I can’t believe the kids are going back to school next week! It’s prompted me to take inventory of what I’ve been doing and post an update.
Even as Borders folds it’s clear that books aren’t going away, especially in the how-to arena, but it’s also obvious that the market will change in fundamental ways over the next five years. As for me, my business continues to focus on helping my clients to empower people who want to do better in school, or do better in their job, or learn something new (even if it means fighting zombies!).
This means that in addition to books I am also focused on new ways to reach learners, including online ed and online training, and video training. I find that these venues can be a great way for my clients to reach people they might not have reached with traditional books, so you’ll see a mix of books and courses below!
A big congratulations to Harold and Phyllis Davis on their continuing success in packaging two stunning series of books on digital photography and photoshop. They’ve added Creative Lighting, and Creative Landscapes to their series with Wiley, now at seven books in all. They also shipped a new title with Focal Press, The Photoshop Darkroom 2: Creative Digital Transformations. So far, individual books from these two series have been licensed for translation into ten languages!
I have a ton of new Dummies titles out now –
Congratulations to Dan Gookin who has worked at an incredible pace this year. At one point Dan had four books in production, sitting at the publisher, which must be some kind of record. His most recent titles include HTC Thunderbolt for Dummies, Samsung Galaxy TAB for Dummies, Motorola Atrix for Dummies (with FB client Bill Loguidice), and Troubleshooting and Maintaining Your PC: AIO Desk Reference For Dummies (2e). His newest, Droid X2 for Dummies, is currently in production.
Congratulations to Andy Rathbone on the publication of his Motorola Xoom for Dummies.
Congratulations to Rene Kratz on her newest, Botany for Dummies.
Congratulations to Alecia Spooner on her first book, Geology for Dummies.
Congratulations to Rich Snyder D.O. and Barry Schoenborn on the publication of Medical Dosage Calculations for Dummies.
Congratulations to veteran children’s book author and editor Deborah Halverson on Writing Young Adult Fiction for Dummies. For a great model of how to run a virtual book launch you should check out her blog.
And new courses online as well –
Congratulation to Dave Crenshaw on the launch of his first course with Lynda.com, Time Management Fundamentals. For a sample and a free seven day trial at Lynda you can follow Dave’s splash page on his own website, here: http://www.davecrenshaw.com/free/ – another example of great author marketing at its finest! Dave’s newest course on Effective Meetings will post later this month.
Also congrats to Peter Kent on his Lynda.com course, Analyzing Your Web Site to Improve SEO.
Finally, congratulations to WordPress guru John Agress on his course Creating WordPress Web Sites, with Ed2Go.
It takes a village to make a book, or to create a course. To all my clients – thanks for working with me!