Book of the Day: Life Is a Series of Presentations

by Bridget Kinsella, PW Daily for Booksellers -- Publishers Weekly, 2/16/2004

It's one of those flukes that happen frequently at BookExpo America. Four years ago in Los Angeles, Kim Dower (a.k.a. Kim-from-LA, the name of her publicity company) took a booth to drum up more business for her publicity company and for Perfect Pitch Productions, the media training company she co-owns. She held a drawing for a free training session and was tempted to cheat and pick another name as she looked at the winner's business card: "Tony Jeary, Mr. Presentation." Great, she thought: no new business and how do you teach "Mr. Presentation" something new about presenting?

"But Tony really believes what he says, that we can learn from everywhere and he flew down here from Dallas," said Dower. Immediately the two recognized that what Jeary did for Fortune 500 CEOs in his training business, Dower was doing for authors. In one of their discussions, Dower blurted out "life is a series of presentations," and Jeary suggested they write a book together.

This month, Life Is a Series of Presentations: How to Inspire, Inform and Influence Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime by Jeary with Dower and the writer J.E. Fishman is Fireside's lead hardcover title.

Editor Caroline Sutton, who bought the book in December 2002, said she recognized that its lessons could affect her job on a daily basis. Other colleagues have had similar reactions. "For a solid year now, whenever I go to lunch and I mention the title of the book, I get the same initial response," said Sutton. "They say, 'This is so true. I need a copy of this book.'"

"Publishing, more than anything, is a series of presentations," said Dower, who has 20 years of experience in the biz. From author to agent to editor to bookseller, it is almost impossible to imagine a job in publishing that does not involve pitching.

"We're presenting all the time," said Brian DeFiore, the agent for the book. He told PW that he found Jeary's "presentation arsenal" described in the book particularly helpful. "It's being hyper aware of every possible thing you can bring to a discussion of why people should listen to you," he explained. "It should be very obvious, but often it's not."

Even the Fireside publicist working on Life Is a Series of Presentations learned a few things from the book. "Most good publicists will read this book and say, 'I do this anyway,' but it is driven home a bit more," said Fireside publicity manager London King. "We do so much with e-mail these days and it's all about, how do I get across in the first few lines what I really want to get across? [The book] makes it clear that the audience is what matters."

While Life Is a Series of Presentations resonates with many in the book business, it is not specifically about publishing. "It boils down to making people feel confident," Dower explained. "These skills and techniques make you feel confident and translate into everyday situations."

The idea of tailoring the message to the audience is spilling over to bookstore events planned for Life Is a Series of Presentations. At Bodhi Tree in West Hollywood, Calif., for example, "presentation as transformation" will be Dower's theme. Much of the publicity will be held in conjunction with Jeary's extensive travel schedule for his corporate training events and appearances. But Dower and Jeary will do several bookstore events together and separately.

"Tony and Kim together are amazing," said Sutton. "They help you fine tune what you know so that it is so much more effective."