New Site

I set up a new, dedicated, website for the book. I'm still in the process of adding the shopping cart and more information. It's supposed to be easy with the web hosting company I'm using (1&1), but it's not quite as easy for me as I expected. Plus it takes some chunks of time that I find difficult.

But, the basic page is up, I'm working on the shopping cart, and will be adding more content soon.

Stay tuned.

Save, Save, Save!

I suppose I'm like most authors of successful, but not best selling, books. I check my sales and ranking on Amazon.com regularly. I can always tell when a book is sold (note "a", meaning 1) because the book's ranking jumps from its usual 1.5 million position, up to 200,000 or so (once a couple sold at a time and I was up around 20,000 or so - woo hoo!).

My biggest jump in sales was when the price was discounted about 40% down to around $40 or $45. That was when I started paying more attention to the price of the book.

Personally, I think ("personally" and "I" are redundant, I know) the book is overpriced. I understand how the publisher priced it where it is, partly based on the expected market value and partly based on the cost to produce (small production run for a first time author), but I really think it would sell much better at a lower price.

The original price was $79.98. Sure it's a 400+ page book, but it's not a college text book (though it could and should be used college Operations Management courses), it's written for working people, specifically people who work at small manufacturing companies. I think it would sell like hotcakes at about $39.98. It has gotten nothing but good reviews, and everyone who's read it (OK, everyone who's commented to me) tells me it's great. It's even been translated into Russian. But people just aren't willing to pay that high a price.

But instead of lowering the price, I noticed that the price went up. From $79.98 it went up to $89.98. Huh? If it's not selling fast at $79 why would you increase the price to $89? But, then when the price was increased, Amazon discounted it down to around $71. I guess people just can't pass up a sale. Now I notice the price is $93.95 (on both Amazon and the publisher's website), and discounted 5% down to $89.22.

I've contacted my publisher asking about lowering the price, but I've gotten no response.

The worst part is that I can't even afford to buy my own book. Even at my discount I can't afford to buy them and sell them at a reasonable price. Maybe I should read a book about the publishing business and how to price a book... Maybe I can reinvest and buy some copies when I get my next royalty check.

Still, the book is very valuable and worth the investment if it's used as it's intended - to help improve your business and improve profitability. That's especially important in these tough economic times.

I do have a couple of copies left, so if you contact me I might sell you one at a better price.

Upcoming Webinar Series

I'm going to be presenting a series of Webinars over six weeks in July and August. Webinars are web-based seminars. Meaning that instead of me standing in front of a room full of people and giving the presentations, I'll be sitting in a room in front of my computer giving the presentations to people all over the world.

I'm doing the series for APICS - The Association for Operations Management, and registration information can be found here.

The series is titled Management System Selection - Selecting the Right Tools for the Job, and it's based on the subject of my book, The Small Manufacturer's Toolkit. This series is designed for any organization, NOT just manufacturers, so don't let the book title scare you off. The content of the series is as follows:

Steve Novak has developed a new APICS Webinar series to help managers and high-level executives sort through and select the systems, or tools, that will help drive their organization to success. A brief discussion of several of the most popular tools, including what they are designed to do and how they are designed to help, will provide additional knowledge that is needed in the selection process. Popular tools include lean, six sigma, sales and operations planning, enterprise resources planning, the Baldrige criteria, and more. Sign up to participate in this APICS Webinar series and increase your odds of success. Registration opens in June.

Session 1: Introduction
Date: July 10, 2008, at 1:00 pm CT

Session 2: Lean & Six Sigma - Promises & Expectations
Date: July 17, 2008, at 1:00 pm CT

Session 3: TOC & S&OP - Promises & Expectations
Date: July 24, 2008, at 1:00 pm CT

Session 4: ERP & Criteria for Performance Excellence - Promises & Expectations
Date: July 31, 2008, at 1:00 pm CT

Session 5: The Basics, and more
Date: August 7, 2008, at 1:00 pm CT

Session 6: Wrap up
Date: August 14, 2008, at 1:00 pm CT


Please sign up and join me.