BGP’s Spyglass Spotlight is a series of commentaries dedicated to showcasing some of my design projects, the clients that commissioned them, and the way those projects took on creative lives of their own.

Umami Treats and Gourmet Delectables is a Detroit-based catering company, founded by Chef Robin Steele in 2004. As a company, Umami has come to be known for its specialty items — delicious chocolate chip cookies and pastries made from scratch. When Robin first introduced me to the concept and business plans, I had reservations about the name. In comparison to many small bakeries and cookie companies, Umami seemed either too exotic or too ethnic for the typical confection brand.

The word Umami is of Japanese in origin, loosely interpreted as ‘good taste’ or ‘deliciousness’ although it has many levels and many meanings. Oxford English Dictionary advisor Michael Quinion sums up Umami as “The fifth taste, sometimes associated with a feeling of perfect quality in a taste, or of some special emotional circumstance in which a taste is experienced. It is also said to involve all the senses, not just that of taste. There’s more than a suggestion of a spiritual or mystical quality about the word”. During a conversation, Robin emphasized that food that achieves the Umami taste looks great, smells great, tastes great, feels great and even sounds great when it’s being eaten. She believes that there’s a spirit of love and passion that transcends the cooking process and causes an almost orgasmic awakening of the senses for the person enjoying the food. After days of research I came to the conclusion that Umami is one of those words like “Zen” — conceptual, experiential, and steeped in cultural dimensions that would probably be considered enlightened by most Western schools of thought.

Because of the factors mentioned above (and Chef Steele’s personality), I decided that only an unusual design was going to work for Umami Treats. A logotype wasn’t enough. And although I personally love how the word Umami looks in its native Japanese Kanji, when the average American sees Asian writing on a package design they tend to assume it’s a product for Asians. With Detroit’s population being a little over 81% Black, 12% White, 5% Latino and 1% Asian, this brand definitely needed mass appeal. I also needed a somewhat surrealistic representation that would tie the brand name in with the product without being too symbolic. The final design had to have a hint of an old fashioned enclosure yet still look new enough to convey ‘progressively traditional yet fresh and organic’.

I went through quite a few ideas before coming up with a rough sketch I was ready to present. After importing the sketch into Adobe Illustrator, I reached a bit of an impasse about halfway through the manual tracing process. Because of the size of the cupcake in proximity to the cookies, it didn’t look like a cupcake. The top looked more like a baked mushroom cap and the cupcake liner resembled a stiff curtain at a cheap hotel. And where I called myself having fun with the idea of alternating orange and canary yellow beams radiating from a golden Sun, ethnic symbolism crept back into the picture… this time in the form of the “Rising Sun”, Imperial Japan’s World War II flag.

A few days later I spoke with Chef Steele and learned of the proposed Umami Treats coffee house in the works. Whether I was caught up with inspiration or frustration, I ended up completely scraping the cupcake and sunbeams. Instead, I added a coffee cup off in the distance of a warm, vague landscape. Luckily, this helped the chocolate chip cookies gain a greater presence in the final design.

Umami Treats — Brand in Action

Original Format: VOB MPEG-2 (stand-alone DVD)
Duration: 00:01:06s

This video was produced for Umami Treats as a cost-effect commercial demo to help her pitch the business plan. I figured the best approach was for potential investors to feel like they’ve seen the coffeehouse so I decided to create a mock commercial spot and burn it to a self-playing DVD. Since there wasn’t a budget for live actors, voiceovers or broadcast-quality production, I decided to produce this commercial spot using Ubuntu Studio (Linux). Although the address noted at the end was the coffeehouse’s proposed location, as of the date I completed this video it was still at the corner of an empty strip mall that was under construction. To “create” the coffeehouse I used a piece of stock footage of a Detroit street, interior shots from a couple of lounges in that area, and the smiling people and live music shots are from my photo archives — taken while hangin’ out with friends at Cafe Nema on U street in Washington, DC.

One morning in late February while brainstorming ideas for another client, I overheard some talking heads on CNN (my back was to the TV). The chatter was about how President and Mrs Obama used an Air Force helicopter to fly back to Chicago for their Valentine’s Day.

Something about that inspired me to follow up on a silly design idea — a slick, very functional, professionally printed full-color 5.5″x4.5″ flyer. The back was to remain blank so I could make a small menu template. Robin could then use a labelmaker program to print the menus and slap them on the back. Some menus would be for her cookies and other confections. Other menus would be for her catering services. The final result was to be an attention-grabbing leave behind with menu info that she could change without requiring complete flyer reprints. Simple, humorous and cost-effective. The next variation of the concept involves an over-sized postcard that can be filled out and dropped in the mail.

Over the years I’ve grown to appreciate keeping in touch with many of my old clients. A great fringe benefit that comes with what I do is that when a client is a genuinely good person, sooner or later we usually become friends — even if we’ve never met.

Chef Steele has been one of those long distance friends for a long time. One afternoon she forwarded a photo and a text message that had been sent to her phone. “Please tell Rhyn to stay Awake in class. Thank you and hope you can make it to open house at seven. Anthony S______ – Rhyn’s Fifth hour teacher.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. The young lady is Rhyn, Chef Steele’s daughter, caught in what is best described as a familiar story with a modern twist. Back in the day, if you got caught snoozing in class usually the worst that happened was a rude awakening and ruckus of laughter from your classmates. Now, here I was, one of many distant recipients chuckling at a digital Kodak Moment almost right after it happened. Inspired by the humor of the moment and the coffee-like smoothness of her complexion, I loaded the image into Photoshop, added the comic elements and emailed it back. Robin took my image and had it turned into a 4.25”x5.5” refrigerator magnet. It’s a great example of how promotional ideas can (and often do) happen as a result of happy accidents. Rhyn loves it, although we still don’t know why she fell asleep that day in the first place.

Although Umami Treats has faced a tough uphill road in these economic times, Chef Steele has proved to be very sharp when it comes to thinking (and investing) in promotional materials to help grow and strengthen her brand. With the way things look, this is just the beginning.

And, in case you’re wondering, the cookies are phenomenal.

Until next time, thanks for reading. Be well and be blessed…

– Max Nomad

NOTE: For the sake of word economy and sheer laziness, throughout this article I’ll be taking advantage of two literary devices — Poker slang and using forms of the generic pronoun “he” to describe most players. Poker has a subculture that has traditionally had its own slowly-evolving lexicon. These words and phrases would often require entire paragraphs to describe the concepts behind them. Unless specified, it will be assumed that the reader is already familiar with the lingo.

Saturday, October 31st, 2009, 7:14am; I woke up a bit disoriented at first, slow to make sense of an unseasonably warm morning so overcast that sunrise seemed permanently on hold. Soon I recalled that I’d been awake most of the night revising notes from my Atlantic City, NJ trip for use in this piece. I had gone up to the city on a brief vacation with the intention of playing a lot of Poker. I ended up with a bunch of observations and helpful (and sometimes cautionary) bits of advice. A blog entry? Close, but not quite. I never saw myself becoming one of those bloggers who thought the masses needed to follow the mundane details of my life. Anyone looking for that can find it in any one of a zillion blogs scattered across the cosmos. And when it comes to Poker there are countless blogs, mostly by players imitating sports announcers as they chronicle their own gameplay. With all the life stories I’d experienced that would make for good reading, the ones centered solely around Poker have to be the lowest on my list. That’s because most of the time The Big Poker Game itself was only a small part of the adventure – the rest was often wrapped in the Quest, everything it took to make it to the table.

One afternoon while cruising along Atlantic City’s Pacific Ave enjoying the last of the warm weather, I came to a realization: for Poker players, visiting this town for a few days without knowing what kind of action to expect at each casino is a quick way to waste precious time and money. Thanks to my business interests back home suffering from the effects of the economy, I didn’t exactly come to town strapped with a Baller’s bankroll. That’s when I decided to save my money and scope out several of the Poker rooms to better plan future trips. My notes have evolved into this blog-primer. It’s intended for any Poker fans that have never had the casino experience, particularly seasoned Internet players.

Who am I in the Wide, Wide World of Poker, to be writing this article?

I’m just someone that loves the game. I see it as both a fun past time and appreciate the practice of sharpening the necessary skills as a sort of mental Martial Art form. As far as my Poker achievements are concerned, there really isn’t much to tell. I’ve lived in Virginia Beach most of my life and almost every type of gambling-for-money is still considered illegal here in Virginia. Since 2003 I’ve logged more than a conservative 1900 hours of Poker play; over 95% of that being online in low-limit cash games, play money games, and various tournaments (Sit-n-Gos, Freerolls, etc). I’ve won and placed in a respectable number of those SnGs and tournaments with no major awards to date. The rest of my play has been in a sprinkling of friendly home games, small freebie tourneys, a few cash games at underground spots between Hampton Roads and Washington DC, a couple of Louisiana riverboat casinos, and more recent ventures into Atlantic City. My games of choice include Texas Hold’em, Omaha Hi-Lo, 7-card Stud Hi-Lo, Razz, and HORSE with my preference being Omaha. Aside from avid play, my study of Poker theory has come from books compiled by great minds such as Sklansky & Malmuth, Brunson, Caro, Jones, Zee and others. I’m still a long way from reaching a Howard Lederer or Phil Ivey status, but I’m not some blissfully ignorant shark bait, either.

Poker, the Casino’s Bastard Son:

For anyone that has never played in a casino, the first thing to keep in mind is that not all casinos have Poker rooms — and for each casino with a Poker room, not all of them have the same types of Poker games and limits. To the best of my understanding, this can be attributed to three important factors:

1. the size (and availability) of a casino’s Poker room is proportional to the amount of sustained interest from their guests.
2. When it comes to tables and ante limits, Poker rooms tend to use a “get in where you fit in” approach in regards to what they offer that Poker rooms at other casinos don’t.
3. Poker rooms aren’t nearly as [directly] profitable for the average casino as the other games.

How so you might ask? For starters, with all the other casino games there’s something called the House Advantage – the predictable long-term advantage for the casino, or “House” that exists while offering players the possibility of winning a large short-term payout. Your slot machine players love slots because they can put their money in, play without thinking, be entertained by the lights and noises and occasionally luck into some money. Same thing applies to Craps, Roulette, Baccarat, Keno and so on. As for Blackjack and other table card games where the players are up against the house, even though there is some degree of skill that can be legally used to minimize the House Advantage (not including card counting), most of the time it’s not enough to be a long-term factor that will cause the casino to lose money. The bottom line is that the same ultimate fate awaits the average player that doesn’t know how to quit while ahead – the House Advantage means that for every single player that wins a sizable payout, there are countless others who won money and eventually lost every bit of it back to the house (and then some).

Now, when it comes to Poker, there is no such thing as a House Advantage. Players don’t play their game against the House – they play against other players at the table. No matter what the limit is, at each table the House makes their money off of the rake, a few chips at a time off of each winning hand. To the average casino guest this might not sound like much but it’s a big deal for many reasons. This fact makes Poker the most profitable game in the casino, particularly for the disciplined player.

Since we’ve established the ‘why’ behind Poker rooms, here’s what it means: Every kind of player – from Chris “Jesus” Ferguson to Kris Kringle – eventually plays long enough to graduate from their home games to test their skills at playing in the casino Poker rooms. Think of it as the equivalent of being a teenager that picks up a guitar with the intent of getting good enough to join a successful band and live out his Rock-n-Roll Fantasy. This factor alone creates an atmosphere unlike anything you’ll experience in any other part of a casino. Whether the antes are at $1 or $10k, the level of competition at the tables has a medieval intrigue best compared to what would happen if you were able to take the colorful personality types of 15th century fighters such as the Samurai, Caribbean Pirate, Spanish Conquistadore and Zulu warrior and put them all in a room with the same number of ordinary people and armed everyone with chips. Even though the game is normally driven by bloodless aggression these days, it’s that flair and pure intensity that always separates the sharks from the fish.

Getting to Atlantic City:

If you’re thinking about hitting Atlantic City and money really isn’t that big a deal, skip this section. Getting there is relatively easy and you can afford it. Getting there cheaply and safely is a whole different story. I’ll use Virginia Beach/Norfolk as a example starting point because we’re almost at the midway point along the east coast:

Not including pit stops, the trip by car would take roughly 6 to 7 hours going along the Eastern Shore up Route 13; if going by I-95, add an easy 2 hours and a bottle of Tylenol. For a round-trip flight, prices start at anywhere from $190 to $550, depending. There are two airports supporting Atlantic City, NJ (codes: ACY and AIY). My local airport, Norfolk International Airport (ORF), doesn’t have direct flights to either one. Those prices I quoted were as if I was flying out of Atlanta, GA. Hopefully you will have better luck in your area.

Getting to AC by Amtrak train is a losing proposition, too. From here I’d have to catch the train by 6am and would arrive at the station there in AC about 3:30pm. If that 9.5 hour trip seems like a deal breaker, the nearly 14 hour trip by Greyhound bus would be downright laughable.

My favorite means of getting to Atlantic City is by way of a chartered bus with a group of people. Check around with friends and family members that are in their 50s and older. Many of them are either in civic/service/social organizations or knows someone who is a member. My mother, aunt and uncle, and I took advantage of one of these group trips for about $195 each (round-trip, hotel room, small chip comp to get you started and a complimentary meal). The bus left around 7am, leisurely stopped for breakfast and lunch and bathroom breaks, and arrived in AC about 4pm. We could have been there earlier but our rooms weren’t going to be ready until after 3pm. Even with the little extra I paid to get a room to myself, I had spent less for the entire package than I would have just for the plane ticket – and still arrived here well before dark. Thanks to traveling with a group of retirees, the hotel unloaded all our luggage and practically delivered them to our rooms. Who knows, if you make an announcement on the bus you just might find another Poker player or two to run with you.

Accommodations:

We stayed at the Atlantic City Hilton Casino Resort Hotel. My room had a beautiful view overlooking the boardwalk and beach. There was practically no one on the sand at any given time of day, only tire tracks from unmarked trucks that had turned the sand a battleship gray. Later I would come to find out that only tourists frequented the boardwalk and the patrols were there to keep the junkies and vagrant predators from feeding on them.

Compared to some other casino hotels along the strip, the Hilton is a bit like a retirement community with slot machines, Blackjack, and Craps tables. If you’re one of those travelers like me who prefers the option to be able to play in one place and sleep in another place, this kind of arrangement is perfect. If I had come to this hotel solely for the Poker action I’d read about in one of the Hilton’s recent online press kits (Poker room with 22 tables set aside for Hold’em, 7-card stud, and Omaha), I would’ve felt thoroughly misled. Later I’ll discuss more about how this and other factors inspired me to disregard the casino websites and check out the various Poker rooms for myself. As of this writing, the closest thing the Hilton has to real Poker action were two Hold’em tables (that operated only on the weekends), and table games like Caribbean 3-card Stud, 4-card. The Poker room had long since been converted to an Asian Game Room set aside for Pai Gow, Che Deng, and other table tile games so exotic that most westerners would need chopsticks, a Cantonese interpreter and a passport just to get in on the action.

The Tropicana:

I arrived at The Tropicana’s Poker room about 3:30am and, to my surprise, there were only three tables up and running – half the activity I saw around the same time of night on my last visit about a year earlier. With my trips to AC, I’ve found the Trop to be a great first destination on the path to finding casino Poker action. Right on the Boardwalk and in a building that can probably be seen from orbit, this casino resort is not only easy to find but has over 20 restaurants and more amenities than I’ll ever have time to explore. I’ve actually talked with gamblers and business execs alike who arrive here and go for days at a time without setting foot outside. And as a low-limit player (i.e. – being a regular-guy on a regular-guy vacation budget due to earning regular-guy income) the best thing I love about the Trop is that there’s always some kind of action I can afford, whether it’s the buy-in to some game or a tournament.

During the day, this Poker room was a carnival of cards, chips and chaos. As fast as players seemed to be cashing out or walking away broke, someone else was joining the table with a fresh rack of chips. Even with all 35 tables running full-bore with the turnover rate of a Burger King drive-thru, the wait for some games was still an hour or more. And as if there wasn’t enough sensory-overload to contend with just focusing on the tables, there are dozens of overhead screens set up all around the place, broadcasting every kind of sport imaginable.

Overnight, the noisy frenetic pace of the room settles down like a college drunkard after an all-day binge. For me, anytime between midnight and sunrise was the best time to play. I’d spot out a soft table playing at $1/$2 or $2/$4, buy in at about $100 dollars, and often double my money or better within a couple of hours before leaving. I figured if the scene was to be anything like my last visit, the tables were going to prove to be somewhat loose and passive and light on conversation with a slightly international feel, thanks to around a third of the players being foreign tourists whose body-clocks still hadn’t adjusted to the local time.

If this is your first time visiting that (or any) Poker room, do yourself a favor… don’t rush to buy into a game. Having lived near the ocean all my life, I approach this much like arriving at a new beach: Take the first few minutes to relax and quietly admire the entire landscape. Be a silent railbird for a few. Hang loose. Meander around the outer edges of the tables close to the walls, checking out the pace of the games at each table. Nonchalantly size up the players. Just like with a real beach, it won’t take you long to spot out the Rocks and dangerous surf. Once you’ve got a fix on them you’ll pick up on the Sharks pretty quickly from there. They’ll be playing into the Fish trying to exploit weaknesses, particularly loose calls from tipsy tourists trying to chase down runner runner hands or Maniacs trying to gamble and get lucky with junk. Ultimately, all this will help you to decide whether or not these waters (i.e. – the table) will merely be a challenge for you or too rough to mess with based on your current Poker skills.

Originally I went there with the hopes of getting into an Omaha Hold’em Hi-Lo game. There weren’t any. The last time I played at the Trop’s Poker room there were mostly Texas Hold’em games with a few 7-card Stud and HORSE tables running, too. A floorman informed me that it was now all Texas Hold’em, mostly No-Limit ranging from $1/$2 up to $10/$20 antes and $40 dollar buy-in tournaments at 11am and 7pm. When I asked about Omaha he gave me a somewhat puzzled look then advised that I check out the Trump Taj Mahal or the Borgata. The larger the casino, the larger the Poker room, the higher the stakes and the greater the chance of finding different types of games running – all of which is driven by popular demand.

Since I was already there and only had $100 dollars on me, I decided to buy-in at a $1/$2 ante No-Limit Texas Hold’em table. After the first few hands it didn’t take long to figure out that I had not only misread the action at that table, but the room as a whole that night.

Unlike the last time I’d played at the Trop, this table was much quieter. There wasn’t any random friendly small talk from drunks, tourists or recreational players. Aside from the bets there was only the soft ambient sound of chips in motion as it surrounded us like supermarket Muzak. Chips shifting. Stacking. Being shuffled and twirled by idle hands. The first of two epiphanies hit me – like a clueless tourist I had sat down at a table full of Grinders. A few aggressive showdowns later, I connected with the second stomach-churning truth – most of them were looking at me like I was the Sucker at the table, a fish named Nemo that had swam into their shark-infested waters.

Now, here is where I must make an exception and actually elaborate on some Poker slang. Among avid Poker players, a Grinder (also known as a Rounder) is a person that makes his living playing anywhere that he can find action — casinos, cardrooms, home games, etc. Because the losses and financial swings can be brutal, they tend to stick to textbook conservative plays, winning small pots over long periods of time and grinding their unsuspecting opponents down. In an almost surgical fashion, accomplished Rounders tend to work low-limit and medium-limit tables like slaughterhouse butchers seeking out sheep to skin. Often their goal is to support themselves, tuck some winnings away, and build up a bankroll large enough so they can move on to high stakes games and tournaments.

Finding myself at a table with a bunch of Grinders was the farthest thing from my plans for this trip. Yeah, I could have moved to another table or cashed out, but I didn’t. Being able to click around online Poker sites in search of easy tables had spoiled me; I knew I needed some real-world practice. When it was my turn to act during the first hand, I paused to count chips before I placed my bet. I got a read on several of them as they got a read on me and the fact that I don’t physically handle Poker chips too often. That’s why they started in with the heavy aggression, treating me like the Sucker de jour. I also didn’t want them to catch on that I was an online player, either. I knew if I played it right I could put a hurtin’ on a few of their chip stacks before they figured me out – if they didn’t manage to grind down my chip stack first with re-raises and bluffs to steal my blinds.

Poker gods smiled on my game by dealing me pocket cowboys while I was on the small blind. It was the first decent starting hand I’d seen after tossing cards into the muck for over half an hour. Several others called. It took everything I had not to show a smile or anything on my face. I knew that by raising instead of just completing the bet I could possibly cause the others to fold and buy the pot.

As a side note, one of the things I’d noticed after playing in a few casino ring games and tourneys is that you’ll see many faces come and go but the only ones that will stick with you are the ones who beat you out of a lot of chips. From this session at the Trop, I’ll never forget the man that had just sat down to my immediate left. Not because he reeked of beer-sweat and Camel cigarettes… Not because he looked and dressed like Josh Brolin’s character in the movie “No Country for Old Men”… Not even because the jailhouse tatt on his forearm partially covered what looked like a souvenir from a crazed knife fight… but because when the bet came back around to me, I raised the ante to match the pot — and instead of folding, he didn’t hesitate to push his chip stack forward and say “All-in”.

[to be continued]

The best time to start putting this together is around the time that you’re nearing the end of editing process, optimally between 3 and 6 months prior to sending the book off to print. A few of the reasons for this:

1. The obvious — you must put your best foot forward. No room for noticeable content changes, grammatical errors or even typos. Past experience has taught me that changes will continue happening right up to the night before the book goes off to print. Again, you’ll want plenty of time to make sure the excerpts from your book are perfect.
2. it’s much easier to pull excerpts from the book to include in the kit. Few things are more annoying than sending out a bunch of Press Kits only to realize that the excerpts you chose would’ve been much better had you waited.
3. when it comes to obtaining book reviews it can take up to three months to get a response. NOTE: Don’t be discouraged if it takes that long to get a ‘No Thank You’ letter — it happens. You’ll want to use blurbs from the reviews for inclusion on the Book Sheet (Synopsis), Sell Sheet and/or Press Release.

When it comes to impressing book reviewers, interviewers and even movie producers, the way to do it (without spending thousands of dollars) is through a world-class press kit. Crisp, clean design without outrageous use of a ton of fonts or sloppy graphics. There’s no way to stress how much neatness counts because this kit is essentially all your countless days of passionate writing wrapped up in a sleek, sexy package. A simple yet effective rule of thumb to work by is this: if any part of your package doesn’t look like a page out of a major newspaper or magazine that’s a sign it should be reworded, redone, or completely omitted.

Your press kit should include the following sheets:

• Press Release: a one page article that explains who you are, what the book is about, and important information about the book’s publication. NOTE: if there are any relevant ties between your book and current events this should be the focal point of your article. The more newsworthy your article, the greater the chance it will get picked up for media distribution — including interviews. This sheet is best printed yourself because it’s subject to change.
• Book Sheet (Synopsis): a one page summary of your book. If it’s fiction it should include the plot and major themes. The key here is to sell the book with an engaging synopsis yet using as little “fluff” as possible. Most writers tend to be oblivious to the fact that the people receiving their press kit see hundreds of them in a week. They catch onto fluff as if it was a baby in need of a diaper change. The more fluff there is, the less they’ll take you (and your book) seriously.
• Author Biography: a one page life history. This should be an engaging summary of who you are; mostly interesting highlights of your life accomplishments with a splash of professional and academic achievements (e.g. — you backpacked across Germany, studied tribal tattoo art from Maori elders in New Zealand, parented three kids and wrote the book while also attending law school, and etc). This should particularly include those experiences you’ve had that make you an expert on your topic. This sheet is best printed yourself because it should be considered a ‘living document’, subject to change as you gain new accolades.
• Promo Photo: This is a bit of a toss-up because ultimately it’s a call best made based on the type of book you’ve written. With some schools of thought, a promo photo of the author isn’t necessary. Still, some publishers will include the promo photo as a 3.5″x2.5″ (or smaller) on the Sell Sheet. Others will say it is imperative, particularly if the author’s image can further perpetuate an appeal that is already part of the book (e.g. – a Playboy playmate writes a tell-all book about her life as a Bunny). If you decide to include a promo photo in your press kit, I would highly recommend paying a professional photographer to take these shots; be sure to get full-size digital copies of the images at 300dpi or higher. You’ll want to get the 8″x10″ so you can resize copies of the file for use of the Sell Sheet, Bio and even a poster (see the Image Processing section for the software necessary to resize images).
• Sell Sheet: a flyer that includes all the important information about your book; title, cover image, publication date, page count, ISBN, retail price, a paragraph book summary, a paragraph (summary) from the Author Biography, and blurbs from at least one or two reviews. If possible, this should be full-color, professionally printed on 100lb Text-Gloss paper.
• Endorsement Sheet: This sheet is definitely optional, mostly because it is only worth making if you’ve got more than four or five “celebrity” endorsements. By celebrity I mean any person whose name has a level of brand awareness to it that lends credibility to the subject of your book. For example, if you’ve written a book about 80s Rock and you manage to get a blurb from a Road Manager that once worked for Motley Crüe, this would definitly be a good celeb endorsement whereas Jimmy, the “80s-Rock-Guru at your local record store” wouldn’t quite be celeb enough. On that same note, someone like a Bret Michaels or Neal Pert would be fantastic. Overall, celeb endorsements are tough to get but if you’re lucky enough to get some, run with them like your life depends on it.

Production Budget:

Here’s the point where things get interesting — production. The software and design part of putting together the Press Kit is where everything can either come together nicely or get hairy real quick.

• Software: This is by far the trickiest part of putting together your Press Kit. These disciplines can be divided into Content Processing, Image Processing, Illustration and Desktop Publishing. All four of disciplines are worthy of their own textbooks, not to mention that each software package has its own learning curve. Each can be handled in one of two main ways — do it yourself or hire a professional. Both would have been potentially costly. This is because you’d either be buying all the software and learning to do it yourself or simply paying for the professional’s labor and letting them do the bulk of the work. Aside from software piracy, the main thing that changed this playing field was the advent of Free Open Source Software (FOSS).

For those of you that don’t know, FOSS packages are generally functional clones of some Commercial software equivalent except developed and supported by “meritocratic teams of individual developers, associations of companies, businesses that provide value-add support and services, non-profit foundations, and research and academic institutions. It is increasingly seen as the global standard and lowest-risk choice for operating systems to applications, helping individuals and organizations reduce costs, increase deployment, improve standards compliance, enhance security, and avoid vendor lock-in, which means long-term software investment protection”. In plain English, FOSS came about as a result of groups of people that got together to create their own versions of commercial software, often because they were fed up with paying outrageous licensing fees, some of which even require annual payments throughout the entire time that package is used. I’ve included this information because the output of these packages is just as good as their commercial counterparts — and although the learning curves tend to be about the same, using the FOSS versions of the commercial packages can save you literally thousands of dollars in software purchases. Regardless of what packages you choose, these are the tools you’ll need to put together a professional-quality press kit.


* NOTE — All price ranges shown are dependent on which software version you purchase and the source.


Content Processing — Microsoft Office (Commercial, from $200 to $800 USD*) or Microsoft Works (Commercial, between $20 and $130 USD*). OpenOffice (Free, download from http://www.openoffice.org ). It’s hard to find any mildly computer literate person who isn’t familiar with what Microsoft Office is, or at least used one of it’s software packages. OpenOffice is a clone of Microsoft Office that is distributed for free. For those writers that aren’t too computer savvy, one of these software packages is what you’ll need to write and edit all the content for your press kit. I had considered omitting this ‘Content Processing’ paragraph until I went to the P.O. Box earlier and pulled out a special pickup slip. After presenting it to the clerk she came back with a manuscript-sized box that contained a handwritten manuscript spread out over two 180-page spiral notebooks. Some writers either prefer to live like the Uni-Bomber or they truly have no idea what tools to use. If this applies to you, don’t bother reading any further — hire a professional.


The next three sections are included just for the sake of continuity, mostly because those who don’t know the basics of graphic design can take a look at what software is involved and make a judgement call as to whether or not to hire a professional. Those who have some experience with digital photo touch-up or graphic design will already know these programs well and will be fluent in what they need to use. For those who lack practical experience, it should be noted that each area also has dual learning curves involved. The first learning curve involves the discipline itself (e.g. – Image Processing requires a basic working knowledge of manipulating graphics). The second learning curve involves the software package you decide to use (e.g. – Although Photoshop and GIMP are functionally similar, gaining mastery over one package will only make it mildly easier to learn the other).

Image Processing — Adobe Photoshop (Commercial, from $160 to $700 USD*). GIMP (Free, download from http://www.gimp.org ). For handling raster images (e.g. – photos, scans, etc.). You’ll need this for resizing book covers, photos, and other related images so they’ll fit well within any of the press kit’s sheets.


Illustration — Adobe Illustrator (Commercial, from $100 to $700 USD*). Inkscape (Free, download from http://www.inkscape.org). For handling vector images (e.g. – scalable line art logos, etc.). If you’re not sure whether or not any of your artwork is vector, you might want to read my other article discussing the difference between raster and vector images.


Desktop Publishing — Adobe InDesign (Commercial, from $200 to $900 USD*). Corel Draw (Commercial, $xxx USD*). Scribus (Free, download from http://www.scribus.net). Somewhere in between those choices (functionally and price-wise) is Microsoft Publisher (which comes with most versions Microsoft Office).

• Commercial Printing: Using online printing services like www.uprinting.com, for an 8.5”x11” slick, 2-sided full color, expect to spend between $160 and $260 for 500 pieces (depending on shipping).
• Home Printing: For the most part this refers to any off-the-shelf printer that prints in color and is a Inkjet, Deskjet, LaserJet, or better. I personally prefer the All-in-One printers, also referred to as the Printer-Scanner-Copiers. Prices start at about $200 dollars USD retail. My general rule of thumb is that if you own a color printer made after 2003 you shouldn’t run into any problems with making quality prints for the press kit.
• Paper: HammerMill 32lb (between $12 and $20 USD for a 500-sheet ream). For photographs, consider HP Premium Plus Photo Paper, Matte, 8 1/2″ x 11″, 11.5 Mil, 90 Brightness, Pack Of 25 Sheets for about $18.00 dollars USD retail. You can probably find something comparable online for a better price. The reasons for this photo paper instead of others are:
• Matte finish reduces reflection, making your photos easy on the eyes — no light “bounce” to detract from the detail and color quality.
• 11.5-mil thickness rivals professional photo stock. Extra-thick paper is designed to accommodate greater ink coverage and stand up to the frequent handling. The weight of the paper will give your photos a professional feel, too.
• Special back coating keeps prints from sticking.
• The acid-free paper won’t yellow or disintegrate over time.
• Labeled Folders (optional): Avery duo-tank folders — roughly $8.75 for 25 folders retail but as low as $117 per 100 wholesale (not including shipping). Labels (or a generic brand knockoff) 5164 — 3.5″ x 4″ Self-Adhesive Laser Mailing Labels. One pack goes a long way with 600 labels (6 to a sheet). Label maker software ranges from free to about $30, depending.

There should be two versions of your press kit. Both should be PDFs:
;

1. A web/email-friendly version between 72dpi and 96dpi, less than 5 megs in total file size, RGB (full-color video) ,
2. and a print-only version — between 150dpi and 300dpi or higher, CMYK (4-color print).

Miscellaneous Tips:

You should create the printed version first because it will have the largest combined file sizes and it’s for printed mailing. Next you create the email-friendly electronic version for emailing to the media. Use the printed materials for the top book reviewers, newspapers, websites, or other promising media, while sendng electronic versions to those sources lower on the list. The other alternative is that you can email out the electronic version if you don’t have money to spend printing and mailing press kits. My advice is to do both as your budget allows.

When it comes to printing out hard copies of the entire kit, I’d only recommend doing so if you’ve got the design skills to make it look professional. Be forwarned that if you decide to use your home printer to print any sheets other than the Author Bio and Press Release, you’ll definitely want to make sure your layout, print quality and paper are top-notch. Doing it yourself might save you some money in the short term but if the average person can tell you printed it all yourself, the reviewers will too. Anything the looks amateur runs the risk of being disregarded as inferior — costing you credibility which will cost you reviews, media coverage and ultimately book sales.

On a last note, at the risk of sounding like a blatant commercial plug I have to say this: You can find many designers, book coaches and book-oriented publicity firms to create some (or all) of the components of your press kit; often saving you time and usually being worth the money. If you’ve got the skills (or the drive to teach yourself) and are willing to do the leg work of contacting media sources yourself, developing your own press kit is the way to go, too. Whichever route you take to make it happen, just remember that attempting a book publicity campaign without any kind of a press kit is almost a sure-fire way to condemn your book to failure.

Good luck on the quest… hope this helps.

– Max Nomad

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Raster Images

Image Processors / Photo Editing programs use raster-Based Images

A raster image is made of thousands of pixels, tiny little dots. The rich, detailed images you see all around you in print and video are often created or edited with dots. Every dot can be a different color, allowing for a phenomenal range of colors and the ability to render full-color images like photographs. Raster-based images do have some drawbacks:

• Raster images create larger files. All of the zeros and ones that are used to make up each pixel result in large files sizes. Your computer must keep track of the zeros and ones and must change each one when editing. The larger the size and quality a raster image is going to have, the larger the file will be. This is why some high quality print graphics may be too large to send by email.
• Rasters do not resize well. When you resize a raster image, the pixels just multiply, making the image appear muddy and chunky.
• Image Processing/Photo Editing programs like Adobe Photoshop use raster-based images to allow for total freedom and precise control over an image’s appearance.

Raster-based file formats include: .JPEG, .GIF, .PNG, .TIFF, .BMP and etc.

Vector Images

Illustration Programs use Vector-Based Images

Vector-based programs handles images in an entirely different way because it doesn’t render images on a pixel-by-pixel basis. In a raster-based image, a square would be made of thousands of pixels. In a vector-based image, the same square would be made of only four dots, one on each corner. Essentially these “vector points” allow your computer to play Connect the Dots. Each vector point has information in it telling your computer how to connect each point with straight or curved lines, and with what color to fill in the closed shape. In geek-speak, if you were to look inside how each part of a vector image you’d see that it’s made of code and algorithms, much like some of the popular programming languages out there.

Other points of interest regarding Vector images:

• In the printed image, the vector points would be invisible.
• Because the computer only has to keep four points in its memory, it is much easier for the computer to edit vector-based images.
• If you resize a vector-based image, it loses little or no detail. The vector points spread out and the computer just uses the algorithms to recalculate and redraw the image. You can color or recolor a vector-based image very easily using an illustration program.
• Vector images do have some drawbacks, however. They are generally filled with a solid color or a gradient but can’t display the lush color depth of a raster. They also work better with straight lines or sweeping curves.
• Illustration programs, like Adobe Illustrator and Macromedia Freehand, primarily use a vector-based drawing mode to allow for scalability and clean lines.

Vector-based file formats include: .AI, .FH, .EPS, .PS, .SVG and etc.

For these reasons, this is why most professional Graphic Designers (including myself) commonly create their logos as vector-based images. This insures that their client will be able to take that finished design and scale it so that it will fit on a postage stamp, a business card, or on a billboard and the quality is always the same.

Is there any middle ground?

It’s funny you ask that. The answer is “Yes”, there are some next-generation graphics formats that incorporate elements whose traits can be either Raster or Vector. One such example is Adobe Photoshop’s native PSD format. Another is Adobe Acrobat’s PDF format. And still there is Macromedia’s Flash SWF format (also now owned by Adobe). For the sake of this article, PDF and SWF can be considered “container” formats that are meant for distributing content in a platform-independent way that is viewable across the Web.

How can the average person tell the difference?

Simply put, by the file format that the image is saved in.

When submitting graphics to a Graphic Designer, people often think that a graphic is a graphic is a graphic. They often think because it looks “good” on the screen that it will look good in print. That’s not the case, especially when it comes to incorporating a company or organization’s logo into a design.

The Raster Test — If the image file format is a .JPEG, .GIF, .PNG, .TIFF, .BMP, .PCX, then it is a Raster-based image. If it’s a full-color JPEG or PNG and less than 200k in file size, chances are it won’t be usable for print purposes. Another rule of thumb with raster images is that if you’re looking at it full size on the screen and it is SMALLER THAN 3″ x 3″ (or 9 square inches overall) then there’s a good chance the image won’t be usable for professional printing purposes. There are 2 reasons for this: (1) professional printing uses a far higher DPI (dots per inch) than your computer screen. Where the average professional print job is done at 300dpi, most of the graphics you see that were created for the web or video are done at 72dpi (sometimes as high as 96dpi). What this means is that when you take the graphic from, say, 72dpi to 300dpi it will become four (4) times smaller. Because it is a raster image, if you scale it up in size the image will lose its crispness and get muddy and pixelated quickly.

The Vector Test — If the image file format is a .AI, .FH, .EPS, .PS, .SVG, or sometimes a .PDF, then it is a vector-based image. No real tests needed here since any professional graphic designer should have no problem loading this image into any desktop publishing or image processing program.

The PDF Test — if you’ve got a PDF and you need a simple yet effective way to test whether or not an image within a PDF is a raster or a vector, do the following: Load the PDF into a PDF viewer (like Adobe Acrobat Reader) and zoom in about 300% to 500%. Any image that is a raster image will look pixelated (blocky). Any image element that redraws itself at that zoom level and still looks as crisp as it did at normal size is a vector image.

Hopefully this breakdown will help folks understand that all graphics aren’t created the same and how to best utilize the different types. Keep an eye on this article because I’m bound to expand upon some parts of it just to make sure it is complete.

– Max Nomad

The following tips come from a combination of my experiences with successful book release parties, miserable failures, horror stories I’ve heard from other publishers and authors, and general Event Planning 101 I’ve learned from an “Event Planning for Dummies” book as well as talking with real event planners.

THE TOP THREE LESSONS I’VE LEARNED:

1. Don’t just do a book signing or a release party. Do an event, or at least some semblance of an event.
2. Don’t Skimp or get Chintzy with an event. Don’t go overboard with it either. Figure out your entire budget for the location, the catering, added atmosphere (e.g. – possible entertainment, a professional photographer) and the other incidentals (e.g. – cash boxes, guest book, pens, promo souvenirs, etc). For a first-time author, I would recommend against spending over 15% of the book’s production budget OR $1500 dollars USD, whichever is higher. The reason is simple: that money could be better spent on long-term marketing and promotion. At the risk of disregarding how special the book release party is, one has to keep in mind that ultimately it is meant to serve as the kickoff for your book’s entire marketing and promotional campaign.
3. Ultimately, you want everyone that attends the event to feel important (read exclusive) for being there as well as enjoy themselves.

And now for some more tips, almost typed in at random as they come to me.

THE VENUE:

• There are many types of venues to choose for your release event — and rarely should they be your typical bookstore. I found that reserving a small sports-oriented restaurant with a bar (250-300 person occupancy) worked well. The farther out you reserve it in advance, the better the chances you get the date you want. Also, work it in so that the establishment is also catering the event (I know that seems obvious but I’ve already heard of a couple of situations where the writer tried to reserve a restaurant and bring in someone ELSE to cater). Expect to spend no less than $500 dollars on this aspect alone. In my opinion, it’s well worth it. Aside from putting your best foot forward and taking into account that there’s no telling what members of the local press or potential book buyers will be present, there is a tiny overlooked item that often plays a major factor — the cell phone. When people are at a good party with good food and good drink and they’re stimulated and it seems to be an open affair, they are prone to call their friends and invite them out. You want everyone that comes to this event to feel important as well as enjoy themselves, which will not only result in more book sales right there but the impression will carry on indefinitely.
• The reason I recommend a sports-oriented restaurant-bar is because they generally have plenty of televisions throughout the place. Maybe reserve one television at the bar to actually show sports (or whatever) but use all the other televisions to show any kind of video that will help enhance the ambiance that goes along with the theme of the author’s book. A multimedia slideshow works perfect for this, something that showcases photos of the author, scenes and subjects in the book, and maybe product shots of the book itself. Again, it all depends on the author’s book, prospective readers, etc. Be creative with it — as long as it FITS.
• There are several reasons I recommend against bookstores for your release event. The average independent bookstore isn’t attached to any kind of restaurant or cafe. This means that your food options will be limited, regardless of your catering budget — bookstore managers don’t want food or drink stains on their floors or their merchandise. Bookstores don’t have wait staff that are trained to constantly clean as they go along, meaning more work for the staff and your volunteers. The typical bookstores also aren’t equipped with any kind of decent audio/video systems. Most first-time authors that decide to release their books by doing a simple book signing in a bookstore quickly come to learn that it will be the longest, most desolate-feeling couple of hours of their lives. I’ve seen it happen and it was about as enjoyable as being stranded on the side of the highway in a broken down car.

PEOPLE (THE ONES ASSISTING THE AUTHOR):

• You’ll want to have at least 2-3 people on hand to help you. Preferably one person should have experience counting out money fast (e.g. – someone who has worked in a restaurant, accounting, etc). The other person should be ready to act as a runner to take money from the cash box when it gets full and move it in the back. If invitation-only policy is strictly enforced, the third person should be at the door (or with whoever is working the door).
• If available, secure 2-3 people to “take pictures and video”. If one of them is a seasoned (or professional) photographer, that’s great — you’ll primarily depend on this person to take all your best shots. The other person should be roaming around taking candid photos throughout the event. If a camcorder is available, a third person should be using it, both for candid shots and also to record the author’s speech when it is time to do an actual reading or just talk about the book and thank everyone for coming out. My preferences would be that both cameras and the camcorder *all* be digital. No offense to film lovers but in this case it will cost much more to capture alot less, not including the cost of getting the rolls developed. Based on the average storage card capacity of most cameras these days, going strictly digital with 2 cameras and 1 camcorder will give you anywhere between 500 and 1000+ photos and anywhere between 2 and 9+ hours of video footage. You want to document this event as much as possible and between the digital photos and footage, a promotional video can be edited together using any modern PC or Mac with rudimentary video editing software (the stuff used to put together home movies).

SHOWCASING OTHER TALENT:

• If there is a fit (and the key word is IF), consider inviting another artist, photographer or musician to be present at the event. If it’s a visual artist/photographer/whatever, have that person bring in some of their work and set it up gallery-style. Aside from adding flavor to the event, the co-promotion has many possibilities, including splitting the cost of any promo printing. If this other person is selling copies of their own work, let them handle their own money and keep the cash completely separate.

HANDLING THE BOOKS AND THE MONEY:

• Have a couple of people present to help with selling the books (refer to “PEOPLE” section above).
• With the exception of the books set out on the table for immediate sale, all other copies should still be in boxes and several of the boxes should be stowed under the table(s) where the author and the person handling the cash drawer are sitting. Cover the table(s) with tablecloths. Someone should be at this table at all times while books are being sold.
• Get two (2) locking cash boxes, the simple Officemax variety should do well. Also, get a stack of some latenight deposit bags from your bank (if you’ve got a business account with them they’ll gladly give you a bunch of them to get started).
• Get the restaurant manager to start you off with some change. $100 in change is a nice round amount to start off with because it can easily be subtracted when it’s time to cash out.
• Have a big-button calculator on-hand along with pencils, pens and a notepad, mainly needed for the money counts. You also might consider buying one of those money detection markers to keep in the box. Officemax sells one for about $14 dollars. Granted, it may seem like overkill but if you anticipate the possibility of people paying with $50 or $100 dollar bills (which happens often if the book retails for over $20 dollars and they’re buying multiple copies), the cost of the marker spent would be a cheap in comparison to the hassle of getting beat by a fake bill AND the losing the books.
• Write up a cheat sheet that shows the cost of up to 10 or 15 copies of the book and stick it on the underside of the cashbox lid so the person handling the money can see it when accepting money. This way, although the calculator will be available, whoever is handling the drawer can easily calculate exact change at a glance, thus keeping the line moving.
• Every time your cash box begins to overflow and there’s the need to clear out some money, take one of the night deposit bags, count off all but $100 in change (and do so several times to be sure its accurate) and put the money in the deposit bag. Have whoever did the count to write the amount and their initials on a slip of paper (written in ink), put it inside the deposit bag (where it is visible through the plastic) then seal the deposit bag and let one of your helpers take it into the back and put it in the other cash box, preferably somewhere in the manager’s office.
• If your event is going to run late into the night and book sales have cleared at least a few thousand dollars, ask the restaurant’s manager about making arrangements to store your cash boxes in the safe overnight so you can pick them up the next day. Sometimes better safe than sorry, especially if the author and everyone involved with selling the books has started drinking to celebrate.

STUFF RELATED TO THE AUTHOR:

• What seems to work best is to position the author’s table(s) within eyesight of the entrance, somewhere in the middle between the front door and the other seating area closest to the bar. Consider positioning the catered food somewhere either across from the author or further into the establishment yet still visible from the front door. Do NOT position the food any closer to the front door than the author is. Since every place is different, it’s strictly a judgment call. From where the author is sitting, the person handling the cash drawer should be on his/her side closest to the entrance. The idea is for people to come in and see activity, get in line (if there is one) leading toward the author’s table, buy one or more copies of the book, then sit down at the end of the table with the author as s/he signs the copies and chats for a few minutes, get up, go fix themselves a plate, then sit down and eat. Sooner or later, people will also buy a few drinks from the bar. After a few plates and a few drinks, people begin to mingle which, believe it or not, will also help book sales during the course of the event.
• Have author and publisher business cards available on the part of the table where people are paying for their copies. Consider also having promo giveaways or bookmarks that match the books, too.
• Have a guest book available for people to sign.
• If this event is going to last at least 4-5 hours, have the author bring a complete change of clothes along with a small bag of basic toiletries (toothbrush, toothpaste, mouthwash, etc). Not only does this cover the author in case something gets spilled on him/her, s/he can also go and freshen up as needed. Always better to be prepared than for John-Doe-Author having to explain a hundred times how got a Merlot or meatball stain on his shirt or the garlic-and-Chardonnay on Jane-Doe-Author’s breath is kickin’ like Bruce Lee’s Chinese Connection.

MUSIC:

• This really depends on the type of crowd expected to show. Sometimes it’s best to hire a general-purpose deejay or a deejay specializing in music that fits the environment in the book (e.g. – if the novel is set Harlem in the early 70s, a deejay that specialized in old pre-Disco Soul & R&B music would be great). Other times it might be best to go with a live group, like a jazz trio playing lightly in the background. And still, other times you might be able to get away with having someone put together a mix-CD of several hours of music.
• If I had to handle the music and wanted to save money, I would install Winamp (http://www.winamp.com) on a laptop and load up about 10 hours of music that fits the crowd (average music CD holds about 1 hour of music). I’d then have it play songs at random using the cross fade feature so the next song starts to slowly fade in as the current song fades out. I’d make arrangements with the venue manager to go in a few days prior to the event to plug it into their sound system and test it out.

There are probably a ton of tips that I’ve completely overlooked with this list but hopefully this will help give you perspective on the kinds of things to think about.

Hope those help… good luck with the event.

– Max Nomad

Ask a 3-year old boy to recite the alphabet and he may miss a letter here and there — but ask him to pick out Spongebob Squarepants or Dora the Explorer and he’ll get it right every time. Ask a 26-year old man to name four people he voted for in the last election and he probably can’t tell you; ask him to name a social website he uses these days and he’ll probably say Facebook, Twitter or Myspace without a second thought. Ask a 52-year old Business Owner to give you the name of an off-the-shelf Accounting program and s/he will probably say Quickbooks or Peachtree. Whether a consumer is 4 or 84-years old, everyone living in modern civilization is conditioned to live in a branded world. One of the biggest mistakes small businesses make is believing that somehow branding doesn’t apply to them or their products and services. This plays a huge part in why many of them fail.

Throughout my Graphic Design career I’ve worked with many types of businesses ranging in size from a startup Ostrich farm to car dealership chains to Fortune 1000 companies. Along the way I’ve seen how giants can be taken down by mosquitoes, misfits can become moguls, and smart design — along with strategic marketing — can turn water to wine, even on a shoestring budget.

A brand, by definition, is an identifiable entity that makes specific promises of value.

• Identifiable — can be easily picked out from similar things. Typically this is done with something visual like a symbol (a logo).
• Entity — something with a separate, distinct existence.
• Specific Promises — the claims that a product or service makes, such as FedEx with their on-time delivery, Altoids “œcuriously strong” breath mints, etc. These claims are promises to the consumer.

At the start of every client logo design project I stare at a blank sheet — whether it is a piece of paper or a blank drawing board on my screen — then visualize myself in the Arena Scenario: I imagine that I’m one of my client’s typical customers standing in the middle of an arena packed with thousands of people. They’re all from companies that provide the same products and services that my client does. All of them are reaching out to me and calling my name. Who do I go to — and why?

As strange as it may seem, I consider it a sort of 21st century Zen Koan, a question or riddle intended to open mental perceptions to new truths behind the everyday images of reality. It may take years to arrive at a single possible answer because koans don’t have right or wrong answers. With the Arena Scenario, each creative project always determines how I visualize it. For example, if I’m creating a logo design, color scheme, and motif for a client’s company image, I picture myself as standing in the middle of that arena completely deaf and illiterate, solely relying on what images and symbols I see. If I am writing copy for a corporate profile or a website, I am blindfolded and mute, relying on the power of the words I hear. I use this method because it helps me abstract my thinking enough to connect with many of those things that help the client connect with their customer base.

Ancient Egyptian, Greek and Israeli pottery artisans used it. Feudal Japanese swordsmiths used it. Blacksmiths throughout Europe and Colonial America used it. Cattle breeders throughout the Wild West right on up to Henry Ford and the early car manufacturers used it. Why? Because branding creates an emotional bond between products and services to those who sell them. It also creates a feeling of involvement with a sense of higher intangible qualities that surround the brand name and logo. To put it into beter perspective, think of it as that same feeling we usually get when we see familiar (but unknown) faces in our favorite spot and finally get an opportunity to introduce ourselves to each other. Suddenly what was just an overlooked part of the scenery has become a real person, someone worth getting to know better. In this context, the rest is up to us to keep making great impressions each time we meet. That, my friends, is the point most small businesses overlook — familiar, trustworthy relationships — the simple secret behind why branding has worked for thousands of years.

(more to come on this later)

– Max Nomad

My reaction was somewhere between sympathetic and stoic. Even on the fringe of the publishing  industry where small publishers like BGP exist, annual rejection letters can easily outnumber good manuscripts 100-to-1.  When we chatted about it via Instant Messenger, some of her frustrations came out as if by being a publisher I was somehow in cahoots with the publishing house that rejected her. The following is a rough transcript of my side of the conversation that I whipped up into a short essay meant to provide some insight into what rejection letters can mean.

With all sincerity, I feel your pain but I can’t bring myself to offer an apology about a rejection letter. If I did, it would be fake. Rejections are part of the game and half the time they have nothing to do with the quality of your manuscript or whether or not you have talent. This is especially true when it comes to the big publishing houses because they don’t accept unsolicited manuscripts anyway and generally the only way to get to them is through certain literary agencies they deal with. Even still, because these publishing houses often have dozens of editors across multiple imprints, if they even suspect that another editor within their conglomerate has a title in production similar to your manuscript you’re going to get rejected. And sometimes you might get rejected just because it’s Tuesday.

Aside from all the obvious advice about constantly striving to make sure your package (query letter, synopsis/sample chapters, and manuscript) is tight, you might want to focus your energies on landing a literary agent. The reputable agencies will only agree to represent you if they think they can sell the title to a publisher and if they’re really on their game they might be able to have several publishers bidding against each other to buy the rights to your book. They won’t get paid until the book is sold, usually for 15% commission.

The only thing that rejection letters mean is that someone doesn’t “get it” — whether the publisher doesn’t understand what you’ve got to sell or you don’t understand what the publisher needs — and it’s different in every scenario.

Hope that helps… Good luck on the quest.

– Max Nomad

As anyone that has ever run with musicians knows, there are many unwritten rules and truths but only a few that are somewhere between the two. One is that Crime and certain styles of Music seem to run hand in hand.

Prohibition-era Jazz and Blues bands played at Speakeasies run by mobsters. Crooners like Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin were buddy-buddy with mafiosi like Chicago boss Sam Giancana. Every major music legend with an addiction from Billie Holiday to Billy Idol always had a connection looming somewhere nearby like one of the many moons orbiting Jupiter. For decades, the tastes of the listening  public were secretly guided by rampant payola to get records on the charts.

The Crime and Music relationship has been such a convenient plot device in so many books and films that I’m not sure if it’s a case of Life imitating Art or vise versa.  While going through some of my journal entries and deciding what to include in The Bamboo Chronicles, I realized that both Crime and the Music had become characters unto themselves, almost sentient because their demands seem to have just as much of an affect on the ensemble as any other characters in the stories. I didn’t want to write a memoir but, instead, tout it as fiction “based on a true story”. I figured that changing some names and places would be enough to allow me to incorporate some events I witnessed without worrying about any repercussions — and then I learned otherwise…

In early 2006, shortly after I decided to take on the Next Stop manuscript as BGP’s second book project to publish, I met with the author, Ivan Sanchez, after work for a few drinks to discuss particulars that were going to affect which editor I paired him up with. My biggest concern was that he had used real names and street names for almost everyone in the book, including  some of the more nefarious characters. It was a toss up because by treating this book as a memoir we would have been within our legal rights to tell the stories as they happened, names and all. The trick would have been to make sure everything was 100% accurate but not disclosing so much that it would invade anyone’s privacy. Even with all that I knew we were still at risk of being sued. My thinking was that if anyone filed a lawsuit I’d simply start cranking out press releases using the shock value of the lawsuits as a means to drum up publicity for the book. On the other hand, there was at least nine months of editing and prepress work ahead of us; I figured we had plenty of time to change the names if necessary. Ivan and Jada (the editor) were so deep into the editing/revision process and I was busy with other design projects that the subject didn’t come up again. After reading the stories over and over again I even had a few nightmares about some of the murder victims, a sign that I might have grown too close to the project to maintain a pragmatic perspective. Against my normal business sense and tendency to avoid liabilities, the idea of changing all the names had become almost sacrilegious — some of the stories also served to memorialize those who were slain. It seemed like the right thing to do and worth the risk.

December 16th, 2006 arrived, the day of the Author’s Release party for Next Stop. The turnout was fantastic, everyone enjoyed themselves and we sold almost half of that first shipment of books, all of which made the event one of the greatest nights of my professional life. Once word of the book spread back to the Bronx, the next 15 days ushered in something neither of us had predicted — over a dozen phone calls with threats on Ivan’s life. The young fledgling gangsters in the stories had grown up. Some of them had been in and out of prison and still running the same criminal hustles they were doing over a decade earlier. Others had grown to become kingpins in their own rights. All were pissed that the book had hit the streets for a variety of reasons, including the fact that one or two of the stories connected some people to certain unsolved crimes with no Statute of Limitations.

The calls weren’t from some anonymous jerks. They were very real. They made sure Ivan knew who they were. We didn’t have to worry so much about the callers. They were all about his age and the ones that weren’t locked up for the next few decades were still on the street, deep in the game with too much to lose. The likelihood of one of them showing up to do a hit was slim. Instead, they would’ve handled it much like the older gangsters back in the day — scope out a couple of 14 year old kids tryin’ to get a rep, slap a wad of cash and a couple of burners in their hands, give them a map to the target and tell them don’t come back till it’s done. The big difference is that the kids today have things like Tom Toms, Mapquest, iPhones and Google; even Jimmy Hoffa could be tracked down with the right keywords.

With the intention of protecting himself and his family, it wasn’t until Ivan attempted to obtain a concealed weapons permit did things take another turn. Apparently there was still a case on his record that had been open for almost 17 years; all charges against him had been dropped but it was still on the books. Since he had recently made contact with the Virginia Beach Gang Unit with the intention of being part of a community outreach program, he mentioned about the need for protection and asked if they could help find out what was going on. Ivan gave a copy of Next Stop to each of the officers. One happened to let his supervisor take a look at it who, in turn, made some calls to the New York Police Department and the NYTF (New York’s equivalent of the DEA) to see if this stuff was real. Suddenly Ivan was under investigation again. Once the word got out that the cops were checking him out, all the death threats ceased. After a few weeks of nerve-wracking waiting and wondering if Ivan (and possibly myself) would end up in legal hot water, nothing came of the inquiries. In a roundabout way the cops proved the authenticity of Ivan’s book.

When I finally got back around to working on Bamboo, I realized that I had some more tough decisions to make.  My dilemma was that I had been privy to some illegal activities that were so outrageous they were better than anything I’d ever seen on television — reality far better than any fictitious spin that I could’ve written. Some of the gangsters I wrote about in my journal entries had been in and out of prison since I last saw them. In one case, when the DEA finally took down the Big Man, all the young guys he had on the street went to war over his territory and some of them became kingpins themselves. In all cases, my biggest concern wasn’t whether or not they would read Bamboo and see themselves. I never saw most with a book in their presence unless it was a ledger or an old family Bible on the table for show. The threat was from someone else reading the book, recognizing one or more gangsters and their crimes, then letting the rumor out about them being in my book. Some of them might have been flattered about being “famous” while others might have been ready to give me a one-way ticket to the bottom of the Chesapeake Bay.

I finally came to a conclusion: when it comes to a book — whether its a book I’m writing or a book BGP is publishing — Life is much easier as a writer if you treat Reality as a Choice and learn to walk the fine line between Defamation, Disclosure and Distortion. If you play it too safe, you lose the impact. If you play it the other way, the risks may not outweigh the gains. Either way, if you don’t play it smart there’s no telling how it will play out. Reluctantly, I started going back through everything I had already written, marking every illegal act that was harsher than smoking a joint. At times even today I’m still double-checking the liability factor behind some of the most interesting passages. It’s better than being an author whose book forced me to walk around strapped with a gun.

– Max Nomad

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Starting your own publishing company these days isn’t a costly endeavor. It’s publishing and marketing the books that will hurt your bank account.

If you’re looking for investors, my advice is not to waste your time. Venture Capital companies have no interest in funding startup publishers, the typical Angel Investor (a private individual with money) usually expects rate of return on their investment (15-20% ownership equity in the company PLUS 15-20% interest on their investment), and trying to raise the funds from Friends/Family/Fools is often a bad way to go because it may take you YEARS and quite a few costly mistakes before you even begin to see any real profit from your publishing startup.

If you’re looking for grants to apply for, a couple of great places to start are http://www.grants.gov/ and http://www.federalgrantswire.com/. The thing to keep in mind is that none of these sources will just give you a grant. It’s more than just filling out a form, too. In most cases you’ll basically need to have a business plan (complete with financials) and a rudimentary marketing plan. On top of that you’ll need to write up documents specific to the submission requirements of each grant source. It’s a good idea to have your plans done anyway because if you want any kind of assistance from your local branch of the Small Business Administration they won’t even take you seriously until they’ve reviewed and approved your Business Plan and financials. On top of that, the other issue you’ll be faced with is that it is possible to spend weeks doing research and getting your plans tight only to find that some of those magical sources of state/federal funding have either long since dried up or put on hold indefinitely.

Case in point: During summer of 2008 I attempted to go down the yellow-brick road with the SBA to get some funding for a separate business venture I became involved with. All paths lead to a very nice woman whose Yoda-like knowledge of business funding programs enabled her to finish my sentences in regards to any programs I was interested in applying for. She would tell me that the source had become defunct or put on hold due to the war in Iraq. Judging by the gravel in her voice that alluded to a daily diet of Scotch and cigarettes, I knew better than to sit around waiting for those sources to change status anytime soon.

I’ll gladly share more about my experiences starting up my publishing company (including some really big success news I’ve been keeping under wraps) but it almost sounds like you need to put the concept of publishing aside for a minute. The question you really have to ask yourself is “Am I really ready to start and manage a business?”