book writing

Biz Book PitchFest 2010 Winners of Round #1!

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

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