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Autumn colors show how to end a season. I spent the month of October devising endings for presentations. See News Headlines for a link to the best three speech closings I came up with. One led to two sold-out booksignings, another to a mini standing ovation. Mostly, though, they led to follow-on bookings. Yes, this issue of the newsletter is a tad (!) late, mainly because of the intense schedule of travel and appearances we had in early November. The good news is that, as a result, book sales remain steady. Bill Neugent |
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You've Got To Be Kidding |
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Several days later, as Kevin Poulsen of SecurityFocus reported in The Register, the full report--minus the opaque black rectangles--appeared on another web site. “It turns out the report began its life as a Microsoft Word document, and whoever was in charge of sanitizing it for public release did so by using Word’s highlight tool, with the highlight color set to black.” That Word document was then posted in Adobe's Portable Document File (PDF) format. Apparently the department presumed curious citizens could not crack the PDF file open and tinker with the blacked-out text. Bad presumption. Turns out such reverse engineering is not only possible, it’s easy, if you know what you’re doing, which explains the department’s gaffe. Turns out also that department sanitizers appear to have gotten carried away with their black highlighter and excised far more than they were allowed by law to withhold, such as the fact that department attorneys perceive racial harassment to be a problem. A Justice Department spokesman tried to comment on the story, but his words were muffled by black tape over his mouth. |
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Treasure Hunt Clue |
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Wow, this is a huge clue. Time for a winner to step forward and
claim the $1,000. As always, remember that this is a game of skill
and no purchase is necessary. |
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News Headlines |
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Since speeches have been my best marketing tool, I’ve spent a lot of time crafting them and have learned much in the process. Most of my efforts have focused on the speech closing. For the benefit of others, I’ve prepared a guide on how to end a speech. It includes the three most effective speech closings I’ve used recently. The newest addition to our promotion material is a life-size cutout of me, suitable for placement at a bookstore entrance. The idea is to delude people into thinking the store has been blessed with a visitation from someone of galactic importance. Our plan is to install the two-dimensional creature a week in advance with a sign announcing the grand date. For the actual occasion of my visit, we have a sign that reads, “Here Today Only! Author Bill Neugent.” Other new promotional items are a terrific series of bookmarks and a set of Signed By Author stickers, all designed by Jill. For those of you considering your own life-size cutout, be aware
of the effect such a thing might have on pets. Our cat Pippin is
terrified of the looming presence and won’t go near it. In
fact, he behaves toward it the same way he behaves toward me when
I put on a hat and thus become a horrible monster. |
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Whining and Dining |
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Okay, now I do want to be positive in my restaurant reviews, so
let me say that Shula’s
Steakhouse is positively the place to dine if you are writing
a non-fiction book entitled How To Become Fat, especially if you’d
like to include a chapter on How To Become Fat In Just One Meal.
Shula’s is the kind of place where an appetizer would feed
all of Hollywood for a week. I am happy to say that I did not join
the 23,000 men and women who ate their way to membership
in Shula’s 48 Oz. Club™. To join the club, you have
to eat almost an entire cow at one sitting. If you accomplish that,
you get a free picture of Coach Shula and your name is listed on
the restaurant’s web site. You also receive the honor of qualifying
to pay $120 for a football personalized by Coach Shula and containing
your name and picture. One member, Taft Parker, has eaten over a
hundred 48-oz. steaks. If you’re thinking of going up against
his record, I suggest first you go to the restaurant web site and
check out his picture. |
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Advertisements |
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The talk is in great demand and increasingly is being accompanied by large-scale book buys. So far, eight groups have bought or committed to buy 1,000 copies to hand out in association with the talk, and several other groups are considering purchases. Do you know of a group that might benefit from this opportunity? Enjoying this newsletter and wish there were more to read? Try the novel. Several people have likened the writing style to that of Robert Ludlum. |
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Copyright Information |
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Final Notes |
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Contact Information |
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