Logical Expressions Blog

I just found out that my new radio show Take Me Home is featured this week on iTunes.

The show is all about pet adoption and pet rescue. Every week on "Take Me Home," I talk to guests from animal shelters and rescue groups about pets that may have been overlooked for one reason or another, but still need a loving "forever home." Here's the link on the Pet Life Radio site:

Take Me Home Radio Show

If you go to the podcast section, in iTunes, you'll see the Take Me Home is featured this week!

Woo hoo ;-)

Once again, I'm a little late in mentioning this, but the new issue of Computor Companion magazine is online. (We were on vacation, so blogging wasn't really on my "to do" list.)

Anyway, the new issue has these articles:

Demystifying Nerd Words (all about misused and confusing terminology)

How to Create a Postcard in Photoshop (based on my experiences creating promotional postcards for our books)

Digital Photos 101 (Dian Chapman gets graphic-y)

How to Set Your Retail Pricing to Meet Your Financial Goals (complete with cool online calculating tool)

Q&A on a Weird Excel Error (add-in badness strikes again)

Golf: The Online Frontier (who knew there were so many links about links)

A Disturbing Vista on the Horizon (which has a link to one of the funniest You Tube videos I've seen in ages)

Enjoy!

After putting off redoing our Logical Expressions corporate site for quite a while, we finally bit the bullet, gutted it, and started over. The new version is online here:

Logical Expressions, Inc. Corporate Site

In addition to changing the design and clarifying our message, with information for people who want to:

• write a book,
• publish a book,
• or promote a book,

the new site also has a number of new pages that better showcase all the stuff we do. Now we have pages for:

• Vegan Resources
• Pet Resources
• Computing Resources

We also have updated and revised pages about who we are and how we got where we are. The About LEI page has links to:

• Our Bios (finally updated and including stuff like the fact I've written more than 1,200 online articles...yes, I checked!)
• The LEI Story (how a walk in the rain led to a dream come true)
• The story of our logo (it's one of those nerd things)

The reason the update took a while is because we had to convert over all the old pages. The project portfolio pages, for example, were literally a project because there are so many of them. Plus, we have many years worth of press releases that had to be moved over. Most other pages, such as the old computer tips we had on the site, were relocated to our other article sites.

On a more nerdy note, because the site has sort of evolved multiple times since it went online in 1997, it was time to clean house. We completely started over with the Cascading style sheets and validated each page with an HTML checker. The code is so clean now, it squeaks ;-)

Because I'm on so many marketing and business-oriented email lists, I tend to have a good notion of what books are coming out in the business realm. Recently, Dan Kennedy and Bill Glazer have been promoting a new book on Information Marketing.

I surfed over to Amazon because it looked like a book that I might be interested in...until I read the reviews that is. A lot of people didn't like it, particularly folks who read a lot (like me).

But imagine my surprise as I'm scrolling through reviews to find our OWN book recommended over this one!

Jeff Lippincott who is an Amazon top 1000 reviewer says of the Kennedy book:

"...the book falls short on how to design and build a Web site that will be your distribution center. If you want some solid information regarding this topic, then consider taking a look at "The Ultimate Guide to Electronic Marketing for Small Business (ISBN: 047171870X), "Web Business Success" (ISBN: 0974924504), and "The Web Savvy Writer"

WOW! Thanks Jeff ;-)

I found out that Connie Weiss at the My Pet Street blog wrote a review of Happy Hound.

Here's a snippet:

"There are lots of behavior and training books available, and most every one I've read leave me feeling totally incompetent as a pet owner. As much as I follow the prescriptive advice, problems still persist: barking, marking, and terrorizing the cats, to name just a few issues. Susan's clean writing style and total honesty about the ups and downs of finding the right balance in living with a pet conveys the feeling that you're sitting at a kitchen table together having a conversation. She lets you know that she's been there, and that many times it's a trial and error process of finding just the right approach that works for you and your dog."

You can read the rest of the review here:

As an author, it's incredibly satisfying when someone really enjoys one of your books. I have to say that reading this review really made my day. Thanks Connie ;-)

This week, it became apparent that I could no longer wait until the weather "gets better" to wash the dogs. The weather stinks and so did the dogs.

So Saturday, I had to embark on Doggie Maintenance Day. With four dogs, maintenance takes a while. I brushed them, clipped their toenails, and washed them. As you can see, post-bath, they all look a little miffed:

Leia doing her imitation of a wet rodent:

Tika keeping an eye out for more cleaning activity:

Cami (the Happy Hound cover dog) looking somewhat less happy than usual:

Leto wondering why his fur feels weird:

The good news is that the canine team smells way, way better now. The weather still stinks though.

I was looking at the weather report this morning. The map shows that we have yet another "Hazardous Weather Outlook." In other words it's probably going to precipitate in some loathsome way today.

Like most people in this area, I am weary of this winter that just won't go away. Today is March 30, and in the last week, we've had two rather unpleasant winter storms. One dumped 11-inches of snow and the other about 4. At least we didn't lose our electricity anyway.

By the end of March, I really lose my sense of humor about snow. My mailbox is chock full of gardening catalogs, but at this point, we still have 3.5 feet of snow on the ground. I know my garden is under there somewhere, but who knows when I'll actually see it. Maybe in May?

News reports also are saying that the snow during this winter that won't end has now equaled the "legendary" North Idaho winter of 1968-1969. Oh and the snow pack in the mountains is higher than usual. Gee, ya think?

Here is today's view of the garden.
(Click for larger versions.)

The hoop house is going to need a bit of repair, assuming we ever see it again.

Note that the snow pile from the roof still reaches the second story of the house.

[Submitted by James H. Byrd, Vice President, Logical Expressions]

Dr. Lynn Osterkamp recently posted an entry on her blog that got me fired up. Her post "Is Winning A Book Award A Big Deal?" talks about the value of book awards for small publishers. She asks the provocative question: "But does an award set up for the likes of us mean anything?"

My answer to that question is "yes" for two reasons:

1. We have to start somewhere.

2. Getting any form of external validation is helpful.

The industry is currently dominated by the major publishers. The major book awards are naturally going to pander to that market. The "indie" book awards give small publishers a separate playing field on which to compete. We may eventually see a day when books published by small publishers go head-to-head with books from major publishers, and when that day comes, we'll know we have arrived. Just don't count on it being soon.

In a way, what is happening in the publishing industry is something like what is happening in the music industry. Social networking through the Internet is creating new venues through which independents can compete against the majors on a virtually level playing field.

Amazon.com is just one example. Most people can't easily tell the difference between a book from a major publisher and one from an independent publisher. You have to know what to look for, and you have to care about it enough to look in the first place. The reader reviews and ratings tell you most of what you need to know about the value of the book, and many times, you can take a peek inside to be sure the quality meets your standards.

Dr. Osterkamp often says that we should "judge a book by the book." That is a healthy attitude for a self-publisher. It is also why I think independent book awards have value to self-publishers. We have to work hard to promote our own books, and a book award has great value as a testimonial. Anything that helps us stand out from the crowd has value to us as marketers. That is to say nothing of the emotional satisfaction of actually winning an award.

So, yes, awards for the likes of us have their place, and I believe the respect they receive will increase over time. For now, it is up to the authors to decide whether or not the entry fee is worth the potential emotional and financial benefit they might get from winning.

Those of you who read my newsletters know that I've been working hard on the member benefits and private member area of the National Association of Pet Rescue Professionals web site. I'm proud to report that I actually met my self-imposed deadline and it all went live on March 20. (The first day of spring!)

Today I did a press release about it:

New Pet Rescue Association Offers More than 160 Customizable Forms, Pet Care Articles, and Information to Help Humane Professionals Save More Lives

If you're involved in rescue work, you probably can imagine how much time all these pre-made forms and documents could save you. That's time you can spend caring for your furry friends instead, which is generally more fun than staring at a computer ;-)

All of you folks who have been busily downloading IdeaWeaver so you can enter our writing contest have just FIVE days left to get your contest entries to us.

You can read more about the contest and submit your entry here:

Dazzling Dogs Contest Entry Form

We've gotten some cool entries already, which is ample proof that I'm not the only one likes to tell tales about my goofy dogs. It's FREE, after all. And you might just get published too   ;-)