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Keeping up with the world of books

A friend of mine remarked this weekend that while he didn't have time read all the good business books that come out each month, so he's glad his company provides through a business book summary service the gist of what's new and notable. While I've never been willing to pay the $150 a year some of these companies want for their summaries, I recently found a great free alternative: WikiSummaries.

To judge the quality of these community-created, freely editable book summaries, I checked out the WikiSummary of Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat. While it lacked the flair and human interest stories of the original, the WikiSummary definitely explained what The World is Flat was all about, chapter by chapter, idea by idea.

Presently there are 111 summaries at WikiSummaries, most dealing with business, politics and current affairs. Definitely a good way to save some money and time next time you're in the mood to bookshop.

Clear Blogging out - free chapter.

My new book, Clear Blogging, started selling at Amazon yesterday and Apress has just made available Chapter 9 ("Successful Blogging") as a .pdf. Just look on the books Apress page under Extras (direct link here).

One of the main themes I built into this book are ways of being more productive and more time efficient as a blogger. Chapter 9 is basically a mini blogging course on:

• Ways of finding things to post on (creating "beats", using Google as your Blog Radar).
• Structuring your blog (theming your blog, maintaining a story list, accessorizing longer posts, 22 ideas that will make or break your blog).
• Tools and methods for improving your writing (handy bookmarklets, WhiteSmoke, How to write a compelling post by B.L. Ochman, How to write a blog post, by Seth Godin).
• The ins and outs of Technorati tagging (covered elsewhere in Clear Blogging in much, much more detail, including an interview with Technorati CEO David Sifry).
• Socializing your blog (Digg, Reddit and Sociable).

If you're a blogger, I hope you'll find this free chapter (and the book :) ) useful, informative and above all else information you can take action with. Enjoy!

Happiness is a warm endcap!

If you happen to go into a Barnes & Noble Bookstore between now and March 15, look for my book, Micro-ISV: From Vision to Reality. It's going to be a BN Featured Book on an endcap, probably in the computer or business section.

If you see one in the wild, please blog about it or send me a .jpg: I will be very appreciative!

Kudos for MIVR from Larkware

Just a quick post to give Mike Gunderloy who runs/is http://www.larkware.com a public and heartfelt and humble "thank you" for his very positive review Monday of Micro-ISV: From Vision to Reality.

Mike is one hell of a writer, programmer and more recently a micro-ISV (although he might take exception with that term) and has been one of my role models for years.

By the way, if you're in IT and for some reason don't know about Larkware, head over there right now: it's one of the single best sources of real developer news on the Web.

Technorati Tags: micro-ISV

Stop wearing the "illiterate moron" sign online.

This morning, I got up, sat down at my PC and promptly put on my "illiterate moron" sign by getting a wee bit sloppy with my choice of words in the previous post.

Now, I'm a writer: sometimes I write code, sometimes I write words (all the time I write bills): I can usually navigate this messy grammar, punctuation, spelling (GPS?) stuff well enough to satisfy everyone but Kim, the copyeditor.

But today, I hung the stupid sign on my back and "Nix" promptly gave me a swift kick for using "you're" when I meant "your".

So what, you say? You are known by the words you use, especially online, and it pays to have a Getting Things Done process in place so you don't borrow my sign.

Here's my new Checklist for every post:

• Write it.
• Copy the text to Word and let it spell/grammar check it.
• Correct the copy back in TypePad.
• Read the post again.
• Especially check for my two usage pains: its/it's and you're/your.

Yes, TypePad has a spellchecker, I think they must have bought it from WordStar or MultiMate or some defunct word processing company that died last century: it is worthless. So, for now, that's the plan.

What's yours?

(Technorati tags: Micro-ISV, GTD)

Ebook version of MIVR now available.

Quick announcement: the ebook version of my book, Micro-ISV: From Vision to Reality just went live at http://apress.com for those who want it.

http://www.apress.com/book/bookDisplay.html?bID=10057

Look for the "Purchase as ebook" tastefully lavender button.

Also, the Table of Contents is now available free there too.

(Technorati tags: Micro-ISV)

Why this Book?: the podcast and profile.

I'll be talking about this more at the new micro-ISV site tomorrow, but if you're interested in why I wrote Micro-ISV: From Vision to Reality, why I think micro-ISVs are going to be remaking what people consider to be software and sundry matters, here's a profile Brian Plexico at microisv.com did via email with me yesterday and a podcast with Michael D. Pollock, who's on his second small business knowledge web site at SavvySoloCast.com.

(Technorati tags: Micro-ISV)

The book is Out!

My book - Micro-ISV: From Vision to Reality - about defining, starting, marketing and building your micro-ISV is as of now actually selling at Amazon.com.

A couple of things to mention:

1. Wednesday (Jan. 11) will be the "official" day the book is released and publicized, the new web site supporting the book and micro-ISVs in general will be up, and Joel Spolsky has a few things to add about the book.

2. The ebook version will be available directly from Apress at http://apress.com very soon (the sun is just coming up here in Northern California.)
3. The book's files will be both at the new micro-ISV site and at apress.com.
4. If you buy the book, thanks in advance! If you buy the book, and post a review about it at Amazon, I will be your best friend forever! Seriously, if you find MIVR useful, please let others know at Amazon.

(Technorati tags: Micro-ISV)

Update on release of Micro-ISV: From Vision to Reality.

Just in case you're wondering, my Apress book on starting/running/growing a micro-ISV ships tomorrow from the printer to Amazon etc., so it should be actually for sale somewhere between 1/9 and 1/16, depending on how those physical bits get moved around.

- I'll also be launching a new site 1/16. More details then, but it will not just be another author site.
- Apress assures me the downloadable .pdf version will be for sale from their site the same day it goes on sale at Amazon, if you'd prefer that format.
- Thanks again everyone for your support!

(Technorati tags: Micro-ISV)

A quick bit of MIVR book news...

I just got word from Apress that besides being available at Amazon and a bookstore near you Jan. 9th, Micro-ISV: From Vision to Reality will be in ebook form that same day directly availabe from the publisher at http://apress.com/ecommerce/ebooklisting.html. I'm really glad to hear this, since the micro-ISV movement is not just in the U.S. or the U.K., it's worldwide.