Sales Books

An extremely informative and fun book to read Jeffrey Dobkin is incredible. Not only did he personally respond to my phone call to him after I read his incredible book, but he dropped a note in the mail to thank me for reading his book and used some of his personal contacts to help me market my disc jockey training materials. I was able to generate a 73% response rate on a lead generating direct mail letter that I crafted straight from the step by step easy to understand directions in this brilliant printed marketing seminar. This letter was to potential wedding clients for my companies' DJ services.

We booked 5 sales from it which resulted in $2,000 in deposits and $4,975 in gross income. Not a bad time investment.

I definitely consider myself knowledgeable in the copyrwiting area, but I became extremely knowledgeable after reading Mr. Dobkin's book.

The reason that I'm writing this review is because I am preparing to read the book again. I'm sure that I will pick up many more new ideas that will help me market even more effectively.

If Jeffrey Dobkin writes another book (it could be on harvesting avecodos) I'll be in front of you in line to get it. Though I would like it autographed Mr. Dobkin!

This is another book by Dobkin covering his multiple exposure marketing methods. There's over 350 pages of checklists, resources, and great ideas. Here's a synopsis of the contents:

I - Big Results from Free Press (publicity) - 30 sections outlining how to create a PR campaign that gets published. This was very well done, and I wish he would come out with a book on this topic exclusively.

II - Direct Mail - 46 sections outlining how to create a direct mail campaign. These 46 are organized into 3 main sub-sections:

a - In Direct Mail Your Success May Be Just 32 Cents Away,

b -Other Elements of a Direct Mail Package

c - Lists: the Most Important Element in Any Mailing.

III - Marketing Through Magazines. This is broken into 4 sub-sections totalling 32 different topics:

a - Overview (how to integrate with PR releases, etc.),

b - Research Tools of the Trade Made Easy,

c - The One Evening Marketing Plan,

d - Marketing Through Magazines with Paid Advertising.

IV - Ads. This is broken down into 4 sub-sections containing 30 different topics. The sub-sections are:

a - Overview (writing your ads to an objective... a favorite of his, you'll also see it in his other book on Uncommon Marketing),

b - Types of Headlines

c - Business to Business Inquiry Generating Ads

d - Ad Design and Procurement

V - The $500 Campaign. Here he has 11 sections put together a complete campaign. * - He even includes a few pages in the back of the book for the "A Technique for Delaying Brain Death in Heart Attack Victims" as a public service. At first I looked at this and said "Huh?", then after I read it I was amazed at Dobkins concern for others. He really describes a zero cost way even a child could use on an adult having a heart attack.

What I liked about this book:

+ Lots of practical advice,

+ He organizes the material to help your marketing campaigns,

+ He covers PR as an important element, as well as direct marketing,

+ He pushes multiple-exposure marketing (which I agree is very powerful - as I've used in on software letters and tracked the results),

+ He gives copywriting advice for your letters and ads,

+ Very good coverage of "the offer". I particularly liked his concept of "complementing the offer" (adding on guarantees, etc.). He gives lots of examples here.

+ He describes a marketing cost model that you can use.

+ How to buy and position magazine ads,

+ Use of low cost techniques (inquiry generating ads, postcards)

+ Lots of reproduced examples (letters, mag ads, postcards, classifieds)

+ Long list of resources.

I liked this book very much. After I bought it, several years later he came out with the Uncommon Marketing book. I bought that one also. Although there is a certain amount of overlap, I'm happy I bought both. They are both rated an "A +" read, and make great reference books to keep on your shelf forever.

You can also see my my review of his other book at Amazon. I believe this book lives up to the claim in the title: you can market a product for as little as $500, or at least get it rolling.

John Dunbar

This book is incredibly helpful!!!
Easy to read, inspiring and jam packed with the kind of information that is crucial to anyone going into business for themselves...
It's had a huge impact on the success of my business and I can't recommend it highly enough!

I loved this book!

Jeff Dobkin has done a fantastic job of providing a vast resource of marketing ideas for those who don't have a marketing budget.

Not having a lot of money for marketing doesn't mean you can't be wildly successful. And if your pockets are bare, you can't live without this book.

I've got so much out of this book. In fact, my copy looks like it's been through World War 3! It's been highlighted, corners bent, notes all over the place! It's great!

An extremely informative and fun book to read Jeffrey Dobkin is incredible. Not only did he personally respond to my phone call to him after I read his incredible book, but he dropped a note in the mail to thank me for reading his book and used some of his personal contacts to help me market my disc jockey training materials. I was able to generate a 73% response rate on a lead generating direct mail letter that I crafted straight from the step by step easy to understand directions in this brilliant printed marketing seminar. This letter was to potential wedding clients for my companies' DJ services.

We booked 5 sales from it which resulted in $2,000 in deposits and $4,975 in gross income. Not a bad time investment.

I definitely consider myself knowledgeable in the copyrwiting area, but I became extremely knowledgeable after reading Mr. Dobkin's book.

The reason that I'm writing this review is because I am preparing to read the book again. I'm sure that I will pick up many more new ideas that will help me market even more effectively.

If Jeffrey Dobkin writes another book (it could be on harvesting avecodos) I'll be in front of you in line to get it. Though I would like it autographed Mr. Dobkin!

How to Say It to Sell It: Key Words, Phrases, and Strategies to Build Relationships, Boost Revenue, andBeat the Competition

"I love your new book, How To Say It To Sell It" (which you graciously autographed for me when you were here in Wisconsin!). I took your advice from the chapter on voice mails, and recently changed my outgoing voicemail to say that our hotel is now under new management and just completed a $5 million dollar renovation. I've had several people calling with inquiries on business who later told me when I returned their call that they had no idea about our renovation until they heard it in my voicemail. :o)


Thanks so much for the great idea!
Sue Lidstrom, Madison, WI.

Sue has written an excellent book loaded with practical strategies to boost sales. It's easy to relate to her specific examples about getting and keeping the customer's attention. Her unique, customer-focused approach -- and her real-world ideas to apply it -- are great. Each of the three sections -- communication skills, presentation skills, and email and sales writing -- offer great new ideas for moving the sales process forward.

How timely! Just in time for implementing my business plan this year. This book covers it ALL! It will definitely make an impact on both business and personal relationships. This book is for anyone & everyone...that can talk! What a great gift idea too.

The praise that this book received says it all and I agree with Warren Greshes's comments: "Sue supplies you with the perfect words or phrases for every situation: even the ones you'd like to avoid." Warren says that he has been selling for 35 years and profited from this book. I've been selling for 32 years and agree. Great investment!

I carry this book with me everywhere! Truly!
We all sell, all the time, and this book provides a roadmap for more successful sales conversations. You'll enjoy the author's enthusiasm for selling and helping others succeed, too.

this is the best book i've ever read. amazing primer on the movie business. BUY IT!

I just finished this book, and Cliff Robertson is actually a very minor character. In fact, the subject of him being "blackballed" is barely mentioned. (It receives one paragraph in the Epilogue.) Robertson was the first person to suspect something was amiss at Columbia, but the book is actually about the power struggle between the President of Columbia, Alan Hirschfield, and the controlling interests of the shareholders, led primarily by Herbert Allen Jr. This is a long book, but it was so riveting that I found it difficult to put down. It is really well written, even if it does not paint any of the characters in a terribly sympathetic light. I can't help but think that if Hirschfield had shown more backbone in the beginning and stuck by his decision to fire the check-forger Begelman instead of caving in to Allen's demands, none of this epic battle would have happened.

This is not really a tale of embezzlement and disgrace - it is the store of power struggles between the Board of Directors for Columbia Studios, who were clearly had personal loyalty in their underlings as their top priority, and the CEO, Alan Hirschfield, trying to do what he needed to do to save the studio.

I don't have access to people at this level, so I appreciate the peeping-Tom aspect of viewing the thought processes and actions of people who normally hide behind lawyers, secretaries, and call-screeners.

The author obviously interviewed many many people to put this book together, and I appreciate how he reported on the media coverage, as well. I never really thought of how people manipulate the news as part of the story, but course it is.

The book is like a newspaper story in that it is filled with information, but the narrative reads like a novel - very easy to read. The author does a good job of developing story-lines, so we have a sense of completeness, and a sense of an overview, while also sprinkling the famous names and the glamour that makes Hollywood so compelling to people.

I've never understood why Hollywood turns out bad movies month after month, year after year, when it is so easy to tell from the beginning that a movie is going to be awful. Why make awful movies?

This book doesn't directly address that issue, but it shows how irresponsible and irrational the leading powers that control Hollywood on both coasts are, and how corrupt the whole system is. It's obvious that normal things like making a good product become irrelevent to their attention span.

I guess it's not really corruption, if everyone knows it's happening, and it's just a way of getting things done.

My only complaint is that I wish I had more of a reality on the Board Directors. Their actions seem so irrational, but I'm sure it's because they were not forthcoming in their interviews, and did not take the opportunity to express their points of view. People at that level are notorious for avoiding the press, so it is not surprising.

I bought this book when it first came out and have reread it every year or so. Tends to be a bit long and sometimes slow, but it's great. Buy a used copy, or check at the library.

Being from the Washington D.C. area I kept constantly asking why someone didn't leak this to the press and blow the whole compiristy.

The only comparable book is "The Great Salad Oil Swindle"

David Begelman, powerful head of a studio thinks he is above the law, until an actor by the name of Cliff Robertson exposes him. This book is a well written tale of immorality in a town known for it's lack of scruples. Hollywood insiders should not be surprised at this tale, but I was. The check Begelman forged was for a small amount. The man made more than that in a month. The book exposes the reasons why a man who had it all, would choose to commit such a crime and fall from grace. I was quite disappointed by Robertson's treatment by Hollywood's hierarchy when he was the victim, not Begelman. But it proves just how far studios will go to protect the bottom line. I read this book when it was first published years ago and I'm reading it again. The list of books I will read more than once is a short one. I highly recommend it.

Great job! Easy read, and gives me some practical tips for the customer service group in our organization. Important, timely, solid.

Great read from Mr. Willingham! "Integrity Selling" was the first book from Mr. Willingham that I read and it was a fabulous read! "Integrity Service" the service solutions in this book are fundamental to the success in small business and corporate environment success! Mr. Willingham has a way of writing the material, so anyone can understand and know how to put the solutions into practice.

A great read. I have just finished Ron Willingham's book, "The People Principle", and expected good things, was not disappointed. He makes the difficult process of working with different types of people easy to understand. Good material for the new service/sales employee, or the seasoned veteran. A management team could go through each chapter on a regular basis with their employees as a learning process.

Jim Hinshaw
Ft. Collins, CO

The most effective professional sales training I've ever introduced to any organization is Ron Willingham's Integrity Selling. Now we have a new beacon in the field of customer service. If you are tired of the vacant stares, indifferent attitudes and nearly hostile treatment you receive as a consumer of goods and services, this book will help. However, if you own or operate a business, division or department, this book will revolutionize your role in front of your customers. Each of the dozen chapter titles tells you and your team what you should be doing, but the real wisdom is in the pages where you are told HOW to meet, greet and serve customers as they want.

This book avoids the platitudes, the simplistic mantras and the repetition of old knowledge. Instead, you get a fresh and appealing notion of what it takes to meet and serve your fellow man. If that isn't your overriding perspective in the work world, you must read this book in order to survive. If you already share the servant's attitude with those around you, this will reinforce your methods in profound ways. An excellent resource!

What a great book! Integrity Service has so much more than your typical "how to" book on customer service. Ron Willingham takes the reader deep into valuing, listening, and really understanding the customer. Be careful! You may come away from this book with not only a thorough knowledge of customer service, but also profound personal growth.

This book makes for some very compelling reading. It is not often that I read a book that delivers the goods... but these authors have nailed it. It uses both traditional and dot com companies to illustrate ways any company can leverage the Internet to gain customers at substantially reduced costs. This book has everything you need to implement a successful e-mail campaign. From how to identify good email lists to how to create the right message. Including dos and don'ts, front-end tips and back end response analysis. Has just the right balance of technical and practical information. I am a marketing manager working for a 'Fortune 500' company. The information in this book cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars to find out. Some things are so important, I wish I thought of them myself or discovered them sooner. I can't wait to try some of these techniques out and see the effect on my next campaign. I am recommending this book to everyone I know. Buy it!

These authors know their stuff. They've been very instrumental in helping Ancestry.com grow to over 320,000 paid subscribers over the past 18 months. Email Marketing is now one of our largest sources of subscriptions. I recommend this book for both beginner and expert alike.

I bought this book because I know the authors by reputation. My company was a traditional mail order company. We used to sell all of our products through our printed catalog. The Internet has changed all of that. Half our budget is now dedicated to e-mail marketing.

I applied the Author's recommendations and saw my e-mail response rates take off. On the most recent campaign, I saw a 247% lift in response resulting from the use of just one of their techniques.

The book is written in very clear and concise language. It's methodical and step-by-step method worked wonders for my company's program. I've read all the other books currently on the market, they just don't compare. If you're new to e-mail marketing or a serious pro, this book has information that you can put to use right away.

The tips and tricks in creating an e-mail program were dead on. I especially liked the chapters on the type of products that can be sold via the Internet and the characteristics of a successful Internet Buyer. The "Multi-Mailing" idea alone was worth the price of the book.

***** FIVE STARS***** Excellent..... If you are an executive looking for information on how email marketing will impact your business, you'll want to read this book.

If you want to know how the pros are using email marketing buy this book.

It details the differences between opt in permission based lists, and SPAM, and how to avoid the pitfalls that can literally kill your business. It comes complete with information on where you can find the best email lists and email marketing services in the business.

It identifies the different types of copy, formatting, text Vs HTML, rich media, etc, and provides insight into which may be best for your business. I've been asking everyone about timing of our messages. No one was able to give me a clear answer that made any sense. This book gave me great insight into the time and day that is best for me to do my email transmissions... and the auothor's information produced immediate positive results for us.

Aside from the practical knowledge, I also liked this book because the author's share the latest thinking about where this medium is going, and what steps to take today to make sure that your business reaps the rewards of the future.

This book is not just for dot comers. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone involved in the sales and marketing of their company's products and services.

This book is now the definitive resource on email marketing.

Any book that Bob Bly is associated with is bound to be good--no, great! And this one is no exception.

The author explores this new, exciting medium we call email and uncovers its powerful potential for direct response selling. It leads you through the basic techniques of marketing through email. What works and what doesn't. Most importantly, it steers you clear of potential pitfalls inherent in this new medium--like how to avoid spamming, etc..

A great book on email marketing that is thorough, timely, and bound to become a classic in its field.

I picked this book up at a remainder sale- you know- "crown books" kind of thing- about 15 or 20 years ago. It was in the bin that was being almost given away because there was water damage, so I grabbed it and searched for a clean copy. Couldnt' find one so I bought it- really for the illustrations. It's full of details of kitchens, cooking, scullery maids etc by painters from the 1500's (Pieter Aertsen), 18th centurey (Groewenbroth & Carlo Magini), 14th (Tacuinum Sanitatis), 15th (Abulcasis) and on and on including some gems like Jocapo Ligozzi "Mouse and Walnut" which also depicts a mole, Vincenzo Campi's "The Kitchen" showing a decidedly NOT cuddly cat with entrails from a bird or eel scratching a little setter who is hoping to steal the bits- one that makes the book worthwhile if there was nothing else I liked.

Luckily for my overflowing shelf of cookbooks (that are underutilised due to cries of "Mom, I don't want duck wings!", etc) the book is handy too. The recipes are more like guidelines than recipes- sort of the anti-recipe to those who need full-color illustrations of each and every item in a cookbook in order to consider purchasing the book. The illustrations show what food looked like when the cooks knew what part of the animal it came from. The guidelines are designed for people who were accustomed to using what they had on hand and judging how the food was cooking by how it looked and smelled, not by the clock or timer.

Yes, I love this book- as a cook who substitutes and guesses and makes things up as I go along and make pretty darned good food, despite what my children may think.

`Italian Food' is one of the three major books Elizabeth David wrote in the first five years of her culinary writing career, the other two being `French Provincial Cooking' and her first, `Mediterranean Food'. The titles of two of these three books, being about `Food' and not strictly about `Cooking' is very telling of the fact that Ms. David's major books on food are simply not like any other writer of her generation.

For starters, it is a mistake to see Ms. David as `the English Julia Child'. While Julia Child was possibly the most outstanding teacher of cooking methods writing in English, Ms. David was the most distinguished scholar of English, French, and Italian cooking methods and cuisine. The hallmark of that difference was that while Julia Child reworked and expanded traditional recipes so that no detail was left to chance for the amateur American cook, Ms. David goes to equal lengths to describe exactly how Italians really cook, down to the marked inexactness of their measuring.

Unlike all the great modern writers in English on Italian cuisine such as Marcella Hazan, Giuliano Bugialli, and Lydia Bastianich, Ms. David not only gives us a survey of Italian ingredients, recipes, and methods, she gives us a critique of them as well. Can you possibly imagine Marcella Hazan saying that the Italians generally do not cook eggs very well?

Note that Ms. David is as rigorous about her giving the correct Italian names to things as the very best of the Italian writers, but unlike the Italians, she is really seeing Italian cooking through French colored glasses. Today, we commonly think, for example, of a frittata as a distinct type of dish. Ms. David translates `frittata' into `omelet'. Her description of the technique is perfect, something even Mario Batali would be proud to quote, but he may object to the interpretation of the dish as seen by `the F country'.

The importance of Ms. David's achievement, which required a full year's research in Italy, can only be appreciated when you realize that she was working in a climate of opinion in England which saw Italian cuisine as very dull, being nothing more than variations on pasta and veal. As we are well aware today, Ms. David found an enormous wealth of regional diversity in ingredients, methods, and even language, as the same pasta shape can be called three or four different names in different parts of the country.

Since this is a critical and analytical look at Italian cooking, it is done by type of dish rather than by region. And, the book is not intended to be a `complete' survey of Italian dishes. There are a few well known dishes such as `pasta puttanesca' or `timbales' which are not here, and some, such as `spaghetti alla carbonara' which are found under a slightly different name, `Maccheroni alla carbonara' (which is actually more appropriate, as many types of pasta shapes are done with this eggy preparation).

One of the many things that stand out in this book is how well Ms. David's personality and point of view come out on practically every page. In a recent competition for `The next Food Network Star', the judges stated over and over that the contestants must project who they were while presenting the culinary material. Like her great contemporaries, M.F.K. Fisher and Julia Child, this is certainly one thing which Elizabeth David does to great effect. I was especially pleased when she spoke of her connection to the much older travel writer, Norman Douglas. While Ms. David's biography did not clearly reveal the source of Elizabeth's love of food and food writing, the statements in Ms. David's own `Italian Food' make it clear that the elder Norman Douglas was her primary mentor in establishing her professional interest in food and writing about it at a very high standard.

Ms. David's high standards are evident when you compare her writing with that of Tony May in his recent handbook, `Italian Cuisine' where I found several mistakes in identifying ingredients. While the culinary content was sound, Mr. May, and his publisher's copy editors, had relatively low standards for factual accuracy.

A quick look at the back of `Italian Cooking' confirms the fact that this is more a work of scholarship than of a simple book on cookery. There are appendices of bibliographies on both cooking and tourism and notes on wine. One may need to be a little careful with any references, especially on wine and travel, as much in this area has changed in the last 50 years.

Short of stumbling across an autographed copy of the hardcover edition with the original illustrations, you will want to refer to the revised edition, first published by Penguin Books in 1963, as this edition incorporates most of the footnotes into the main text, as the footnoted material was largely segregated due to the 1954 rationing of food in England.

While Ms. David had several major culinary writing disciples, especially Jane Grigson and Claudia Roden, I believe the only place you will find writing at her level of scholarly criticism is from the leading modern columnists such as John Thorne, Jeffrey Steingarten, and James Villas.

You may not want to cook from this book on a daily basis, but as I have, I believe you can use this as your primary source of Italian recipes, and be all the wiser for choosing this volume.

I've been carrying around my 1969 Penguin editon of Elizabeth David's book for over 30 years. It's now a wreck - it's been used so much! It is absolutely the best book I have read (and used constantly) that describes the art of cooking Italian food. Great descriptions of Italian (including regional) ingredients and really easy to follow practical menus. I was so delighted to learn that a new edition of this marvelous book (first published in 1954!) was available.

I want all her books. The recipes are current and real today. I want all her books
and want them in hardback.

I have an old Penguin paperback version of this book, in my possession since 1966, held together with duct tape, speckled with with dots of olive oil, pesto and marinara from all these long years of use so it was with great delight that I found this new version on Amazon. It is a standard that I return to again and again for Mrs. David's keen understanding of what makes Italian cusine so superb; impeccable ingredients, careful attention to method and restraint. The recipes from this book taste the most like food I've eaten in Italy because Italian food, while layered with many nuances and flavors is essentially quite simple relying on exquisite freshness and finesse. Elizabeth David brings that lesson home in her wonderfully literate and direct voice sometimes reminding and sometimes demanding what the recipes are expecting from you. As is her wont the book is filled with asides and quotes from Italian writers and thinkers; F.Marinetti, the Italian futurist of the 1930s and Apicius from 30 A.D. and a line like this from Guiseppe Marotta, the Neopolitan writer, who says about spaghetti: "The important thing to remember is to adapt your dish of spaghetti to circumstances and your state of mind". She wins me over with her charming/demanding use of the English language, her dry sense of humor and her obvious love of her subject. Many of the recipes in this book have become part of my repetoire ( Minestra Verde, Budino di Pollo in Brodo, Casoeula, Carote al Marsala & Pesche Ripiene to name a few) while others are simply informative about Italian food and culture. This book, originally published in 1954, holds it's own right now in the 21st century and is a tantalizing and wonderful adventure in cooking and eating. For anyone who enjoys Italy and Italian food this book will give years of service and pleasure.

What a fabulous read about the decadent 70's and early 80's high-roller scene. Read this book (LET AN IDIOT BORROW IT AND DIDN'T GET IT BACK! )in the early 80's and LOVED it...Read it for great info on Lothario Mick, and gorgeous Jerry. Jerry, you've had three more kids and lots of living in almost 20 years, WE NEED AN UPDATE!

I couldn't help wondering if Jerry Hall ever regretted writing this one, penned while she was still bonded with Mick Jagger. Was it ever used as "evidence" in her divorce trial? Did it return to haunt her?
Forgetting those questions, this book is just a fun romp for readers, as Jerry opens up and lets loose on her philosophy about how to handle men...including Mick, who Jerry admits was far than faithful. The picture section is a nostalgic trip through rock's early days and Jerry's younger years as a top model and crazy woman.
My advice? Grab a copy now while the price, high as it is, is within reach. You won't regret it!

Love, love LOVE Jerry Hall! What a great chick with a great attitude. This book is fantastic reading for inside the decadent 70's scene, and private side of the fabulous MICK! Jerry, we need to know MORE - You have had THREE more kids since your last book, so please write another one!

Read this book back in the early 80's and it changed my life. She's a daring and gutsy girl, with a disarming sweetness. It's time for part two of Jerry's great adventures!

Read this book when it first came out, and loved it. IMHO, Jerry was the coolest model in the 70's. Check out the pictures in Scavullo's beauty book from that time period - Jerry's awesome! I think it's time for volume 2 of Jerry's autobiography. Let's hear the real deal on you-know-who and why Jerry hung in there for all those years.

This book is a lot of fun & makes a great gift for those who are into sneakers and like to personlize their look. IO've gotten a lot of compliments on my lace styles so I've got to give a thumbs up to this book. You'll find that this book works especially well with Nike's, Puma's, k-swiss, and classic Adidas sneakers. You'll will also find lacing styles for boots.

I was on the mailing list for the announcement of the publication of this book, but like a number of things on my ToDo list, it got shoved aside and forgotten for a while. Finally having it in my sweaty little hands, I've got to say that this book is just way too cool for words. I wish I'd had this decades ago. Oh yeah, and my kids love it, too. This book could be crappy, but instead it's decidedly sturdy. My imagination conjures images of the author arguing with the publisher to get it done properly. He definitely won, too. It's designed in such a way that you can open it to a page, fold the flap with the laces over and learn by doing. The best way to learn, if you believe neuroscience. It comes with extra laces and a resealable plastic pouch (also sturdy) to keep them in. Altogether brilliant.

Ian Fieggen describes and illustrates so many lacing options. He suggests horizontal, vertical, twisted, and even stars. A couple of options relieve toe pressure, a bonus for aching toes! His sketches provide easily understood lace paths. There are plenty of colorful flat and round laces included with the book to encourage practice. The ends of those laces don't go unattended; a whole section on ways to tie them off gets away from the usual bow. Best yet, there is a cure for how to succeed in lacing: get the right length. As an example, for Lug Bar Lacing, compute the following formula:
((H+W)x(P+1)+Vx(P-1)+L)x2
where P is eyelet pairs, H is horizontal distance between eyelets, W is width of lugs, and L is the amount desired to tie the knot. As other formulas include square root and power of two, it's a great time for calculator practice. In case you still have a cord undersized, several lacing options are available for short laces. There are other opportunities for Ian Feiggen's designs, such as new cut T's, side-cut jeans, scrap booking (lots of eyelets there), and maybe even storage tarps (your outdoor grill would look so good).

This book was a surprise ! I picked it up because, as a graphic designer, I was interested in its unusual book design. But, after leafing through it, I found lacing styles for all kinds of shoes -- not just children's shoes and athletic shoes. Want to know how to do a Roman lacing for your dress shoes ? This book has it. How about a useful lacing style for hiking boots or bicycling shoes ? It's here.

Of course, the stars of the book are the neat decorative lacings. Adding a flair to your everyday shoes, a decorative lacing will set you apart from the crowd. My favorites are "starburst" and "checkerboard."

With a little creativity, you can apply the lacing styles to anything with a lace-and-eyelet system. For example, Renaissance faire performers, such as myself, will enjoy this book for new ways to lace up their boots, tunics, bracers, doublets, and corsets.

In short, this is a great book for creative folks all ages.

I love this book and so do my two kids, a 7 yo boy and an 9 yo girl. I originally bought the book to help my son learn to tie his shoes. He is left handed (and I am right) and has some fine motor difficulties. We tried my way and a few ways on the internet and just couldn't come up with an easy enough way for him to learn to tie.

The book has the lacing on the outside. It is designed so that the book folds open in order to view the instructions alongside of the lacing. He learned one of the tying methods on a car trip in less than 5 minutes.

The kids take the book in the car and try different lacing patterns. My daughter loves changing the lacing pattern on her shoes. They have both changed their lacing patterns numerous times since we bought this book.

I have learned so many things from the book too. Some of the lacing patterns are to help shorten those long laces that come on kids shoes these days. There are lacings for making shoes fit tighter, looser, for keeping the laces out of bicycle chains, and not to mention making a fashion statement.

It's nice to have this three novel continuous story to help one get thru the winter months. Great companion !!

In Bernard Samson Len Deighton created an everyman character who is smart, tough, intuitive, and is double crossed by everyone he cares about. Since I've read (and re-read) all 9 of the Bernard Samson nonology, it's hard to limit my comments just to "Game, Set, and Match". In any event, Bernard was betrayed by his wife in several different ways, by his best friend in truly horrible fashion, and by all of his cohorts at SIS. These are great and very readable spy stories, but they also provide a very real look into the dishonesty confronting all of us. That is, one never knows how the world looks to friends and colleagues, and when they are being honest and when they are lying. These are really great books that I would recommend to anyone!

I have read (and re-read) the entire Bernard Samson series and thoroughly enjoyed each book. The series, in my opinion, is simply the best of it's genre. The characters, storyline and writing are superb. Bernard Samson is one of my favorite characters in fiction ever. Read the books -- you will not be sorry you did.

Len Deighton is the perfect antidote for those sick and tired of Tom Clancy novels. In all of Deighton's works, the human is the center of the book, and the dialogue and the characters are outstanding. No thrilling machines or gadgets to get in the way of a good spy novel here. I read all of the Game, Set and Match books when they were published, and then all the following books in the series. I just can't get enough of Bernard Samson, Fiona, Bret, Dickie, Werner et al. These are the most memorable characters I've ever come across in the spy genre. They are all believable, possessing strengths and vulnerabilities that we all have. All are driven by duty, love, deceit, conceit and are capable of treachery. Too bad the Cold War had to end so soon. I sort of wish that the Berlin Wall didn't have to come down so that Mr. Deighton can continue to write about the exploits of Bernard Samson.

If you ever thought that paperback novels - even spy novels - were for airports or a quick read on the train home DO NOT READ THESE!
I became seriously adicted to Len Deighton after three chapters of 'Berlin Game' - and you could too! Poetic, ironic, cleverly plotted and evocative, these first three of the nine novel series will have you burning midnight oil and missing meals. Bernard Samson is surely the most clearly realised character from any spy story. His moral struggles to stay true to his ideals whilst everone around him sells out to power or money will have you caring about him as never before. There is never an easy get out or glib phrase. I have read all nine novels five times and still am ready for more. Can you now resist???

I bought this book a couple of months back and used it extensively in completing a couple of investments. As an investor, I found this book exceptionally useful. Clearly Mr Miller has excellent overall business and transactional understanding, which he has put down as knowledge in an extremely accessible way.

Miller's book is a comprehensive source of excellent advice for founders, technology executives and venture investors. Using a detailed but very readable style, this book brings together the wide range of topics relevant to a tech startup and covers each one thoroughly. Most importantly, it describes the interconnections between those topics that are unique to early stage companies, recommends actions, and provides the logic behind the recommendation. As a former CTO and CEO of venture backed tech startups, I would suggest that every early stage company exec would benefit from having this book as a resource.

Louis Hruska, Founder and CTO PowerSmart, CEO Akermin Inc.

Great book - very informative. Attorney Miller really knows his stuff (as he should since he's been around pretty much since the birth of the venture capitalist industry.) Whether you are running a tech company or thinking of launching one, this book is required reading.

Similar to how he does it in his recent book, Mergers and Acquisitions, Edwin L. Miller again displays a powerful ability to present complex information in clear and concise terms. His education and experience are indisputably top-notch, and he further uses this insight to cover numerous stages of a Technology Company in lucid and understandable detail. This is a must-read for anyone interested in starting a technology company, and it pays for itself within the first hour. The book is also comprehensive in that it covers the entire lifecycle of a Technology Company from start-up and formation to placements and acquisition. Easily five stars.

As an attorney who has worked with start-ups I found this book to be an incredibly valuable resource and suggest that anyone looking to start a technology company read it because it provides a roadmap to all of the business and legal issues that you will face when launching your technology company. From formation to funding to IPO or sale, Mr. Miller breaks down the issues that you will face in a clear and concise way, providing insight into all sides of an issue. I highly recommend it!