I am just starting three separate projects related to publishing. To date I have published three books in my chosen area of expertise, and I am taking Alan Weiss' advice and trying to expand my horizons into books about consulting and related fields.

However, I am going to put a bit of a spin on that. Instead of trying to publish via normal channels, I intend to do so via an eBook using Click Bank and a range of internet marketing tools to try to sell the book.

Economically it seems wiser, although there is the fact that a book published through a recognized publisher should have better distribution channels as well as an air of additional credibility. We will see.

I have never self-published before, and I'm not doing it for my ego. (Although I could do of course) The intention is to do it for three reasons,

• Because I think I have something useful to say about consulting that could help others;

• Because I am keen to see how the whole ePublishing thing will work out, and

• Because I think it would be far more lucrative if it works out. 

But... I have been wrong before so we will see what transpires. I will e sure to let you all know what the results are. Stories abound and I have little to nothing to lose, so here goes.

Getting Moving

Taking this to the next step is a little bit difficult. Writing is easy. I write a lot and I have already set out the structure and some of the key points per chapter that I want to convey.

The hard stuff is everything else. I am determined to make a serious effort of this so I am looking right now at trademarking one of the names that I will be using. Next I intend to look into the copyright protection that I can afford for the entire work.

Art is always difficult. All of the books I have published to date have had the art work done by the publisher and they have all been dreadful I think. So I am talking to a guy in Dubai to see what he can do for me.

The artwork I am after includes a Logo, (Which I might do privately) the cover page itself, some ads for posting around the place, and some little figures that I want to use throughout the book to emphasize specific points and to add some additional color to the whole thing.

I have to admit I am pretty excited by the process. Particularly as it should be done and dusted within about three months tops. (The first one at least) Then based on how that goes we will look at additional tries at it.

Wish me luck!

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Leaders, Learners and Liars make up the three fundamental types of consultants that I generally see working in industry.

Leaders

Leaders are the people who have been there, done that, and have the scars to prove it. Their advice is dripping in experience and tells the story of battles won / lost and drawn during a career spanning several decades.

Leaders may have spent time in industry, or they may just have worked as consultants for a long time. Either way their experience generally covers more than a handful of client companies, possibly a few different countries as well, and a range of different industry sectors.

Leaders make a difference, they have a presence, and they are recognizable almost the moment they open their mouths. They have something that clients want to have, and their value speaks for itself. You want to be a leader!

Learners

They want to be leaders, they work hard and readily accept their shortcomings. Learners are there to learn the ropes, they are the most likely to answer an email sent at 11pm and they are continually in search of good mentors, good information, and the thing that will help them to carve out their opwn niche in their company, industry or market.

Learners work hard to generate value for their clients, and they will spend additional time researching the things they do not know to build up their track record of accomplishment. If you are not a leader you want to be a Learner.

Liars

Liars are also obvious the moment they open their mouths generally. They have very little real experience, they quote other peoples war stories, and they are are driven by ego instead of results. Sometimes lazy, although not always (It takes a lot of energy to be a convincing Liar) they are the least likely to deliver sustainable value to their clients.

Liars are also referred to as a "would-be-if-she-could-be", posers, and they often avoid the difficult situations.

Amazingly Liars do not always realize they are Liars. They think they have good experience, they think they have a good background to deliver value to clients, and they often resort to other skills rather than value to get ahead.

Liars rarely deliver value to their clients, and they are principally value destroyers, team dividers, and scope creepers.

You do not want to be a Liar.

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In the UK they have a channel called Gem TV, or the Jewelery Channel or something like that. Anyway, the premise is high quality jewelery sold cheaply. Great idea and it achieves it through cutting out the middle men. (A good idea at any time)

On night we saw a sapphire necklace there. It was beautiful with large sapphires throughout. They estimated it was valued at around $30 000 but they were selling it for around $900. I had bought from here before and taken the jewelery for a valuation afterwards and found their initial valuation to be pretty close to the truth.

So we bid for it and won it for around $950 dollars. Then the "cheap dude" in me came out. It was going to take two weeks for me to receive the necklace, not only that but I had to pay a whole $15 more for freight! I refused to do so and let it go...

What a foolish thing to do! I still would have had an asset of around $20 000 for about 1/20th of the price. But cheap begets cheap.

When you are in a mindset that is focussed solely on price a lot of previously rational thoughts related to value go out the window and your idea of what represents "a good deal" is fundamentally distorted.

If you sell services do not compete on price, compete on value.

If you go for the bargain basement prices then the clients you get will be focussed on price, and not on value. You will spend most of your time arguing about prices, justifying costs and expenses, and wrestling through even the smallest variation in terms.

We go for cheap prices thinking that we will generate greater volume. In most cases this is not true. You just generate additional work trying to satisfy clients who are determined to beat you price down even further and to argue about every single dollar that is being spent. In short, the whole understanding of the value that is being delivered goes out the window, and if you do finally get it you will never get their full appreciation.

Also, you risk venturing into the realm of negative revenue where your project becomes a loss leader for the organization. When that happens, no matter what the size of the contract, it is far better for you to not have that contract on your profit and loss sheet.

And there is another psychological element to this also. If you are debating a price, and you bend to pressure and lower it, then two additional things have occurred. 1) You have shown you will be beaten down on your first offer, and 2) the client gets it in their head that you were over charging in the first place.

So the precedent is set, the underlying distrust has been established, and there is no easy way back from here.


If you have established the value well, and the likelihood of achieving a certain level of value, then you should not have to negotiate on price. You negotiate on value. They want it cheaper, take some of the value out.


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