accomplishments.

Yooper Publications was able to publish 3 books in 2014: Where Did They Put the Guillotine? —Volumes One and Two and Slippery Slope: The Erosion of Truth and Personal Liberty in America. These were the tangible results. However, there were so many more results that I can’t cover them all in this blog post. The most important result in 2014 was our ability to create a team of professionals who could produce very high quality books. When I hand a copy of any of these books to someone or I know a book has been sold, I’m very proud to have my name on the cover.

Sigh…

I’m sitting back right now and producing a huge sigh of relief at our various 2014 accomplishments. It was like being on a very fast revolving merry-go-round. Each week during the year, I developed an agenda to discuss with the team. There are always at least 10 to 15 separate items to discuss: where we’re at, resources needed, deadlines, conceptual issues, marketing, fulfillment, distribution, digital marketing strategies, and so forth. Read More Reflections, Accomplishments, and Regrets

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Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in

Pachino
A mold of Al Pacino’s face from the Godfather III. Photo (2013). Pollack man34. Creative Commons. Wikimedia Commons.

Remember when Michael Corleone uttered those words in Godfather III?

Aren’t there times when you feel the same way? Every year when you look back and think, “Next year can’t get any crazier than the one I just went through” and then it does—they pull you back in.

Never in my wildest dreams did I know what I was getting into when I began writing the non-fiction book proposal in April 2012 for my walking tour book on the French Revolution. Now here we are, the first two books (Where Did They Put the Guillotine? —Volumes One and Two) have been published in 2014. The third book, Where Did They Burn the Last Grandmaster of the Knights Templar? —A Walking Tour of Medieval Paris, will be published in March 2015 while the fourth book, Where Did They Put the Gestapo Headquarters? will be published in December 2015.

What I really didn’t comprehend at the time was the complexity of taking on all of the publishing components. It has been quite a journey and one that I’m glad I took. I’m not done yet. Now that we have product, we’re entering into the fourth and fifth component of publishing: the distribution and marketing/public relations. Like the music industry, the distribution component is the one that the traditional publishing industry is having a hard time getting its arms around.

Everything’s a process…

Read More Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in