Sharon Eden has clearly decided to walk her talk. With great passion and a big sense of purpose, this up-and-coming personal development author has garnered lots of excellent reviews for her new book Whack Around the Head - and the book is only being released on 3rd January!

The latest review from Antonia Chitty’s popular Family Friendly Working website has us beaming with pride!  Have a read, and maybe, just maybe, you or someone else will benefit from a ‘whack around the head’ very soon…

Audra Lamoon and Sue Gilkes of Your Impact, an International business and People development skills training consultancy, recently traveled to Ireland to talk about their business and book, Blondes in Business.

Having your own business is scary and difficult especially in current climes, yet two blondes have got a successful business!

Finding a book that gives the truth and relates to you when you are thinking of setting up a business is currently not possible – or at least we never found one!

Business books are boring – this book is very UN-boring – full of their real life stories, some very funny!

They believe that anyone can relate to the book, whatever the hair colour, male or female; they don’t have degrees or rich parents – they are normal girls made good through hard work and attitude.

Women and Men all over the world are currently facing times of uncertainty, redundancy and lack of opportunity. This book gives hope, inspiration, and a practical down to earth approach for anyone who wants to secure their future by having their own business.

Where do you go for business advice, how do you set up a company, who do you talk to where do you start – this book tells you yet you wont be bored, you wont be able to put it down!

This book shows anyone that they too can do it – they really can and that is VERY exciting!

View their TV interview on The Evening Show here

Felicity Lerouge has today released a beautiful video to promote her book, Changing the Channel.

Created to co-ordinate with the premier of the movie, Eat, Pray, Love which takes place in August, please visit Felicity’s page on Ecademy Press to view the video.

We love it when our authors create such powerful promotional tools such as this to market their work!

Dan Poynter, author of 124 books and publisher since 1969, recently traveled through London on several speaking engagements and discovered The Guide to a Dead Bril­liant Funeral Speech — Because you only get one chance to make a last impres­sion by Neil Dor­ward and published by Eacdemy Press in 2009.

This is fantastic PR from a publishing expert with a huge following, and Dan has written about the book in his blog: http://blog.parapublishing.com/

To purchase a copy of this book, please click here: http://www.ecademy-press.com/shop/health-and-well-being/the-guide-to-a-dead-brilliant-funeral-speech-by-neil-dorward/

So not long to go now .. England play Slovenia this afternoon in their “must-win” match .. if they want to stay in the World Cup.

So what must they do to win?

JO SIMPSON says the England team have to develop a “winning mindset”.   A PMA – Positive Mental Attitude – as someone else once called it!   It’s about changing patterns of thinking, which are preventing England working together as a team and winning.

Jo’s new book “They Thought It Was All Over…They Were Right!” explains how to recognise negative self-fulfilling prophecies ….  such as ‘We never win on penalties’ and ‘We are only a quarter finals team’ to name a couple.   And Jo says maintaining a positive mindset at all times has a massive impact on performance — and is achievable!

And Gary Linekar has endorsed it !!!

“They Thought It Was All Over…They Were Right!” by Jo Simpson (& Janice Barnett, & Ged Palmer)

Hear Jo on the radio today at the following times:

1020 SHEFFIELD LIVE

1040 COV & WAR LIVE

1050 GUERNSEY LIVE

1110 SOMERSET LIVE

1120 SOLENT REC

1130 CORNWALL LIVE

1140 BRISTOL LIVE

1150 TEES REC

1210 HUMBERSIDE

1220 KENT LIVE 

1240 NEWCASTLE LIVE

1250 SHROPSHIRE REC

You have many choices in life and in your business. I believe one of the most significant choices you make is whether you will be the true expert in your field. By definition, the expert is the recognised leader, the one who stands above all the other people in that field – and that person is usually wealthier than his or her peers. The expert is usually the one who put more thought and attention into the goal, so that person truly deserves greater benefits. The benefits are three-fold, and I would encourage you to think about which ones would motivate you to set yourself up as the true expert in your area.

You owe it to your customers

Your customers are confused. They need direction. They have real issues and concerns that only you can resolve, but unless you are a real expert who stands out above the crowd, you are being lumped into a big group with all of the other companies that do what you do. Personally, I’m glad we have a big market and entrepreneurship is encouraged. However, you may have noticed a glut of emails, marketing material and general information from a growing number of companies that all start sounding the same. When I go to networking meetings, I can hardly remember two or three people a few days after the meeting. I’m not being mean; I just have too much happening in my life and it seems my brain will only cope with outstanding information. I have been studying this issue for several years, and most people have a similar view. The people I remember are those who say something specific and memorable – and I will only remember one thing about them. I ‘catalogue’ people so that I stand a chance of even remembering them at all. And as I said, I am not alone. By the way, I also notice those that are adding specific value in their books, blogs and articles, as well as those that others are talking about.

Make it easy for people to see the real value of what they do, as this makes it easy for them to choose you. They want to pigeon-hole you because there is just too much information coming at them from all angles. You don’t want them to pigeon-hole you but that’s what they need and want to do. If they want to catalogue you so that they remember you later, let them! They want you to stand out for one specific thing that you do better than anyone else.

The key to standing out is to have one message to share with your market and share it widely and wisely. Most people’s tendency is to diversify and talk about a range of things, but as we said, the customer would prefer to pigeon-hole you. Think of a top Internet company. Why does that company stand out in your mind? Probably because they have made it very clear where they excel and why they are the leader. Give your customers a clear message and they will love you for it. You will see more direct business and you will get others writing and talking about you, online and offline.

You owe it to yourself

Get your piece of the pie. If you haven’t noticed, it’s very competitive out there. That usually means more companies fighting for the same piece of business. If you are just ‘another one of those companies’, you have to fight a lot harder and will probably get squeezed on price. The more you stand out as the expert, the less competing you need to do and the higher the price you can command. Think about your own buying habits, in business or even at home. Have you ever purchased a premium product or worked with a serious expert in their field, willing to pay more for the confidence that you were getting the best? In today’s market, the abundance of choice means customers can shop around and get good deals, but the amount of choice available also makes it harder to find the real leaders.

Being the expert also allows you to keep things simple. When you wake up in the morning, you only have one hat to put on. It’s a great feeling and you will wear that hat with greater confidence. Over the past eight years of showing entrepreneurs how to be real thought leaders, I have noticed that those who embrace this concept of being a real expert on one area have greater creativity and fulfilment as well. It’s as if the part of the brain that was managing all the diverse roles was finally freed up to focus on being the best at one thing. It is very liberating.

You can go deep, acquiring more and better knowledge about your subject and your market. You can then share that knowledge and new insights with that market and help them even more. Knowing that you are delivering real value is a benefit that can’t even be quantified.

A benefit that can be quantified is time saving. One of the best ways to prove one’s expertise is by writing and publishing. However, most entrepreneurs do not do any writing because they think it is time-consuming and overwhelming. Experts write good quality books, articles, blogs and speeches, and they write them fast because they know their subject so well. Getting books, articles, blogs and speeches out quickly and frequently widens the gap between them and their competitors, allowing them to stand out even more. I would love it if you could do that because it makes life a whole lot easier and way more fun!

You owe it to society

Society is in desperate need of good leaders. As I mentioned, people are willing to pay more for the leading solution because they hope it will enhance their lives. You want to think about how what you do enhances lives. Then keep that picture in your mind as you go about your business day.

Inspire the next generation. The next generation of entrepreneurs are looking to us to provide guidance and direction. The more specific greatness you can share, the more you will help them realise their potential as well. It’s like providing a clear signpost, as opposed to one with too many confusing directions on it.

When you become the true expert, you will become wealthy. Wealth can be measured in financial terms and it can also be a sense of abundance and well-being. Many people want to build their businesses, write books and become experts to acquire wealth. I believe the key lies in knowing what that wealth will do for yourself and others.

So we are not just talking about you becoming wealthy to benefit yourself. Your family probably features strongly in your vision. What about other people you would like to help? A rich person can help a lot more people than a poor person can. Wealth is a great thing, if fully appreciated and used for the good. So please consider being the true expert and becoming wealthy.

Mindy Gibbins-Klein is best known as Founder and Managing Director of The Book Midwife Co-Founder of Ecademy Press business publishing. Her mission is to create thousands of real thought leaders who will change business and society with their ideas.

An international speaker, trainer and consultant with 20 years in marketing, and over 100 clients who have written and published excellent books and articles quickly using the Book Midwife methodology, Gibbins-Klein shows top business leaders how to turn their expertise into enhanced credibility and more business. Read more at www.bookmidwife.com

The Bookseller Magazine is reporting that Christmas 2009 is “still impossible to call”. Booksellers have described the trading environment as “unpredictable” and “volatile” with sales of the bestselling titles well-down on last year and the market in general still below last year’s levels.

“Booksellers have reported a slight improvement in this week’s trading, compared with last week. But the Christmas Number One – Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol – has sold just 58,468 copies in the week to Saturday 19th December, a fraction of last year’s top title, J K Rowling’s The Tales of Beedle the Bard. The Harry Potter spin off saw sales of 159,337 in the same week, and seven other titles all sold more than 60,000 copies that week, a feat achieved by none this year.”

“Overall, Nielsen BookScan has reported a book spend of £75.7m—up 9.6% week on week but down 8.2% on the same week last year. According to BookScan, £1.69bn has been spent at UK book retailers thus far in 2009, down just 1.2% year on year. However, on a rolling 12-month basis, sales are down just 0.1% to £1.75bn, meaning that with an extra day’s trading this year the market could yet enter positive territory, with takings at UK book retailers this week expected to be much higher than the comparative week last year.”

Full story is HERE

The administrators of Borders bookstores in the UK have announced that the remaining 45 Borders and Books etc stores will close tomorrow and all staff will lose their jobs on Christmas Eve. The Times reported on the closure last Friday.

The reason? “The business has struggled with severe cashflow pressure this year after sales declines accelerated.

Stock levels were also hit as several of the company’s suppliers stopped or reduced its credit limits, while a number of credit insurers reduced their cover for the company.”

The administrators MCR had hoped to find a buyer but none had emerged resulting in another significant consolidation of bookselling in the UK.

From a publisher’s point of view, this can only be seen as making distribution more difficult as power is concentrated into a few big chains. major online stores and the remaining independent booksellers.

Borders were one of the pioneers of the concept of bookstore as a place to linger and browse books over coffee. They will be missed.

Over 70 people from across Belgium and neighbouring countries have gathered to celebrate the launch of networking expert Geert Conard’s latest book Friends with Benefits.

The launch, which took place on Sat 21st November at the Cultural Centre in Geert’s hometown of Diest, kicked off with a red carpet photoshoot and promo-movie by Cineworks. Guests were then entertained with speeches and presentations before doing what Geert does best, networking. The author also signed copies of Friends with Benefits and shared his sought-after expertise.

Find out more about Friends with Benefits and buy the book.

Visit Geert Conard’s press page at www.friends-with-benefits.eu

Please order early for Delivery in time for the Christmas Holiday.
Hardbacks need to be ordered by 6th December and Paperbacks by 10th December. Later orders cannot be guaranteed to arrive in time.

In order to make it more attractive to order your books for Christmas, we are offering Free Shipping on all book orders until the end of 10th December, 2009.

To take advantage of this, order your books as normal and, when you add your shipping details on the Checkout page, simply add Freeshipping (case sensitive) to the Discount Code field which is at the bottom of the page just above the PayPal logo.

When you confirm your order, the shipping field should be £0.00 and the words ‘Discount Code Freeshipping has been applied to your cart.’ will appear below the total price. If this does not happen, use the ‘back’ button to check and reenter the discount code.

Our books make great Christmas presents for your friends and colleagues.

Wishing you a very Happy Christmas
Ecademy Press