Below are the winners of Round #1. They were chosen by the judges, below, and myself as a judge. The final winner will be chosen mainly by YOU. However, I will make the final decision. Following are three simple rules for Round #2:

1. Anyone can vote for one of the pitches, below, but each person is allowed only one vote.
2. Please comment in the blog comment area, below to submit a vote. Just put the word VOTE in capital letters as the first word in the blog comment area. Then put the name of the person you are voting for directly after. This will help me much more quickly, tally up the votes for each author.
3. You can comment more on the entries or offer your thoughts about anyone else’s thoughts, but please, remember, only one vote. You are welcome, of course, to send the page link to anyone you want to send it to help the author who you believe has the best book idea.

The winning author of Round #2 will receive a comprehensive book coaching package by me. We will also publish the author’s book through our publishing division or work with the author to submit a book proposal to an agent if preferred .

The Three Round #1 Winners!

Winner: Laura O’Shea

Proposed book title — The Potlatch Principle: How to Build Customer Relationships Through Content Marketing

Company — Two Rivers Creative
Website — http://www.tworiverscreative.com
Blog — http://www.tworiverscreative.com/blog.html

FULL PITCH – http://www.tworiverscreative.com/blog/2010/07/12/19-what-is-the-potlat ch-principle-.html

Brief overview of your book pitch — When companies distribute free, high-quality content via blogs, videos, newsletters, webcasts and other media channels, they want three things in return: recognition, loyalty and sales. This book, named after the historic term ‘potlatch’ meaning to give away, uses case studies and stories to illustrate how content marketing builds strong customer relationships and provides corporate decision makers with the tools they need to develop a powerful content strategy.

Winner: Sheri Lee

Proposed Title: Say What Free Stuff – Small Business or Launch Your Business with Say What Free Stuff

Company:  Hurston + Hughes Owner/Blogger/Author
Website: http://www.saywhatfreestuff.com/
Blog: http://saywhatfreestuff.wordpress.com/

Brief overview of your book pitch : Say What Free Stuff (SWFS) Small Business is a resource guide for small business owners and budding entrepreneurs emphasizing free open source software, online resources, talent bartering, and crowd sourcing. SWFS Small Business explains how entrepreneurs can leverage free resources to eliminate some startup cost. In addition to the cost benefit, using these free resources allows the entrepreneur to simultaneously grow their business and promote other entrepreneurs, freelancers, and e-lancers.

Winner: Maura Thomas

Thursday, August 5, 2010 the Grand Prize winner of the Biz Book PitchFest 2010 Contest will be announced.

Judges’ Bios

Kevin Small

In 1996, Kevin was recruited by the leadership development author John C. Maxwell. Kevin was tasked with the creation of a platform that would be used to bring Maxwell’s leadership books to market. As the
President of Maxwell’s company, Kevin launched a satellite event training series that would enroll over 1 million students while rolling out an integrated publishing platform that launched four New York Times bestselling leadership titles. Maxwell’s annual book sales grew to over 1.2 million books. Under his leadership, the company grew dramatically over the next four years – from 10 to 125 people, and from $2 million to $25 million in revenue. Kevin managed the company’s sale in November 2004.

Meanwhile, the book business was changing quickly. Publishers were less and less able to commit the usual level of resources to authors’ launches. Kevin recognized that market conditions would soon require
that authors have their own marketing representation in order to have impact — despite the strength of their ideas, or their platform.

Kevin’s response was to form ResultSource, a boutique marketing firm that works with today’s thought leaders to build bestsellers. Kevin and his staff of six full-time employees serve as the business managers for Chip and Dan Heath, best-selling authors of “Made to Stick.”

Steve Farber

Steve is an executive coach, speaker and a best-selling author. His latest book, Greater Than Yourself: The Ultimate Lesson of True Leadership, has been a USA Today and Wall Street Journal Bestseller.
This first book, The Radical Leap: A Personal Lesson in Extreme Leadership” was recently named one of the “100 Best Business Books of All Time.”

Sarah Miller Caldecott

Sarah is an innovation champion who works with companies to ignite the innovation process, bringing a world-class innovator’s toolkit to individuals, teams, and leaders. She is also a great grandniece of Thomas Edison, an innovation author, and an MBA with 25-years of domestic and international marketing expertise.

Her best-selling book (Dutton Penguin) on Thomas Edison’s innovation methods was endorsed by the New York Times, Fortune Small Business, USA Today, 800-CEO-READ, and Investor’s Business Daily.

Brett Farmiloe

Brett is the social media manager for Jobing.com- the nation’s largest, locally-focused provider of employment media. He is a Gen Y’er who frequently speaks on the topic of how to use social media to attract and retain top talent. He has interviewed hundreds of leaders and employees in companies like Microsoft, Nike, and EA Sports in a social media intensive project he founded entitled Pursue the Passion (www.pursuethepassion.com). He also just published a book called ‘Pursue the Passion’ available on Amazon.

Melissa Giovagnoli

Creator of Biz Book Pitch Fest, Melissa is an eleven-time author with four books on bestseller lists. She recently launched Networlding Publishing a division of Networlding to help thought leaders and organizations with thought leaders grow their market share better and faster through the creation of award-winning blogs, profitable e-books and books. Networlding also helps thought leaders grow their platforms with the development of a community of “fans” who promote their books and hire them for
speaking, consulting, training and more.

Again, please vote, below in the comment area by August 8th. Thanks! Melissa

This e-book, Generating Revenue Through Thought Leadership (click here) covers the foundations of how and why to drive more business with thought leadership marketing. It explains why more customers are attracted to thought leadership and illustrates it with great success stories. It also explains why it’s critical to have a powerful point of view on a topic and how to develop one.

From my summary, if you start off with this e-book you will get the concept very quickly that e-books are a fantastic way of getting a big idea and then leveraging that idea into your own business to create success with your customers or clients. In other words, e-books are a tool that you too should create and then leverage for your own company. We welcome a conversation through our publishing division to help you should you need it.

We know you will greatly appreciate and enjoy this solid work of excellence. To get more information on the book and become part of The Inclusion Paradox community, visit Andres’ blog by clicking here.

I want to take some time today to more formally introduce myself. I’ve been in the publishing industry now for almost twelve years. I started out as an Acquisitions Coordinator at IDG Books (now an imprint of Wiley), focusing on developing their extremely successful …For Dummies series. As an acquisitions coordinator, I worked with the editors and authors on marketing-related pieces for their books (i.e. writing cover and catalog copy, soliciting cover and praise page testimonials, etc.) After a year or so in that capacity, I became an Associate Acquisitions Editor, responsible for signing books in the categories of personal finance, investing, and small business/entrepreneurship.

When IDG Books closed their Chicago office in 2001, I moved over to Sourcebooks in Naperville, Illinois where I acquired titles for their burgeoning MediaFusion imprint as well as general non-fiction and self-help books. In 2003, I moved back into the city and was the Acquisitions Editor at Dearborn Trade Publishing (now Kaplan Publishing) in charge of developing their general business list, which is where I first became acquainted with Melissa Giovagnoli and the exciting work she was doing with Networlding. In 2005, I left Dearborn and co-founded The Jonathan Scott Literary Agency here in Chicago. I was excited to finally be putting my entrepreneurial chops to the test and over the past four years I’ve signed and sold a number of well-received books to a host of leading publishers, including Rodale, Wiley, St. Martin’s Press, Financial Times Press, and others.

While I continue to represent authors – predominantly within the categories of cookbooks, adventure travel, and sports/health & fitness – I am very pleased to be lending my expertise to Networlding in the genesis of Networlding Publishing. In the past twelve years, the publishing industry has changed a lot – not always for the better – but within that change, there are many new opportunities that have arisen that collectively could signify a change in the number of options authors have in getting their books published.

With the success of such self-publishing services as iUniverse, Xlibris, AuthorHouse, Book Surge, and the like, the self-publishing industry today is booming. While at one time ‘self-publishing’ was considered a dirty word, for a number of authors it has become the most effective means of getting their books out there, especially for business thought leaders. I’ve blogged before on the advantages of self-publishing versus the traditional publishing route, and I’ll reiterate here that for those first-time authors who need to publish a book as a means of building their brand image, self-publishing is indeed it seems the way to go.

We at Networlding Publishing offer thought leaders a revolutionary new way to get their books published. Our motto is “the highest quality for the lowest price.” We begin with a conversation with the author with the goal of finding out which of our services they need – whether it be editorial development, cover and interior design, or marketing through social media – and tailor a package at an affordable price that represents the author’s biggest needs. Our team of experienced publishing professionals offers a more hands-on method of working with authors that goes beyond the less personalized approach of, for example, an iUniverse or an Xlibris while ensuring the highest possible quality at a rate that’s not going to break the author’s budget.

With the economy the way it is, one might question whether self-publishing is an affordable alternative. The best way to look at it is as a long-term investment. What you put into it now is going to reap benefits for you and your brand for the lifetime of the book plus seventy-five years. Of course, traditional publishers don’t want you to know this, which is one of the reasons why so many publishers are facing severe budgetary cutbacks and corporate reshuffling. They are simply out of touch with the times and more concerned with hitting their own bottom line than working with the author to maximize the author’s brand identity.

Anyway, Chris has come out with a new book called Trust Agents. It’s all about the power of social networking. With many case studies and loads of practical advice Chris offers his readers more insights into what it takes to create trust and influence in the “Age of the Network.”

But let’s focus on how Chris is faring with his marketing using social networking and following what we would say at Networlding are great relationship-building strategies. What does this look like? Twitter, Facebook and blogs mostly. LinkedIn has to be next.

So what do the numbers look ike early on?

He has started adding elements of Trust Agents to his speeches and has also sent out email blasts.

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #22,104 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Popular in these categories:
#49 in Books > Computers & Internet > Business & Culture > Manager’s Guides to Computing
#60 in Books > Business & Investing > Management & Leadership > Systems & Planning

What’s interesting is that Chris posted these stats this morning and, now, by the end of the day his book is now gone up in its ranking to 15,000. Nice climb in hours!

So this book that is all about the power of social networking is showing in its marketing efforts in one day the power of the network. Network thinking become network actions and network actions create real outcomes such as increased revenues and more powerful way of creating brand adoption.

Congratulations Chris!

Note Chris. Other terms to add to your social networking lexicon:

1. Link Boosting: It’s what my friend and top Chicago food blogger, Laura Hansen, at www.bestofthebestdiningchicago.com calls it when you boost someone else through your words, written or otherwise. How often do you Link Boost!
2. Transference of Trust: What happens when you have influence and you refer someone you know to someone else who does not know the person you know.
3. Peripheral Talk: What happens when you talk to someone and then add in other commentary and side topics to see if the person your talking to can keep up with you and broaden the opportunities you co-explore to add in new one quickly. Being able to interject peripheral talk into your social network enables you to create more opportunities for yourself and others more rapidly. It’s like “Pop-Up” bubbles that emerge on channels such as AMC. I really love watching movies with those bubbles but some people hate them.