Business Book Archives - Page 22 of 28

11.5 Rajesh Setty — About the Book: How It Got Published

November 8, 2006 by Liz

How It All Came Together

Last week and this, Raj Setty has shared thoughts and insights that expand what he wrote in Beyond Code.. He shared his personal story, how team loyalty and individual goals can work together, “The Inner Game” of attitudes and philosophy about career, life, and ambition, and “The Outer Game” of learning leadership.

Today we talk about Raj’s book, Beyond Code: Learn to Distinguish Yourself in 9 Simple Steps! how it came to be published, what he learned in that process, and advice he has for others who might want to follow his lead.

Raj, how did an IT consultant convince a publisher that he was qualified and able to write a book on how people might distiguish themselves to lead a fuller more successful life? What did you learn from the exprience? What advice for future writers do you have to share?
[Read more…]

Bookcraft 2.0: Why Bloggers Choose Better Titles than Authors

November 6, 2006 by Liz

In a conversation with Phil early this morning, we realized we are ready for the collaboration part of this endeavor. Here’s how it will work:

Phil will choose two days or evenings per week we can meet via voice.
He’ll arrange his time so that after each call he has a block of writing time.
I’ll arrange my time so that before each call I have prep time. I’ll send a list of the pages we’ll be talking about.
When we talk we’ll cover 3-8 pages in one section, discussing what rewrites they might need to flow together.
Phil will do the rewrites immediately after.
Phil will hold all of the rewrites until we’ve been through the entire first pass of the book.

Now the book is shaping up as a whole. We’ll be looking at how things fit together and flow. One of the relevant key word strings in Phil’s working title is “practical tips.” On the pages, we made a rule that each page has a real-life application of what Phil has described. During our two phone calls each week, we’ll be testing each tip to make sure that there are no repeats, that all of them can be done, and all can be called practical.

We’ll revisit the working title even more often than we already were.

The cover and the title are a promise of what is inside of the book. So we are careful to constantly revisit the title to make sure that the choices we make are in keeping with what our goal is.

This is where bloggers outshine the average off the street author. Bloggers know the value of relevant key words. They know readers search for important terms.Bloggers understand from their daily publishing that they should call a book what it is, not something clever that readers won’t understand.

We’re scaffolding down to a manscript that is beginning to be more like a book.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
If you’d like Liz to help you find or make a book from your archives, click on the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

11.4: Rajesh Setty — The Outer Game

November 6, 2006 by Liz

Life as a Contact Sport

On Wednesday, Raj discussed The Inner Game and the Five Ls. He explained how attitude and philosophy toward life, career, and ambition can lead a professional to focus and improve personally. He calls the topics for self-improvement the “Inner Game” and characterizes it with the Five Ls — Learn, Laugh, Look, Leave a Lasting Impression, and Love.

Today, Raj speaks to how positive interaction with others contributes to professional and personal success. In his book, Beyond Code: Learn to Distinguish Yourself in 9 Simple Steps! Raj calls that “The Outer Game.”

Some folks might argue that the Outer Game — Leverage, Likeability, Listen, Lead — can’t be learned, that what you’ll get is manipulation. How would you answer them?

Life is a contact sport and no man is an island. Outer Game covers those practices where there are some external dependencies. For example, you have to learn to be likeable by someone ELSE. Here is the basic premise for each chapter of the Outer Game.

[Read more…]

11.3: Rajesh Setty — The Inner Game

November 2, 2006 by Liz

The Five Ls

Yesterday, Raj discussed participation and differentiation. He explained that team loyalty and individual goals are not mutally exclusive. He pointed out that to be a strong team member, a person needs to be self-aware and to participate as an individual as well as a team player.

Today, Raj talks about how a professional looks inward to start with a solid foundation of personal skills. In his book, Beyond Code: Learn to Distinguish Yourself in 9 Simple Steps! Raj calls that the Inner Game.

Raj, in Beyond Code, you talk about the Inner Game — Learn, Laugh, Look, Leave a lasting Impression, Love — how might you mentor someone who takes life too seriously, who has too much negative “self talk” getting in the way?

In the “Inner Game” section of the book, I cover some topics or areas where a professional can focus and improve with limited external dependencies. There are five of them. Most of them are related to the person’s attitude and philosophy towards life, career and ambition.

Here is the basic premise of each of the five chapters:

[Read more…]

11.2: Rajesh Setty — The Need to Participate and Differentiate

November 1, 2006 by Liz

Team Player and Individual

On Monday, Raj recalled his childhood when he authored a novel and was determined to find a publisher, though people believed it couldn’t be done. His determination paid off. By age 16 he had six books that carried his name — four novels, a collection of poems, and a book on mathematics. He was the youngest author of the state.

That beginning proved Raj a unique and thoughtful man who would always forge his own path. So, it makes sense that when as a software engineer who worked his way up, he observed and understood both the systems on which he worked and the people who worked with him. His observations and experiences led Raj back around to write Beyond Code: Learn to Distinguish Yourself in 9 Simple Steps! to help professionals recognize that success is found in personal and interpersonal understanding, not in following hot business trends.

Raj, it seems the hardest thing for team players to do is to find the balance between participation as a team member and taking opportunities to distinguish or differentiate themselves at the same time. What advice would you offer?
[Read more…]

Bookcraft 2.0: Even the Best Shoes Don’t Belong in a Bookstore

October 30, 2006 by Liz

Look for Books Like Yours

If you recall, Phil, an editor, and I have been through his pages. We sorted them into four parts. I’ve read the parts through again and begun the process of fine tuning the order. This will get us to the final book map. We also checked the market at Amazon to see what books like Phil’s new book were doing. . . .

I promised to tell you more about that.

When I started in publishing I was a freelancer. I read everything I could about writing and one bit of advice always confused me:

Go after the publishers who already sell the kind of book you want to write.

To me, that advice seem counter-intuitive. Why would a publisher want another book about writing if they already had a list full of them? Shouldn’t I go to where a publisher didn’t have any?

[Read more…]