Hey Smarty Pants!

I'm over the moon!

I can't even . . . the story of getting my book published is—well—a real hero’s journey.

It had trials, triumphs, a pit of despair, and finally a rebirth.

Have you ever thought of writing a book?

I did. In 2020.

At the start of covid.

And I did, I did write that book! 🎉

I got up at 5am every morning Monday through Friday for 4 months straight and researched, and wrote, and edited . . . the whole shebang.

And I finished it!

But you see, it’s a book about presentations. Which means . . . it needed a lot of images.

That took some time.

💡 If you’re curious about the process, here are some of the decisions I made

• My intent in writing a book was to:
  1. Share what I know
  2. Learn even more
  3. Increase my authority in high-stakes presentations
• I wasn’t interested in making real money through book sales (or naive enough to think that was even a reality).
• I sent my book proposal out to a few traditional publishers but didn’t like their timelines - 2 years!! At least!
• I decided a sort of hybrid form of publishing was better for me.
  • I wanted to own all the rights, but get some help from a professional book editor, designer, and publisher.

Here’s what I wish I had known - the book writing was the easy part.

Book editing is painful.

And book layout for a book with hundreds of graphics is death by a thousand cuts.

I turned my book over to the publisher in October of 2020.

It took almost four years to complete the process! 😱 🤯

Ugh. So many emotions.

Curiosity. Confusion. Exasperation. Malaise. Frustration. And whatever emotion captures ‘are you f’ing kidding me?!’

I won’t go into some of the ‘you wouldn’t even believe it if I told you’ details of working with my publisher, but let’s just say . . . it wasn’t supposed to be that way. It didn’t need to be that way.

But I digress.

I kinda gave myself a high-five for my effort and just kept chuggin’ away at my regular day job.

I mean, c’mon. 4 years?? It’s embarrassing. 🤦‍♀️

But now, that it’s out??

TRIUMPH MY FRIEND!

I’m tickled. I’m proud.

I’m terrified.

Will anyone even order it? Because . . .

FUN FACT: On Amazon - I’m competing with ACTUAL GINGER (as in the root, the candy, the tea, etc.)

So my book’s discoverability is . . . challenging.

But on the bright side: my first legit review made me all warm inside. I swear I couldn't have written it any better . . .

"This book is a game changer. I picked it up hoping to refine our PowerPoint presentations (as presumably everyone does) and it certainly nails that - it's super effective as a step-by-step manual for dialing in presentations' clarity/digestibility and increasing their enjoyability. But the book is a whole lot more than that. Even within the first few pages, it had me rethinking communications overall - presentations, marketing, interoffice communications, employee/employer relations - the principles in here are so wide-reaching and helpful. It's also a really easy/fast/enjoyable read and the principles are presented in such a memorable manner. Outstanding tool for anyone in business, far beyond specifically PowerPoint."

How cool is that? 😎

Thanks Fred Segal! I love you to the moon and back.

And . . .

**Deckonomics: Develop Presentations That Spread Ideas, Drive Decisions, and Close Deals is ranked #1 in three different new release categories!!!**

• Business Writing Skills
• Business Communications Skills
• Running Meetings & Presentations

But I have a problem. I need reviews.

Because — dirty little secret — getting to the top of these ‘new release’ lists is a lot easier than getting to the top of the best seller lists. That is difficult indeed.

It requires:

1. Reviews from people with a verified purchase (meaning you have to actually purchase the book from Amazon).
2. The review quality needs to be good. It should be detailed and provide specific info about the book’s content. (Did you see that doozy above? ☝️ Great example).
3. It needs reviewer credibility. In other words, it helps if you’ve reviewed something—anything—on Amazon before.

So allow me this shameless request that makes me nervous to even ask for. Please - go buy the $1.99 Kindle version (or free with Kindle Unlimited) and then . . . for the love of all that's sacred . . . leave me an honest review. 🙏

🥕If you buy the book and leave a review in the next 10 days, I will send you a signed print copy ($41.00 on Amazon - and that’s without me making a penny!!) That’s 366 pages of gorgeous full color amazingness that will actually help you crush it on the job or in raising funds. (Just reply to this email with your review and details of where to send the book).

I appreciate you!!

Thanks for reading to the end. And as always, hit reply and say hey, and I’ll respond. 🙂

Warm regards. Until next time.

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