Record Label Marketing Review

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(More customer reviews)Before I got into the music industry I read every book out there that had anything to do with the business. After years of working I realized only a select few of those many many books were accurate. This book, you can tell, is written by people who know the industry from an inside perspective. Most other books i've read are from authors who don't really have a clue other than what they've heard. This book is a testament to the "old industry" before Steve Jobs and MySpace hit the scene. It would probably find the authors well to update the book with more information about what's going on NOW. If your serious about managing someone's career in the music business I recommend three essential books: Record Label Marketing, The Future of Music, & Legal Aspects of the Music Industry.

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Notable American Women: A Biographical Dictionary, Volume 5: Completing the Twentieth Century Review

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(More customer reviews)This project has been a long time in the making. Previous editions of the dictionary have kept pace with the recognition, since the early 1970s, of women's importance to American culture. But it has been awhile since the last update, and now here we are with what amounts to obituaries for hundreds of prominent women who died, say, between 1976 and 1999.
They hail from many fields, including art, writing, science, acting, business, sport, psychology, the military, theory, aviation, religion, and humanitarianism. Some worked with animals, like Dian Fossey. And some come from no field at all. Look at Jackie O, who is listed rather lamely as "First Lady, editor, reporter." (There's a whole category called "Socialite," which includes such long running venerables as Pamela Harriman and Alice Longworth.) And there are other unlikely articles such as the one on Valerie Solanas. That is part of what makes the book such a rich stew. There's something to read for just about everyone and I recommend reading a different letter every day, soon you will have caught yourself up with everyone.
You'll find yourself reading about women you never heard of, as well as those you always wished you knew more about. One weakness of the system is that practically everyone gets written about to the same extent, so that Martha Graham receives the same word count as (say) someone who lived for a much shorter time--for example, Gilda Radner. This leads to a certain imbalance I think, but it's interesting nevertheless.
In some cases editors Wake and Braukman have brought out the really big guns, hiring the biographers to digest their books into the length of a long column. For example, Margot Peters writes about Lynn Fontanne; He;en Sheehy on Eva Le Gallienne. It is spooky how many of these women died at age 79! Surely this must be a dangerous age for the notable.
I wonder also that some experts were able to write across genre; thus the same scholar completes a fine job on Ella Fitzgerald and another on the novelist Ann Petry. You'd think you would need different muscles to do a good job on, but apparently not! Pat Kirkham writes on Clare Potter, Vera Maxwell, AND Ray Eames! I guess if you had enough time and chutzpah you could work up a listing for just about anybody, but in this case Pat Kirkham was hit each one out of the park--it's a trifecta! For a reference book to be a pleasure to read, that's a rarity. Latch on to this volume, keep it by your bedside or rocker. It's grand.

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Guerrilla P.R. 2.0: Wage an Effective Publicity Campaign without Going Broke Review

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(More customer reviews)This book is an update of the original Guerrilla P.R. and as such if you read the first one 15 years ago you'll find some new stuff but nothing that is ground breaking in today's era of social media and web 2.0 viral marketing.
However, that being said if you've never done any marketing before, there is no better book with which to start. This book is a great introduction that is easy to read, interesting and useful in how it helps you think through the process of marketing your business or organization.

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Every Fortune 500 corporation, movie star, and scandal queen knows that a good publicist is essential to building success and maintaining public support. But if you're a small-business owner, entrepreneur, or undercapitalized beginner seeking an edge in a highly competitive arena, it's unlikely that you have your own high-powered publicist.Guerrilla P.R. 2.0 offers all the resources necessary to mount your own campaign and get the media exposure you need. In clear and concise language, Michael Levine, one of the top public-relations counselors in the country, reveals the same procedures he uses every day to get press on major stars and how those strategies can be utilized on little or no budget. You'll learn how to think like a publicist and map out the perfect strategy for success.--This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

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The United States and the Second World War: New Perspectives on Diplomacy, War, and the Home Front (World War II: The Global, Human, and Ethical Dimension) Review

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(More customer reviews)The United States and the Second World War: New Perspectives on Diplomacy, War, and the Home Front is an anthology of essays by learned historians examining assorted aspects of America's role in the Second World War. Individual writings include "General George S. Patton and the War-Winning Sherman Tank Myth", "Veterans Tell Their Stories and Why Historians and Others Listened", "American Pacificism, the 'Greatest Generation,' and World War II", "Hiroshima and the U.S. Peace Movement: Commemoration of August 6, 1948-1960" and many more. An index rounds out this thoughtful historical assessment with the benefit of hindsight, highly recommended particularly for college library American History shelves.


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In this compelling book, G. Kurt Piehler and Sidney Pash bring together a collection of essays offering a fresh examination of American participation in the Second World War, including a long overdue reconsideration of such seminal topics as the forces leading the United States to enter World War II, the role of the American military in the Allied victory, and war-time planning for the postwar world, but also tackle new inquiries into life on the home front and America's commemoration of one of the most controversial and climatic events of the war-the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. In this compelling book, G. Kurt Piehler and Sidney Pash bring together a collection of essays offering a fresh examination of American participation in the Second World War, including a long overdue reconsideration of such seminal topics as the forces leading the United States to enter World War II, the role of the American military in the Allied victory, and war-time planning for the postwar world, but also tackle new inquiries into life on the home front and America's commemoration of one of the most controversial and climatic events of the war-the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. These outstanding historians cover crucial moments such as:Franklin D. Roosevelt's pivotal, if at times indecisive, role in leading the United StatesThe miscalculation of Japanese intentions by American diplomats and the failure of deterrence in preventing war in the PacificThe experiences and contributions of conscientious objectors to American society in this time of total warThe decision of the United States to fight with an ineffective battle tank at the expense of American livesThe Coast Guard's contribution to the D-Day LandingHow elite foreign policy organizations prior to V-J Day sought to influence American occupation policies regarding Japan With these essays and much more, The United States in the Second World War is sure to prove a classic to World War II buffs.

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Brutal: Manhood and the Exploitation of Animals Review

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(More customer reviews)I anticipated that Luke's book might be a well-grounded philosophical investigation into the question of hunting. Though an avid hunter, I am interested in ecofeminism and other critiques that question the work of pro-hunting scholars such as Paul Shepard and James Swan. As Socrates said, "The unexamined life is (for humans) not worth living."
Luke's central thesis is that men kill animals (i.e. hunt) out of a deep psychosexual need to brutalize and sacrifice other beings: womb-envy, appeasing god-the-father, etc.
How disappointed I was by Luke's work. He is clearly arguing from his own emotional response against killing other animals and lacks any good philosophical basis for criticizing. For example, he unquestioningly uses dialog from the film/book Bambi to represent actual animals. Furthermore, he is innocent of much work that would have both challenged and enriched his thesis: Donna Haraway's work on companion species; Aldo Leopold's work demonstrating the way in which herbivores unchecked by predation devastate and alter ecosystems; and various anthropological studies of !Kung and other indigenous hunting cultures. Worst of all, for woman who hunt, Luke's book is highly insulting since in Luke's view women only hunt in order to emulate dominant culture and as a sort of exercise in self-deception/false conscience.

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The first integrated theory of manhood's relationship to hunting, animal experimentation, and animal sacrifice
In Brutal, Brian Luke explores the gender divide over our treatment of animals, exposing the central role of masculinity in systems of animal exploitation. Employing philosophical analysis, reference to empirical research, and relevant personal experience, Luke develops a new theory of how exploitative institutions do not work to promote human flourishing but instead merely act as support for a particular construction of manhood. The resulting work is of significant interest both to animal advocates and opponents of sexism.

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Brilliant PR: Create a PR sensation, whatever your budget, whatever your business Review

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(More customer reviews)It doesn't matter if you are an author from a major publishing house like Simon & Schuster or Penguin-Putnam, or self-published in this age of desk-top publishing and POD companies, you will carry the burden of publicizing, promoting, and marketing your book if you hope to have a financially successful, professional career. That's why every author needs to give a close and careful reading to Cathy Bussey's "Brilliant PR: Create a Pr Sensation, Whatever Your Budget, Whatever Your Business", a 168-page compendium of sound, 'real world', instructive commentary, tips, tricks, techniques, and do-it-yourself strategies adaptable to shoe-string and 'no-string' marketing budgets. Applicable to any business and the marketing of any product, "Brilliant PR" is especially germane for the book industry as it will teach newly published authors on how to best present themselves and their book to the reading public, what the various and diverse elements of a public relations campaign are and how to organize them effectively, managing the inevitable and unexpected crisis, and utilizing the promotional power of social networking in this modern age of computer web sites, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. Of special note are the illustrative insider stories, sample press releases, and good PR examples featured throughout. If you want to engage in an effect PR campaign for your book, read "Brilliant PR" by Cathy Bussey.

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Written by the features editor of the leading UKweekly for PR professionals, PRWeek,and with contributions from journalists, PR professionals and small business owners, it shows the reader how to successfully use PR to promote themselves and their business. Cover all the basics of PR including: media relations; pitching a story; writing a good press release; appropriate photography and images; planning and executing a good PR campaign; learning how to identify a hook or angle that will make their story compelling to journalists; understanding different types of media; understanding the digital spectrum and how to use Facebook, Twitter and other social media; creating a great website; blogging and blogger relations; crisis management; and how to choose a PR agency. Case studies are included from small businesses/individuals and top tips lists are included from a range of journalists and PR Professionals currently working within the industry. The book includes sample press releases that readers can download and modify to suit their own purposes; examples of ‘good and bad' PR taken from the author'stime working as a journalist reporting on the industry; author blog; Q&A sessions and live webchat with the author. Market:Pearson Education is the management market leader with over 24% market share. Management is the biggest market in the business sector and was worth £6 million in 2009.Benchmark: Brilliant Marketing(9780273721239), Published May 2009, Life sales: 3,867 copies sold (TCM Nielsen Bookscan).

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How to Make a Living as a Poet Review

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(More customer reviews)Let me give you the upshot of this book in a quick thumbnail. Yes, it is possible to make a living as a poet, no matter what your mother told you. But you must remember two important points if you want to make a living as a poet: first, you will not make a living at writing poetry. Second, you must do something no one has ever done before.
This book is full of examples of people who make a living (or part of a living) as poets, and the ways they do so. And none of them make their living by sitting in their garrets inscribing verse. They all find ways to get out into the community and sell themselves, AS POETS, as a commodity that people are willing to buy.
The Poet's Diner. Poetry tours. Youth poetry expositions. Poems and poetry writing as theatrical performances. Poetry pubs. Cowboy poetry. These are just a few of the ways poets break out of the poetry ghetto and make their literary calling pay. For poets who make a living, as much creativity goes into the way they sell themselves as into how they write the actual poems.
Gary Mex Glazner derives part of this book from his own experiences as a paid poet, and part of it from interviews with other poets. Naomi Shihab Nye, Sherman Alexie, and poetry showman Bob Holman all weigh in with ways that they've made poetry pay its own way in their lives. These comments are informative and instructive if you want to get a little cash back from your investment of yourself in your poetry.
The one thread that comes up time and again in this book is that you can't make a living as a poet if you just do what everybody else does. You need to break free and establish yourself as an individual. Because only when you begin to sell yourself will you be able to sell your poetry.
This book is full of ways in which poets have turned themselves into profitable commodities. You probably won't be able to do exactly the same thing they have done, but if this book is able to spark your imagination in ways that help you establish your own identity, then it has certainly done its job.
At the very top of this book Glazner is very clear: "This book will bring you no closer to the muse." But if you study this book, and take its precepts to heart, it may make you more able to hear the muse. And when you hear her, she will help you do something nobody has ever done before. Then you will make a living as a poet.

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In How to Make a Living as a Poet, leading slam poet Gary Mex Glazner shows how to turn poetic passion into a paying profession, revealing how he and other writers have become "full-time poets," actually listing their life's passion on their tax forms. Glazner should know. He has worked as a poet-in-residence at a hotel, secured sponsorship for 100 poets on an 8,000-mile tour of the U.S., and traveled the world with a poet's eye and budget, performing everywhere from Katmandu to Bangkok to Paris. From the story of his own project using poetry to help Alzheimer's patients to an interview about the world's only "Poetry Diner," Glazner details how creativity off the page can energize audiences and spark new approaches to writing. The book offers marketing ideas for how to break out of the "poetry ghetto," explains the economic impact of slam festivals, and shows how to not just survive but thrive financially off one's art. Included are interviews with Sherman Alexie, Mary Karr, Naomi Shihab Nye, James Kass, Beau Sia, Janine Pommy Vega, and other poets.

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The Complete Reporter: Fundamentals of News Gathering, Writing, and Editing (7th Edition) Review

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(More customer reviews)I've read the fifth edition and found it to not have the number of typos other reviewers found in the 7th Ed., so I presume the typos were intentional as is common among publishers to protect their copyrights.
At any rate, this book is intended for the journalism student. It can get somewhat dry. In such a setting one can't expect cotton candy and Reese Peanut Butter Cups!
The people that can best benefit by reading this text are the people at your local weekly newspaper and the reporters for Fox News Corporation. Objectivity and source attribution are sadly lacking at many community newspapers, at Fox News and at Al Jazeera. Okay, that's a bit harsh. But I digress.
When I was younger I obtained more than two years college credit simply by obtaining business books, reading them, and working each and every exercise at the end of each chapter and then taking College Level Eaxamintions through CLEP. This book is one in which the reader could do likewise and obtain at least sufficient knowledge to earn one year credit.
Then, even if you choose not to enter the workforce as a news gatherer, writer or editor, at least you would have an appreciation for the process.
I highly recommend this book for anyone involved in writing news or features or for those who interface with newspeople.

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Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day Review

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(More customer reviews)
I loved this book. Over the past year or so I have read quite a number of tomes regarding social media and social media marketing, but none until this one have been written in a planner or workbook format. This one is well written, well organized, and full of content. It has 14 chapters split into the following four parts or sections:
I. The Foundation of Social Media
II. Month 1: Prepare for Social Marketing
III. Month 2: Social Media Channels
IV. Month 3: Complete Your Plan
Two books similar to this one on how to put together a business plan are: "16 Weeks to Your Dream Business" (ISBN: 9780071588362, and "Self Employment: From Dream to Reality" (ISBN: 1563709228). And a book similar to this one on how to put together a fundraising plan is: "The Fundraising Planner" (ISBN: 0787944351). The instant book being reviewed touches on the marketing issues of social media, and then devises a systematic approach to putting together a social media marketing plan customized to your small business.
Each of the 14 chapters ended with a summary section. I found it very easy to cruise through this book by first reading the summary sections and then tackling the rest of the book after having a pretty good idea of what was being covered.
After reading this book you will have devised a social media marketing plan that addresses (1) platform, (2) content, and (3) interaction. You will have decided whether to use Technorati, MySpace, Socialvibe, Flickr, Facebook, Friendster, Linkedin, and/or YouTube. Technorati is the tunnel through which to learn more about the blog or blogs you will create.
So if you want to tap into the power of the Social Web through connected networks and consumer-oriented media, then I recommend this book as one of the tomes you seek out and read in order to build your company's social media marketing plan. 5 stars!
PS. Take a look at the Search Inside feature at Amazon for this book. There you can access the book's Table of Contents and see exactly what is covered.

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If the idea of starting a social media marketing campaign overwhelms you, the author of Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day will introduce you to the basics, demonstrate how to manage details and describe how you can track results. Case studies, step-by-step guides, checklists, quizzes and hands-on tutorials will help you execute a social media marketing campaign in just one hour a day. In addition, learn how to integrate social media metrics with traditional media measurements and how to leverage blogs, RSS feeds, podcasts, and user-generated content sharing sites like YouTube.

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Marketing Strategies for Writers Review

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(More customer reviews)Michael Sedge, owner of Strawberry Media Agency and guru of marketing strategies great and small, has his finger on the pulse of struggling writers and authors everywhere because he has been there. Sedge has been able to parlay his writing skills into an impressive global business and shares his tricks of the trade in this fascinating volume.
Sedge focuses on, very simply, how to sell writing. He dubs his game plan "guerilla marketing," and he creates an orderly universe out of a terrifying and confusing market. He offers a powerful litany of ideas for: researching the marketplace; smoozing with secretaries and others who are in support positions; anticipating markets based on current events, dates, and trends; using personal style to create markets; maximizing profits and minimizing work; how to create publicity packets; and many other useful tips to new writers.
Sedge throughly understands image, and scatters examples of how to seem larger than life in order to better promote oneself:
"Distancing yourself makes everything more profession, more `big league.' If you are requesting information about John Hendricks, founder and CEO of the Discovery Channel, would you expect to receive it directly from Hendricks? Of course not; he is much too busy for that. The company has a public relations office for such things. This is the exact image you want to present for your business."
Marketing Strategies For Writers is a bible for marketing. It is the type of book that should occupy the same space as the best writing books in a writer's collection. Sedge writes with humor, the earnestness of an excellent teacher trying to impart pearls of wisdom, and genuine compassion for the plight of writers everywhere. He gives writers hope with his abundant wisdom and optimism; and he prods and emphasizes with interesting tales of his own success.
Sedge is someone who should be listened to, as he has produced an incredible 2600 articles, several books, and tapes and scripts. His agency handles photography, marketing, writing, editing, and anything else that is required within the publishing field. He is truly the guru of marketing...and writing.

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A wizard at promoting his own work shares with other writers the aggressive guerrilla tactics needed for winning in today's highly competitive marketplace. The book details the skills and strategies writers must master to sell themselves and their work, from researching the marketplace to becoming lecturers, teachers, and experts in a particular field, to networking with editors and publishers, pitching to radio and television producers, and exploring the Internet. This invaluable guide takes writing careers to new levels with these top-of-the-line resources. Michael Sedge is the author of The Writer's and Photographer's Guide to Global Marketing and several other successful books, plus thousands of articles. He works and lives in Naples, Italy.

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The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires (Borzoi Books) Review

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(More customer reviews)Warning: This is not light reading. The book is well-written but is not designed as entertainment. If, however, you are concerned about the Internet and potentially where it might go in the near future, or more specifically, how it might wind up controlled, this book will be an interesting and informative read. Important too because communication and information dissemination are vital to the freedom of us all.
Columbia University Professor Tim Wu takes us on an in-depth tour of the history of the communication empires of telephone, radio, television, and now the Internet. Wu's analyses and conclusions are both brilliant as well as at times somewhat surprising. Every page gives evidence of Wu's thorough research, careful thinking and insights that went into the writing of this fine work.
The internet has become part of the lives of almost everyone, with its freeing and empowering presence; in fact in important ways it has become indispensable. A not-too-surprising worry might be that the federal government may someday try to control it, not so overwhelmingly as does the government of China of course, but the possibility is there.
What Wu so sagatiously points out is that that threat of control could just as easily, or actually more easily, come from the private sector, because in fact the existence of the internet and its smooth functioning are dependent, not on the government, but private enterprise. A different kind of monopoly looms ahead of us as a distinct danger, and this present information age presents new policy and regulation challenges.
One hopes that the right government officials at the federal level take heed to this awesomely researched book.
If you would like to understand more accurately recent decades as well as the present time the huge corporations that have in the past but also could one of these days control the ways and means of communication, by all means give this worthy work a read.
Highly recommended.


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The Guide to Financial Public Relations: How to Stand Out in the Midst of Competitive Clutter Review

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(More customer reviews)I thought that "The Guide to Financial Public Relations" was well written and logical, with many helpful step-by-step instructions. Though it is written specifically for the financial industry, it contains helpful information and valuable strategies for almost any business person who works with a client base and who wants to be more successful in their industry.
I have worked in the public relations field for 25 years, yet I found this book instructive with many new idea "gems" that I plan to implement in the future. For while it may be difficult to teach old dogs new tricks, today a business person must constantly learn new "tricks" (i.e. business strategies) in order to survive. This book delivers!

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The Guide to Financial Public Relations: How to Stand Out in the Midst of Competitive Clutter focuses on writing and getting published in yourtarget market's trade magazines, newspapers and journals. The techniques are designed to help youstand out above the crowd by strategic use of the print media.Divided into four main sections - with easy-to-follow steps aimed at showcasing your talent - it doesn't require a major expenditure of time, money or effort. This book could be used effectively by experts in almost any field.This book will show you how to get your name and ideas in print - in the right place and at the right time deliver the most effective message. Learn how to increase visibility and enhance your image as an expert in the field, without hiring a public relations firm or running an expensive advertising campaign.You will realize immediate benefits with a comprehensive, step-by-step public relations program. You will learn how to rise above the competition by: becoming recognized as an expert in the minds of new customers, retaining existing clients or customers, and continuously reinforcing trust. You can convert clients and prospects to new products and services, shorten the sales process by learning the experts' secrets of gaining referrals, and to control your own public destiny by following the techniques in this book.Features

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The Definitive Guide to Drupal 7 Review

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(More customer reviews)This is the most complete and up-to-date Drupal book. It is a _big_ book, and contains information on topics that most other Drupal books skip such as:
* Project management,
* Test driven development,
* Command-line administration.
I've only just started digging in to the material, but it has already helped me on my project.

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The Definitive Guide to Drupal 7 is the most comprehensive book for building web sites using the powerful and extensible Drupal content management framework.Written by active community members and contributors (some of the "brightest and most innovative minds in the Drupal community," to quote Angela Byron, Drupal 7 maintainer), the Definitive Guide to Drupal 7 covers the basics then quickly advances to in-depth exploration of the functionality and tools that make Drupal so powerful for building web applications. Just as important, this book provides the reader with a guide to participating in the Drupal community: an international, committed, rapidly growing community of themers, developers, and open source advocates who write the modules, test the code, and work ceaselessly to make Drupal great. The release of Drupal 7, with its dramatic improvements in usability and system architecture, will take Drupal to a new level of popularity, and this book will help give you the foundation and scaffolding to grow with Drupal.With The Definitive Guide to Drupal 7, you will be able to:
Plan and build a complete Drupal site with core alone.
Extend Drupal's functionality by selecting from thousands of modules.
Make your Drupal site look like anything you want with theming and jQuery.
Extend Drupal by coding your own modules.
Install Drupal in many environments.
Use essential tools such as Drush and Git to make your life easier.
Contribute to the Drupal community as an organizer or a coder.
Who this book is forAnyone who is serious about getting better at Drupal.Table of Contents
Building a Drupal 7Site
Essential Tools: Drush and Git
Building Dynamic Pages Using Views
There's a Module for That
Creating Community Web Sites with Organic Groups
Security in Drupal
Updating Drupal
Extending Your Site
Drupal Community:Getting Help and Getting Involved
Planning and Managing a Drupal Project
Documenting for End Users and the Production Team
Development Environment
Puttinga Site Online and Deploying New Features
Developing from a Human Mindset
Theming
Advanced Theming
jQuery
Introduction to Module Development
Using Drupal's APIs in a Module
Refining Your Module
Porting Modules to Drupal 7
Writing Project-Specific Code
Introduction to Functional Testing with Simpletest
Writing a Major Module
Drupal Commerce
Drush
Scaling Drupal
Spice Your Content Up with Tasty Semantics
The Menu System and the Path Into Drupal
Under the Hood: Inside Drupal When ItDisplays a Page
Search and Apache SolrIntegration
User Experience
Completing a Site: The Other 90%
Drupal Distributions and Installation Profiles
Drupal's Story:A Chain of Many Unexpected Events
Now You're in Business: Making a Livingwith Drupal
Maintaining a Project
Contributing to the Community
Appendix A: Updating a Drupal Site from6 to 7
Appendix B: Profiling Drupal and Optimizing Performance
Appendix C: Page Rendering and Altering
Appendix D: Visual Design in Drupal
Appendix E: Accessibility
Appendix F: Windows Development Environment
Appendix G: Installing Drupal on Ubuntu
Appendix H: Mac OS X Installation
Appendix I:Setting Up a Drupal Environment with the Acquia Dev Desktop
Authors
Benjamin Melançon
Jacine Luisi
Károly Négyesi
Greg Anderson
Bojhan Somers
Stéphane Corlosquet
Stefan Freudenberg
Michelle Lauer
Ed Carlevale
Florian Lorétan
Dani Nordin
Ryan Szrama
Susan Stewart
Jake Strawn
Brian Travis
Dan Hakimzadeh
Amye Scavarda
Albert Albala
Allie Micka
Robert Douglass
Robin Monks
Roy Scholten
Peter Wolanin
Kay VanValkenburgh
Greg Stout
Kasey Qynn Dolin
Forest Mars
Sam Boyer
Mike Gifford
Claudina Sarahe
George Cassie
Mike Ryan
Dmitri Gaskin

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Letting Go of the Words: Writing Web Content that Works (Interactive Technologies) Review

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(More customer reviews)[Update at bottom] Letting Go of the Words is a terrific book with respect to site structure and usability, but is extremely inadequate in regards to Search Engine Optimization and content that actually sells.
Dr. Redish's experience with web content is largely related to government agencies. In that respect, I couldn't ask for a better book on the basics of site structure and usability. The author presents a solid primer on helping your visitors find the information they seek as easily as possible.
The book, however, largely ignores issues that are important to business websites that wish to rank well on Google and other search engines. As an SEO guru, I was surprised that a book on writing web content completely ignores the fact that Google absolutely loves keyword-rich content. While some web purists believe in designing sites as though search engines never existed, it's impractical to cut short the very content that would ultimately deliver visitors to your site.
Government sites will generally rank well by virtue of their number of (quality) inbound links. Business owners aren't looking to simply provide information, they're looking to get traffic and motivate visitors to perform an action (purchase, contact, subscribe). Some of her tips ("don't embed links" - chapter 12) are in opposition to what designers should do to encourage Google to "spider" relevant pages and categorize them better in its results.
If this book teaches you the architectural skills of constructing a physical store that's easy to get around, it does so without mentioning how to encourage walk-ins to buy your products, nor how to get them from the street into your business. Brilliant from a usability standpoint, but often contradictory to what can help sites generate search engine traffic and drive sales.
[8/8/10 Update: While it doesn't emphasize SEO or sales copy, this is still the best book on usability that I have ever read. It's a must-own for designers, though I suggest you supplement Dr. Redish's techniques with other books on optimization and writing copy]

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Twitter Marketing For Dummies (For Dummies (Business & Personal Finance)) Review

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(More customer reviews)This book and Twitterville, by Shel Israel, are the only two books you need to buy if you wish to understand what Twitter is, why you should use it and how to get it done. Kyle Lacy has done an amazing job detailing the information needed for every business - both large and small - to deploy their marketing efforts by this new medium. Twitter sounds like a toy, but it's an amazingly simple and powerful tool that businesses can use to listen and speak to their customers and prospects.
Businesses who are leveraging Twitter are seeing incredible results - in reduced customer service expenses, reduced marketing expenditures, and increases in brand awareness. Buy this book now and get started!

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Get the latest tweets, tools, tips, and techniques and kick-start your Twitter marketing campaign!
As the fastest-growing social networking service with more than 50 million tweets posted per day, Twitter poses a plethora of marketing possibilities. Boasting more than 50 percent new or updated content, this fun and friendly second edition reflects the latest features that Twitter has implemented to make the service more appealing to business users. Twitter Marketing For Dummies, 2nd Edition helps you build a following, promote your product, and drive more traffic to your Web site.
Details the changes to Twitter since the previous edition and explores the newest features and functionality that Twitter now offers to businesses looking to market their product on the fastest-growing social networking service
Shows you how to effectively increase your visibility and promote your message via Twitter
Looks at the new promoted Tweets and Twitter lists
Delves into the marketing possibilities that exist with the new feature of sharing tweets on other social networking sites

So stop twiddling your thumbs and start tweeting today with the Twitter marketing advice shared within the pages of Twitter Marketing For Dummies, 2nd Edition.

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The Great Cholesterol Con: The Truth About What Really Causes Heart Disease and How to Avoid It Review

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(More customer reviews)If you've somehow managed to sidestep the pressure to go on statins, this book will provide you with justification. Kendrick walks you, step by step, through your own physiology and bio-chemistry, and backs his contentions that cholesterol can not be the cause of heart disease by citing and summarizing published studies that bear this out. The book is technical but highly readable thanks to an easy conversational style (if your high school biology teacher had been Kendrick, you'd have understood everything and gotten an A). If you don't really care about arterial plaques and exactly how they're formed (and exactly how they're not) the take-away message is pretty much this: statins are ineffective for women, especially for women over 50 years old, and for anybody over 70 years old. Further, statistical studies may indicate that lowering cholesterol encourages cancer. Many of the points Kendrick makes here are also borne out in Gary Taubes' excellent "Good Calories, Bad Calories." Both of these books are recommended.
I also feel somewhat compelled to add this: While doctors will tell you they've rarely seen anyone with side effects from statins, among my own circle of middle-aged friends, I know 3 who've had serious problems with their livers, one who had some muscles permanently destroyed, one--a usually energetic tennis player-- who felt, for the few months he took statins, as though he had the flu, and could barely go to work-- and one who was left with ringing in the ears and a facial tic. All of these are listed as side effects of statins, as Kendrick points out.

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Statins are the so-called "wonder drugs" widely prescribed to lower blood cholesterol levels that claim to offer unparalleled protection against heart disease. Many experts claim that they are completely safe and that they are also capable of preventing a whole series of other conditions. This groundbreaking study exposes the truth behind the hype surrounding statins and reveals a number of crucial facts, including that high cholesterol levels do not cause heart disease; that high-fat diets-saturated or otherwise-do not affect blood cholesterol levels; and that for most men and all women the benefits offered by statins are negligible at best. Other data is also provided that shows that statins have many more side affects than is often acknowledged. This hard-hitting survey also points a finger at the powerful pharmaceutical industry and an unquestioning medical profession as perpetrators of the largely facetious concepts of "good" and "bad" cholesterol that are designed to convince millions of people to spend billions on statins. With clarity and wit, this appeal to common sense and scientific fact debunks common assumptions on what constitutes a healthy lifestyle and diet, as well as the idea that there is a miracle cure for heart disease.

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Hiroshima in History and Memory Review

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(More customer reviews)An essential feature of any historical work is the selection ofsources one wishes to present as an argument. The role of memory and access to history, that is public access to 'other' histories, is an area of much contention in the contemporary world. What I most enjoyed about this book is the authors have not shied away from commenting on earlier critiques of the proposed Smithsonian display, involving the restored fuselage of the Enola Gay. What was shameful about the ensuing debacle, I believe, was the attempt to discredit the further development of an alternate memory given 50 years had passed since the atomisation of Hiroshima. After all, was it not possible to show an American and Japanese view of the closing months of the Pacific War, regardless of who the victor was? It is critical to understand that Australians, let alone Japanese, cut a different slant on the way we interpret history, particularly that of Pacific War history. I believe we are richer for the experience.
But, of course, an alternate memory has developed, yet it is often dismissed by the euphemistic expression, 'historical revisionism'. This appears to be some sort of code for 'this sort of history is not acceptable to the conservative elements in contemporary American society, certainly much less to those who actually witnessed combat in the Pacific'. By virtue of fact, it has no legitimate place among orthodox histories. All history is subject to revision, for the simple reason new facts become available and each generation chooses to impose it's own standards. This is certainly the case with Hiroshima. But this shouldn't be construed as 'wrong' or a 'threat', rather it adds to the debate and formation of ideas which underpin the importance of Hiroshima and historiography. Context retains an essential place.
However, for those of you interested in the importance of historicity, of debate, and value the idea of an education as opposed to acccess to information, I cannot recommend this book enough. It has it all. Needless to say Hiroshima touches a raw nerve both in Japan and America. It also has much currency in Australia. So I do not in any way set out to discredit the efforts of those men and women who gave their services to the state during WW2. I do, however, recommend that prospective readers keep an open mind and try avoid getting caught up in the limited rhetoric of the conservative right and the emotional left.

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