Positive Power of Principled Profit
Volume 2, Number 6 - February, 2005

Positive Power Spotlight: DearReader.com

How can you make a living based on loving to read? Suzanne Beecher followed her heart to build a successful business with several employees, all based on sharing her favorite books. She combines passion, business savvy, and a commitment to treat people as friends. Her multiple newsletters, each published five times a week and covering different genres, all begin with a few paragraphs of personal narrative that builds a human relationship with her readers. Then she runs a short excerpt from her chosen book of the week (and as a subscriber, I've discovered some excellent business books this way)--and closes, "Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends."

Reading is a lifelong habit for Beecher. "I love to read and for the life of me, I couldn't figure out why everyone around me wasn't reading something every day, too." Since June 1999, it's been her livelihood, too. She noticed that many of her employees at a previous company "were stay-at-home moms. Frequently I'd hear comments like, 'When my children get to be such-and-such age, then I want to learn more about...'"

She told them to start reading about their interest--why wait? "It didn't take long for someone to point out to me, 'Suzanne, I cook, clean, do school activities, take care of my children, work part-time for you, and you want me to sit down and read a book? I don't even have time to shave my legs!'

"So in company email, one evening, I typed in a bit from Chapter One, of a book that I was reading. The next evening I sent a little more, and each day a little more. Four days later I received an email from the, 'There's no time left' woman, saying that she was embarrassed to admit it, but she's been sneaking over to her computer at night, hoping that the company email came early, because she admitted: 'I'm hooked on the book.'"

From this humble beginning, she currently mails book club e-zines to 270,000 people every day. 12 employees (five of them full-time) help her churn out 11 different newsletters a day, or 55 per week.

Genres include Fiction, Nonfiction, Mystery, Romance, Science Fiction, Horror, Audio, Teen, Good News, Business and the Prepublication Book. Several of these people have been with Beecher in previous ventures, as long as 13 years. She creates revenue by licensing branded copies of her email book clubs to thousands of libraries around the country, and is branching out to churches. She also develops book clubs for Books-a-Mill ion, and for publishers St. Martin's Press and Hyperion (soon to add religious publisher Zondervan). And she uses book excerpts to create marketing pieces for corporations like Pfizer. With no industry knowledge, she could break the rules with impunity, because she didn't know them. "Being too naive to know better has its advantages. When people told me "no", I just ignored them and kept talking. I think in the beginning, publishers started working with me, just to shut me up. These days, over forty books arrive at my doorstep each day f rom publishers, who want to know if I would please consider using their titles at my email book clubs. Making people's day brighter, she gets hundreds of fan letters a day, but humbly, she says, "Again, I'm the lucky one, and I thank my readers every day. "

Another Recommended Book: Sell Yourself Without Selling Your Soul: A Woman's Guide to Promoting Herself, Her Business, Her Product, or Her Cause with Integrity and Spirit (New York: Harper Collins, 2002)

I'd heard of Susan's book for years, but had not heard the subtitle--and that turns out to be a good thing, because as a man, I would have assumed the book was not for me. And I would have been wrong!

There's about five percent of the book that really applies just to women; the other 95 percent will help business owners of any gender. I've worked in the PR business for over 20 years, and there aren't a lot of books that really and truly add to my knowledge; this is one of them.

I was attracted to the title because of its emphasis on ethics and personal integrity--and I stayed for the solid, practical, hands-on advice for self-promotion.

She focuses heavily on TV and radio, while I've always focused more on the print and Internet side. And she's got great tips on such topics as how to handle the several different kinds of interviewers you may encounter, how many outfits to bring to a photo shoot, what sorts of gifts actually have an impact on journalists, and how to maximize the chance that your PSA (Public Service Announcement) will be used, by preparing three different lengths--something I hadn't thought of or read anywhere else.

Since it's a large book (372 pages), I started it several weeks ago, in order to review it in this issue. I'm only half-way through, but this one goes on the bedside shelf to finish (and take notes) at my leisure. I'm particularly looking forward to learning from Susan in the sections on publicity tips from celebrity stars and spiritual masters. Together with my own book, Grassroots Marketing: Getting Noticed in a Noisy World (which is stronger in covering print and Internet, and also includes many areas of marketing beyond publicity and PR), this book will help prepare any entrepreneur to handle the media comfortably and still stay true to yourself. Highly recommended.

If you'd like to buy this book, please follow this link to buy from a BookSense independent bookseller:
http://www.booksense.com/index.jsp?affiliateId=FrugalFun