Posted by Rob FL on January 29, 1999 at 17:47:43:
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Authors take note - Posted by Berwyn
Posted by Berwyn on January 28, 1999 at 13:55:55:
You ever open a big bag of potato chips and find maybe a half dozen chips in the bag and all the rest was air? Does that make you feel a little cheated?
Today I received a book I ordered from one of the respected authors on this board (no, I won’t say who). On opening the package, i thought, “Oh good, a nice thick book. It should be chock full on information.” Then I opened it to find it was all large type, double space, only one side of the each page, with some large illustrations that did not enhance the text but only took up space. The book was more than half “air”. Kind of like the high school student who is assigned to turn in a 10 page paper, and writes only five words on each page.
Not only did I feel cheated, I felt the author was trying to make up for lack of content by making the book appear thicker. To me, this is equivalent to adding marbles to a bowl of soup so it makes a nicer picture in a magazine.
Now I admit I have yet to read this book, and I’m sure that what words are there convey information on the subject, altough not in the depth I was expecting. But still I feel a little ripped off paying for 100 pages worth of information and getting 35. I had considered purchasing this person’s complete course. Now I’m not so sure.
Just my opinion
Berwyn.
Momentary Lapse of Reason - Posted by Baltimore BirdDog
Posted by Baltimore BirdDog on January 29, 1999 at 14:09:05:
Berwyn,
Ouch! You must be hurting from the can of “whoop-ass” that you opened upon yourself by expressing your uninformed opinion. I can’t say that I disagree with the others. You need to read the material and then comment. Chalk it up to a momentary lapse of reason back into the thinking of the uncreative 95% of the general population and come back and give us your comments, good or bad. As a newcomer to this site, I look forward to your review of the course.
-Jeremy
Re: Authors don’t take note - Posted by Tim Pannabecker
Posted by Tim Pannabecker on January 29, 1999 at 11:24:56:
Berwyn,
You must be one hel* of an investor if you judge a “book by it’s cover”.
BTW I have a bridge for sale …
Berwyn… Take Note - Posted by David S
Posted by David S on January 29, 1999 at 09:53:01:
Have you ever opened a post on this NG and expected to get a great topic of conversation, yet find the content to be BS?
I took a few minutes of my (valuable) time to read your post as well as the many responses that were made concerning your “air” remarks. Remarks that are totally without merit!
If you haven’t taken the time to review the info and form an opinion, why would you waste our time (time is money) crying about something of which you know nothing?
Your remarks are negative and without substance.
David S
SIZE DOESN’T COUNT!!! - Posted by Jim IL.
Posted by Jim IL. on January 29, 1999 at 24:11:50:
Now that I have your attention!
“Don’t Judge a Book by its cover?!!?”
How many times have we all heard this before. Since when did you think that the people on this board, who are full of creativity will make a judgment, or agree with one based on a “cursery glance”.
PLEASE read this book, and then come back and tell us what you think. Whether it holds one or one million ideas, I guaruntee if this site promotes it, it is worth its weight in gold!
I read “Jackies” little primers on “Flips” and frankly got more from those than I did from the several hundred page course books I paid a small mint for.
Size doesn’t count. It is whats inside. READ it, and be glad that this book is not so thick with all the usual salesman rhetoric. Also, if the book is good, be happy about the LARGE print. I’m sure you’ll be like many of us here and not want to put it down. LARGE print will make tired eyes have an easier time of reading it.
When I first bought and began the Sheets course, I almost threw it out, because the first few chapters seemed to be all hype.
I wish he had trimmed the fat a bit! I then would have maybe gotten thru it faster.
Whatever someones writing style, and publishing style is, does not matter one bit to me. It is what they have to say, and whether or not it works that counts.
Was this post long enough for you?
Re: Authors take note - Posted by JPiper
Posted by JPiper on January 28, 1999 at 16:35:35:
?Now I admit I have yet to read this book, and I’m sure that what words are there convey information on the subject, altough not in the depth I was expecting. But still I feel a little ripped off paying for 100 pages worth of information and getting 35. I had considered purchasing this person’s complete course. Now I’m not so sure.?
Not knowing the course you?re referring to or the author makes commenting on this difficult. Nevertheless, based on what you posted I find this to be an irresponsible post.
Here?s the first problem I see. By making an extremely general derogatory post you make it impossible for a reader to know specifics, and thereby bring into question all courses, not just this one. That bothers me. I?ve personally bought a number of courses from this site, and have found all of them to have valuable information and ideas. Therefore I would hate to see anyone draw a general conclusion based on your comments.
The second problem I see is that you have made your remarks WITHOUT READING the information. So what you don?t know, and what we don?t know, is whether contained within that so-called 35 pages of information are some absolutely brilliant and profitable ideas. Making negative, or for that matter positive, comments on a course without reading the information strikes me as idiotic.
What I would suggest is that you fully read the course to determine whether you think the ideas contained in it are worth the price that you paid?..and THEN, and only then, express your viewpoint on this course in a specific manner. This I would regard as responsible. It goes without saying that the value of a course is contained in it?s ideas, NOT the number of pages or the way it was typed.
A story comes to mind that I?ve been thinking about today. Many years ago Coca-Cola Co. used large tin containers to sell their Coke. They were looking for a solution. An individual presented them with 2 words scribbled on a scrap of paper. The words?? Bottle it. Coca Cola as my memory serves paid $50K for this advice. You might consider this when you look at a course, whether it be 35 pages, 200 pages, or 1000 pages. The value is in an idea, not the number of pages it?s presented in.
JPiper
Re: Authors take note - Posted by J.P. Vaughan
Posted by J.P. Vaughan on January 28, 1999 at 15:08:17:
You would really hate Lonnie’s books if you are going
by the way something “looks” instead of by the quality
of the information it contains.
Since you are not telling us the name of the book you
are posting about, I have no other way to comment.
Feel free to tell us the author’s name and the title.
JP Vaughan
Re: Authors take note - Posted by sjm(Steve)
Posted by sjm(Steve) on January 28, 1999 at 14:47:39:
A few comments from someone who makes a living as an “author” (I write technical documentation - User Manuals, Instruction Sheets, etc)
I don’t know which book you’re referring to, but I too have received literature like this. It may be that it was intentionally done this way in an effort to make the book larger, however it may be something much less sinister.
In the good old days, before computers and word processing software, it was common practice to doublespace between lines and to type only on one side of the page. It was standard to put two spaces at the beginning of a sentence and to type two consecutive hyphens to simulate an “em” dash. Please understand that the individuals who write these books are not writers or publishers by trade and they do things the way that they (and myself) learned a long time ago. Leading, kerning, selection of typefaces, and page layout were concepts familiar only to publishing professionals until relatively recently and as these authors tend to do their own work, I prefer to give them the benefit of the doubt.
Also, I like to think that I’m paying for content, not page count.
Steve
Re: Momentary Lapse of Reason - Posted by Steve Meiners
Posted by Steve Meiners on January 29, 1999 at 15:41:36:
It has been observed that anytime someone comments about the uncreative 95% of the general population that you can bet you bottom dollar that the commenter is in the 95% group of the uncreative population.
Re: Authors take note - Posted by Eddie FL
Posted by Eddie FL on January 28, 1999 at 23:29:30:
Jim,
Well said!!!
Eddie