lots of people reading my new book, HATCH!—and giving at as a meaningful gift to friends and coworkers.
In the early 1990's Tom Peters, author of the monumental best selling business book In Search of Excellence, said that in the coming century, the companies that will remain on top will be those that can encourage, inspire, harness, and equip their employees to expand and use their creativity. These companies will win. [In his own words]
My favorite clients are companies where, among employees, there is a sense of empowerment to take risks, try new methods (a.k.a. innovation), and pursue the impossible (we have no idea how to do this, but we're gonna give it our best shot ...to get it started.) These are are my favorite clients.
Count on it!
Babe Ruth was not only the Home Run King for decades (38 years), he was also the leader in strike outs. The Babe's secret: he swung at the ball more than anyone. He was pretty good at connecting wood to leather. (And not to shabby at missing.)
If you don't think you can, you probably won't.
HATCH! was written after years of people in my seminars, workshops, and keynotes, asking, "When are you going to put this in a book that we can have to use everyday." (Very few asked "if" I was going to do a book on the subject.) The answer to when is 17 September 2012.
I have been so excited that these 208 pages are having the effect I hoped for as I spent a good bit of a full decade working on it. There were five major re-writes, several title changes and, as you know if you've read HATCH! or followed this blog, eighteen rejections from big time publishers. (Several editors liked HATCH! a lot, but could not convinced their marketing or sales geniuses to give it a thumbs up.)
That's why I went the "DIY publishing" route—at the insistance of my equally frustrated literary agent. This gave me —for the first time in my five books—total control over the content and, more importantly, the look of the book from cover to cover, every page, and even the eye-catching-can't-miss-it-on-a-book-shelf-from-across-the-room striped spine. (Reproduced at right) This design motif will also appear on the next two books in my creativity trilogy.
The comments on Facebook, the personal emails, text messages, blogged reviews (here's one from Ken Davis) and the 14 of you who have weighed in on the HATCH! Amazon page are all proof to me that HATCH! and the 7 Agreements of Brainstorming (the first half of the book) work on their own, on paper—without me in the room to add my own song and dance. The more the one hundred sketches and doodles are the "dance" in HATCH! 91.52% of the art is lifted or reworked from my years of sketchbooks and are included to add more snap, crackle, and kaboom to the words.
[If you have still not gotten your own copy, you need to know that there is even an entire chapter—The Doodle Factor—that will teach anyone how to draw: McNair's Fearless Field Guide to Doodling & Visual Thinking. People are already sending in the surprising (to them) results of playing with the Field Guide.]
Several have written to say that even before reading the whole HATCH! they jump back on line and ordered additional copies for their staff, coworkers, boss(!), and friends. Those are among my favorite reactions.
My publishing partner tells me we still have some of the autographed copies—available through their online store www.BookVilages.com—and you can also get HATCH! through Amazonk.
If you have read (and enjoyed) HATCH!, please add you thoughts and reviews to the growing list on the HATCH! Amzonk.com page, HERE.
If you post a review of any length on your own blog or other social media sites, please send the link!
[If you did not like it, just sit quietly and rest.]
You can also download a FREE PDF of the complete opening chapter at the top of this blog.
By the by ... what's one of your favorite lines, quotes, or sections of HATCH! Readers seems to be struck by a wide array of all the stuff in HATCH!
Comments