Menu

Our Magazine

Take a Chance On Me

Thursday, December 12th, 2019

As I’ve started to reflect on my time here at Beaufort and Spencer Hill, I’ve been remembering just how quickly the opportunity came to fruition. It had been less than a week since I moved from the middle of Oklahoma to a new apartment in Brooklyn in the hopes of securing my first internship in publishing. My entire family thought I was crazy, and I wouldn’t be surprised to learn they had taken bets on when I would return home. In fact, the thought of working in publishing hadn’t even occurred to me until I was already six months out of college, and it felt like I was racing the metaphorical clock to get entry-level publishing experience before it was “too late.” Though I have since learned that publishing is a very accepting industry that welcomes newcomers of all ages with open arms, I still spent every day scouring BookJobs for any opportunities I may have missed.

I was tending to my battered ego after a string of rejection letters came in (all in one day, to make matters worse) when I noticed a brand new posting for a fall internship at Beaufort Books. I applied, and within a week I was sitting on the phone with Karen, discussing Beaufort’s catalogue and the various opportunities I could take advantage of as a potential intern for Beaufort Books and Spencer Hill Press. Karen and Megan took a chance on me, and by the next Tuesday I was sitting in Beaufort’s Flatiron District office as their newest intern.

It all still feels like a blur, but I couldn’t imagine a better way to be introduced to the publishing industry. Though I’m incredibly sad to be leaving Beaufort and its talented team of editors, I take solace in the fact that I gained an invaluable, first-hand look at what it takes to transform a rough manuscript into a polished final book, that I am never more than a quick train ride away, and that there are dozens of Beaufort and Spencer Hill titles that are still to be read.

I hate to say goodbye, but all good things must eventually come to an end. It feels fitting to wrap up with one of the most popular quotes from the character that inspired my pseudonym:

“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear. The brave may not live forever, but the cautious do not live at all. From now on you’ll be traveling the road between who you think you are and who you can be. The key is to allow yourself to make the journey.”

-Meg Cabot, The Princess Diaries

I am forever grateful to you, readers, for joining me on my journey at Beaufort Books!

Cheers,

Mia ThermoBEAUlis

This is a shared blog post for Beaufort Books and Spencer Hill Press. 

This Is Farewell

Wednesday, December 11th, 2019

“What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.” – T. S. Eliot

Four months have never passed so quickly. When I started at Beaufort Books and Spencer Hill Press in September, it felt like I had all the time in the world to soak up the experience of being a publishing intern. How naïve of me. New York City is so fast-paced that 14 weeks seem to go by in mere seconds. Nevertheless, in these 14 weeks, I have gained valuable experience and knowledge working with truly impressive and wonderful people. Taking a book from manuscript to publication is an arduous undertaking, but the people at Beaufort Books and Spencer Hill Press do it with grace and skill. I am thankful to have had the opportunity to learn from them, and parting ways with them is bittersweet.

Leaving New York City is equally as hard. I have gained so much from this incredible city. The confidence of navigating an often confusing and delayed train system. The determination of pushing through crowds of tourists when you’re late. The list goes on. Being here during the holidays has been a dream too! Christmas has always been my favorite holiday, and being here in the City to see all the lights and decorations has only deepened this sentiment. Of one thing I am certain, I will be leaving a part of my heart in this city when I go, but I know that I will be back soon.

I figured that before I say goodbye, I should probably leave you all with my recommendations of things to do in NYC. Check them out below!

  1. Get free tickets to Late Night with Seth Meyers or another talk show

Sign up for a 1iota account to be put on the waitlist for a plethora of shows and events happening in New York. I went in early December to Late Night with Seth Meyers and saw Saoirse Ronan (Ladybird) and Alex Borstein (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel)!

2. Take a walk around Brooklyn Heights/DUMBO

I lived in Brooklyn Heights during my stint in the City, and it was such a great place to be. The neighborhood has tons of restaurants, beautiful brownstones, and is a short walk from the Promenade where you can get million-dollar views of the city skyline. Right next door is DUMBO, another great neighborhood with tons to do and incredible views.

3. Visit Times Square. Just go early

If you want to visit this tourist attraction without the crowds, I recommend going around 9 AM and not during the holidays. I went early in the morning at the beginning of November. No massive crowds. No lines at the Disney store. It was glorious.

4. See a Broadway show

I managed to see TEN shows on Broadway during my four months. I kept the costs minimal by entering the lotteries and joining the rush lines for plays that I wanted to see. My top recommendation is Jagged Little Pill. Alanis Morisette’s iconic album inspired the musical. It was a marvelous and emotional ride.

5. Leave the City

Although I love New York, there are so many amazing places that are just a short train ride away! I went to Connecticut to visit friends and enjoyed the change in pace from New York. Mystic, CT, is a quaint little town on the coast that is a perfect place to escape from the hustle and bustle of the City. There are also beautiful places in upstate New York that are close by.

Well, dear readers, the time has come. Goodbyes are so bittersweet, but I am excited about what’s next for me. Thank you for joining me on this journey. I hope all of you have a joyous holiday season and a blessed 2020! Love hard, read often!

With gratitude,

Captain Beaumerica

This is a shared post with Spencer Hill Press.

SUCCESS FREAK News!

Tuesday, December 10th, 2019

6 Books That Will Help You Focus on Your Personal Growth

 Success Freak: Kick Ass in Life in 7 Days

By Bruno Gralpois

How do you begin to turn your life around in a week? Bruno Gralpois breaks it down by offering one new skill to learn for seven days: creating your own measurement for success, ways to think and act differently, how to learn from failure, ways to balance reflection and productivity, ways to manage your time, why resilience is important, and how to live with purpose and passion.

It won’t be easy, Gralpois warns, but if you use these skills and commit to them, they can help you achieve more. But that’s not the finish line; success takes work.

“To profoundly change our lives, we must do more than repaint the car or change the battery,” Gralpois writes. “We may need to change our means of transportation or change the destination altogether.” (November; Beaufort Books; $18)

To read the rest of the article, click here.

To learn more about Success Freak, click here.

To learn more about Bruno Gralpois, click here.

THE SCHOOL CHOICE ROADMAP News!

Thursday, December 5th, 2019

Kirkus Review: A resource for parents who feel overwhelmed by the prospect of school choice.

Campanella is the president of the annual public-awareness effort National School Choice Week, and his debut book offers a clear road map for choosing the best schools for one’s children. Its initial chapters lay down fundamental concepts—that parents are the experts on their own children, that what works for one child may not work for another, and that geographic location is a key factor in choosing a school. He then introduces six education options: traditional public schools, public charter schools, online public schools, public magnet schools, private schools, and home schooling. He provides basic descriptions of each choice, complete with quick summaries of management styles, how teachers are certified, and other factors. He also offers tables regarding each choice’s geographic availability, although these lack some specificity. “My Takes” summarize the author’s thoughts on each education option, such as “Private Schools can be unique, diverse, and more affordable than you might think.” The author walks readers through his seven-step process (starting with “Think Back to Your Own Time in School” and “Identify Your Goals for Your Child”), providing questions for readers to ask themselves as they do their own research. Worksheets help to focus the discussion with a structured, methodical approach. The questions feel repetitious at times, but they effectively highlight important items. The final chapter asks readers to share their experiences with others, which sweetly concludes the main text. Readers may have questions that the seven-step plan doesn’t directly address, but Campanella’s lengthy “Frequently Asked Questions” section will likely help them. Overall, the author succeeds in his stated desire to remove politics from the school-choice discussion. However, more critical commentary would have been useful, as some descriptions feel overly idealistic. Throughout, Campanella includes supportive, inspiring quotations from parents and school administrators as well as examples of successful schools around the country; several regions are noticeably underrepresented, however.

A straightforward and often useful companion for those on a school-choice journey.

To read the rest of the review, click here.

To learn more about The School Choice Roadmap, click here.

To learn more about Andrew Campanella, click here.

RED HOTEL News!

Tuesday, December 3rd, 2019

Wide Range Of Reading Ideas To Get In Gear For The Holidays

“Red Hotel” by Ed Fuller and Gary Grossman (Beaufort Books)

“Red Hotel” is an incredibly timely globe-trotting thriller that is fiction on the edge of reality. A Tokyo hotel is bombed and dozens are killed and injured, so why is one man walking away from the massacre with a smile on his face? Former Army intelligence officer Dan Reilly, now international hotel executive, is on the case.

As Reilly utilizes all the contacts he can to get to the bottom of the disaster, he learns he isn’t just looking for one person but an entire organization that he never suspected. This discovery leads him to more calculated acts of terror around the globe and a much more internationally connected web of corruption than he was prepared for.

To read the rest of the article, click here.

To learn more about RED Hotel, click here.

To learn more about Gary Grossman, click here, and to learn more about Ed Fuller, click here.

SCHOOL CHOICE: A LEGACY TO KEEP News!

Tuesday, December 3rd, 2019

Virginia Walden Ford’s New Memoir, “School Choice: A Legacy to Keep,” Shares the True Story of a Courageous Education Reform Pioneer

Virginia Walden Ford, who was recently portrayed by Uzo Aduba in the film, “Miss Virginia,” tells the behind-the-scenes true story of her childhood in the segregated south and her fight to bring school choice to our nation’s capital, in her new memoir, “School Choice: A Legacy to Keep.”

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (PRWEB) November 21, 2019

Every child in the U.S. deserves the opportunity to receive a quality education, but those opportunities are not equally distributed among young people in our country. That inequality is something that Virginia Walden Ford discovered as a child growing up in the segregated south, and then spent most of her adult life trying to change. In School Choice: A Legacy to Keep, a memoir published today by Beaufort Books, Walden Ford shares the improbable true story of how her childhood experiences prepared her for a life of school choice advocacy.

A decade after the “Little Rock Nine” desegregated Little Rock Central High School, Walden Ford was part of the second wave of black students to enroll in the school. As a teenager, she watched in horror as faceless bigots burned a cross at her home, protesting her father’s appointment to serve as the first black administrator of Little Rock’s school system.

Then, years later, Walden Ford drew on those experiences –– along with the lessons taught to her by her parents and grandparents –– when she rallied parents to protest Washington, D.C.’s broken education system and demand greater school choices for their own children.

In the process, she and other low-income parents steadily built community support for their efforts but faced sustained criticism from school choice opponents. Aligned with an unlikely set of allies in the U.S. Congress, they eventually won the fight to create the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program in 2004. Since its inception, the program has provided scholarships so that more than 10,000 children could attend the private schools of their parents’ choice.

Earlier this year, Walden Ford’s story was told on the big screen in the feature film, Miss Virginia, in which Emmy-winning actress Uzo Aduba portrays Virginia. The film also stars Matthew Modine, Niles Fitch, and Vanessa Williams.

Walden Ford’s new memoir expands on the lessons instilled by her parents, who served as public school teachers and administrators. The book also explores how she learned the values of courage and tenacity by listening to stories of her ancestors, including her great-great grandfather, who was a slave.

“I was raised to believe that education is a right but one that we have to keep fighting for, even 60 years after desegregation,” Walden Ford said. “I will never stop fighting for children and to give them a better chance at life. This book is part of that legacy.”

To read the rest of the article, click here.

To learn more about School Choice: A Legacy to Keep, click here.

To learn more about Virginia Walden Ford, click here.

Holiday Gift Guide 2019!

Thursday, November 28th, 2019

Holiday Gift Guide 2019!

The most wonderful time of the year is here once more! It’s around this time that we all begin rushing around town, shelling out too much money for gifts that will inevitably end up re-gifted. With all the decorating, shopping, and parties, the magic of the holidays gets lost behind sky-high price tags and busy schedules. This year, Beaufort wants to make your holidays a little more magical by recommending gifts for everyone on your list! Here you’ll find books that will satisfy even the most obscure tastes and interests. Not to mention, they’ll look stellar wrapped up under the tree or displayed on the shelf. Now order these finds online and get to sippin’ that eggnog by the fire!

For the Dedicated Churchgoer:

The Lord is My Strength by Eric Kampmann

In his introduction to The Lord Is My Strength, Eric Kampmann places the Psalms at the epicenter of the biblical narrative. Implicitly, the psalms weave all the way back to the creation story, forward to the advent of Jesus, and beyond to the end of times. And within this epic scope, the psalms tell the story of each one of us, our hopes, our dreams, our fears and conflicts in a way that ignites our imagination, providing a full and deep picture of who we are as we live day to day in our own time and place. The Lord Is My Strength was originally envisioned as a book of morning prayers posted on social media sites. But it quickly became more than that when Kampmann began posting a photograph and a short commentary along with the passage from the psalms. The result is a new book that will speak through words and pictures of the beauty, harmony and mystery that has been gifted to everyone who has the desire to see where they stand in God’s story.


For the Curious Middle-schooler:

The Adventures of Bubba Jones Series by Jeff Alt

The Adventures of Bubba Jones: Time Traveling Through the Great Smoky Mountains is the first book in the series.

Tommy “Bubba Jones” and his sister Jenny “Hug-a-Bug” learn more about the Great Smoky Mountain National Park than they ever thought they would when Papa Lewis lets them in on a family secret: The family has legendary time traveling skills! With these abilities, Bubba Jones and Hug-a-Bug travel back in time and meet the park’s founders, its earliest settlers, native Cherokee Indians, wild animals, extinct creatures, and what the park was like millions of years ago.

With this time traveling ability also comes a family mystery, but the only person who can help solve the mystery is a long lost relative who lives somewhere in the park.  Explore the Smokies with Bubba Jones and family in a whole new way.


For the Drama Lover:

The Woman in the Park by Teresa Sorkin and Tullan Holmqvist

When Manhattanite Sarah Rock meets a mysterious and handsome stranger in the park, she is drawn to him. Sarah wants to get away from her daily routine, her cheating husband and his crazy mistress, her frequent sessions with her heartless therapist, and her moody children.

But nothing is as it seems. Her life begins to unravel when a woman from the park goes missing and Sarah becomes the prime suspect in the woman’s disappearance. Her lover is nowhere to be found, her husband is suspicious of her, and her therapist is talking to the police.

With no one to trust, Sarah must face her inner demons and uncover the truth to prove her innocence.

A thriller that questions what is real-with its shocking twists, secrets, and lies—The Woman in the Park will leave readers breathless.


For the Person Who Love Jane Austen:

The North of the Tension Line Series by J.F. Riordan

North of the Tension Line is the first book in the series

Fiona Campbell is a newcomer to tiny Ephraim, Wisconsin. Populated with artists and summer tourists, Ephraim has just enough going on to satisfy her city tastes. But she is fascinated and repelled by the furthest tip of Door County peninsula, Washington Island, utterly removed from the hubbub of modern life. Fiona’s visits there leave her refreshed in spirit, but convinced that only lunatics and hermits could survive a winter in its frigid isolation.

In a moment of weakness, Fiona is goaded into accepting a dare that she cannot survive the winter on the island in a decrepit, old house. Armed with some very fine single malt scotch and a copy of Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, Fiona sets out to win the dare, and discovers that small town life is not nearly as dull as she had foreseen. Abandoning the things she has always thought important, she encounters the vicious politics of small town life, a ruthless neighbor, persistent animals, a haunted ferry captain, and the peculiar spiritual renewal of life “north of the tension line.”


For the Thrill Seeker:

The Jack Patterson Series by Webb Hubbell

When Men Betray is the first book in the series.

Why would Woody Cole, a peaceful, caring man, shoot a US Senator in cold blood on live television? That’s the mystery facing attorney Jack Patterson as he returns to Little Rock, Arkansas, a town he swore he would never step foot in again.

When Men Betray is the first book of fiction from author, lecturer, and political insider Webb Hubbell. A departure from his previous book, Friends in High Places, an account of his rise and fall in Little Rock, Hubbell crafts a deft narrative of mystery and political intrigue. Set in a fictionalized version of his home town of Little Rock, Arkansas, readers will be immersed into the steamy world behind the southern BBQ and antebellum facade—a seedy underbelly of secrets and betrayals. Clever readers may recognize the colorful personalities and locales of the Arkansas political scene.

Jack is supported by a motley but able crew; loyal assistant Maggie, college-aged daughter Beth, feisty lawyer Micki, and his bodyguard Clovis. Together, Jack and his rag-tag team are in a race against time to discover Woody’s hidden motive. All he has is a series of strange clues, hired thugs gunning for him, and the one man who knows everything isn’t talking. Alliances are tested, buried tensions surface, and painful memories are relived as he tries to clear the name of his old college friend. Jack Patterson will find that even the oldest friendships can be quickly destroyed when men betray.


For the Person Who Loves True Stories:

School Choice: A Legacy to Keep by Virginia Walden Ford

On a cold winter night in February of 1967, a large rock shattered a bedroom window in Virginia Walden Ford’s home in Little Rock, Arkansas, landing in her baby sister’s crib. Outside, members of the Ku Klux Klan burned a cross on her family’s lawn. Faceless bigots were terrorizing Virginia, her parents, and her sisters–all because her father, Harry Fowler, dared to take a job as the assistant superintendent of personnel for the Little Rock School District. He was more than qualified, but he was black.

In her searing new memoir, legendary school choice advocate Virginia Walden Ford recounts the lessons she learned as a child in the segregated south. She drew on those experiences—and the legacies handed to her by her parents and ancestors—thirty years later, when she built an army of parents to fight for school choice in our nation’s capital. School Choice: A Legacy to Keep, tells the dramatic true story of how poor D.C. parents, with the support of unlikely allies, faced off against some of America’s most prominent politicians—and won a better future for children.


For the Professional or Entrepreneur:

Success Freak by Bruno Gralpois

Are you ready to get INSANELY MORE out of life? Success is acquired, not inherited. Take control of your destiny and join the “Success Freak 7-Day Challenge”: master 7 essential skills and transform your life in only one week. Combining helpful exercises and set-by-steps activities,Success Freak is a self-help book by French-American Entrepreneur Bruno Gralpois, that will show you how to unleash the amazing potential that, yes, already lies within you. You are about to become an unstoppable force of resolve and determination. Nothing short of the Success (Freak) you were always meant to be.


For the Skeptics and History Buffs:  

Occam’s Razor by T.R. Ryden

When ancient artifacts discovered in the Great Pyramid of Giza shed new light on a DNA pattern identified by a world-renowned molecular biologist, venture capitalist, James Anderson, is thrust into an action-packed road of scientific exploration and discovery. An unlikely participant in the events that begin to unfold, Anderson and his team, pursued by those who don’t want this new information out, realize they have stumbled upon the greatest and most terrifying cover-up in the history of the human race.

Occam’s Razor is a chilling speculative fiction thriller which ties together several well-known, and some not so famous controversial theories concerning alien visitation, human evolution, ancient legends, and the cosmos. The novel explains how it could be very plausible to imagine that the powers that be may already know about an impending disaster and caught between all this are the novel’s unfortunate characters as they struggle to figure out what to do in the face of unstoppable catastrophe.

Happy Holidays! May all your shopping be done early!

-Captain Beaumerica

RED HOTEL News!

Thursday, November 21st, 2019

RED Hotel featured on Eagle & Times “Wide Range Of Reading Ideas To Get In Gear For The Holidays”

“Red Hotel” is an incredibly timely globe-trotting thriller that is fiction on the edge of reality. A Tokyo hotel is bombed and dozens are killed and injured, so why is one man walking away from the massacre with a smile on his face? Former Army intelligence officer Dan Reilly, now international hotel executive, is on the case.

As Reilly utilizes all the contacts he can to get to the bottom of the disaster, he learns he isn’t just looking for one person but an entire organization that he never suspected. This discovery leads him to more calculated acts of terror around the globe and a much more internationally connected web of corruption than he was prepared for. Purchase at https://amzn.to/2nYUh3m.

Click here to read the rest of the article.

Click here to learn more about RED Hotel.

Click here to learn more about Ed Fuller and Gary Grossman.

THE SCHOOL CHOICE ROADMAP News!

Thursday, November 21st, 2019

Clarion Reviews evaluates The School Choice Roadmap: 7 Steps to Finding the Right School for Your Child

Clarion Rating: 4 out of 5

With a convincing platform that’s based on helping children thrive, The School Choice Roadmap is a fair-minded resource.

A reassuring guide for parents, Andrew Campanella’s The School Choice Roadmap is all about navigating the sometimes overwhelming decisions around K-12 enrollment.

Its outlook positive, the book emphasizes the idea that school choice is personal, not political. It sidesteps the public versus private school debate, suggesting that parents research the options that are available where they live. What matters, it asserts, is what’s best for each individual student; it argues that parents are the experts when it comes to knowing their kids.

Presented in two parts, the book first forwards an objective overview of six types of schools: traditional public, public charter, public magnet, online public, private, and home. It argues the potential benefits of each, discussing the facts in a friendly way that’s appreciative of how busy parents are. This section will be helpful for cutting through school mission statements and numerical ratings to evaluate the key features which are relevant to a family’s circumstances. Its information sticks to standard definitions. In its second portion, the book outlines seven steps toward choosing a school.

Click here to read the rest of the review.

Click here to learn more about The School Choice Roadmap.

Click here to learn more about Andrew Campanella.

THE SCHOOL CHOICE ROADMAP News!

Tuesday, November 19th, 2019

The School Choice Roadmap named “Best Parenting Book” for 2020 by the National Parenting Product Awards

The School Choice Roadmap by Andrew Campanella was among the six products chosen for the 2020 National Parenting Product Awards.

To learn more about the award, click here.

To learn more about The School Choice Roadmap, click here.

To learn more about Andrew Campanella, click here.

THE SCHOOL CHOICE ROADMAP News!

Tuesday, November 19th, 2019

The School Choice Roadmap wins Mom’s Choice Gold Award

The Mom’s Choice Awards has awarded the Mom’s Choice Gold Award for Best Parenting Book to The School Choice Roadmap by Andrew Campanella!

To read more about the award, click here.

To learn more about The School Choice Roadmap, click here.

To learn more about author Andrew Campanella, click here.

THE WOMAN IN THE PARK News!

Tuesday, November 19th, 2019

Authors Teresa Sorkin and Tullan Holmqvist join Chris Cuomo on SiriumXM

Teresa Sorkin and Tullan Holmqvist sat down with Chris Cuomo on Monday, November 18th to discuss their debut book, The Woman in the Park.

To listen to the interview, click here.

To learn more about the authors, click here for Teresa Sorkin and click here for Tullan Holmqvist.

To learn more about The Woman in the Park, click here.

SCHOOL CHOICE: A LEGACY TO KEEP News!

Thursday, November 14th, 2019

Virginia Walden Ford’s is the Great American Story

Virginia Walden Ford’s is the great American story, she’s on the right side of it, and it’s dramatically well-told in the new movie Miss Virginia. In the movie, Emmy winner Uzo Aduba plays Ford as she—sick and tired of being treated as if she’s incompetent to choose her own child’s school—rises in righteous rebellion and seizes control of her own affairs again by fighting for school choice in Washington, D.C., in a grand renewal of the American ideal of citizenship.

As also told in her forthcoming autobiography School Choice: A Legacy to Keep, “Miss Virginia” was an already-struggling single mother from a low-income neighborhood who decided to take on yet another struggle—to seek another option for the education of her teen boy. She was highly dissatisfied with the public school he was assigned to attend. She very much feared that he might be on his way to a life of drug dealing and all of that which too often follows. She couldn’t afford the tuition at other, nearby private schools, however.

Overcoming several obstacles, including her own fear of public speaking and the powerful educational establishment, Ford and the D.C. Parents for School Choice group she formed in the late 1990s sought to secure educational opportunity for her child, at another school, of her choosing. It was a story known to Bradley, which supported similar groups in Milwaukee and elsewhere; it helped fund D.C. Parents for School Choice, too.

To read the rest of the article, click here.

To read more about School Choice: A Legacy to Keep, click here.

To read more about Virginia Walden Ford, click here.

AGENCY MANIA News!

Tuesday, November 12th, 2019

AGENCY MANIA NAMED BEST BUSINESS BOOK OF 2019: MARKETING

With each passing year, the universe of marketing and sales continues to expand. Fueled by technology, constant connectivity, and rapidly evolving consumer behavior, the scope of activities and competencies that fall under this category grows. This year’s three best business books on marketing come from three radically dif­ferent parts of the ecosystem — and each reimagines a core function while expanding the boundaries of the discipline. Whether they are suggesting new ways to consider the customer experience, providing a realistic look at the immense potential of artificial intelligence, or delving into the still-powerful role of agencies, this year’s books bring focus to an industry that increasingly defies easy definition.

At the beginning of one chapter in Agency Mania, author Bruno Gralpois urges the reader to “go ahead and grab a cup of coffee” before plunging into a 40-page treatise on client/agency contracts. And it shouldn’t be a shot of espresso. Agency Mania is not a book that most readers will finish in one gulp; its best use is as a comprehensive manual detailing virtually every aspect of the client/agency relationship, to be kept on the office bookshelf (or iPad) and pulled out (or tapped on) as needed. About to look for a new agency? Read chapter 5, “Assortative Mating and the Sweaty T-Shirt Theory: Conducting a Successful Agency Search.” Trying to figure out an equitable compensation model? Turn to chapter 7, “Just Six Numbers: Determining the Right Agency Compensation.” Quotes interspersed throughout from major advertisers and agencies — Procter & Gamble, Anomaly, Ford — enhance the book’s credibility. Charts and best practices listed at the end of each chapter help break the thick book into digestible chunks.

Many marketing books I’ve read over the years have been inspiring. Many of the treatises and cris de coeur of ad gurus are full of soaring rhetoric and stabs at deeper meaning. Agency Mania is not one of these books. It’s a distinctly unromantic look into the plumbing of marketing. That said, you’re unlikely to find a more essential book if, as is the case for many marketers, your relationship with your agency is the most important one in your work life. Gralpois, a consultant who has championed agency management as a discipline top advertisers need to invest in, leaves no aspect of the client/agency relationship undiscussed. He devotes dense chapters to scoping work and briefing agencies, building effective performance evaluations, and understanding the nuances of that strange place still sometimes referred to as Madison Avenue.

To read the rest of the article, click here.

To learn more about Agency Mania, click here.

To learn more about author Bruno Gralpois, click here.

THE SCHOOL CHOICE ROADMAP News!

Wednesday, November 6th, 2019

ANDREW CAMPANELLA FEATURED ON PARENTING OUR FUTURE PODCAST

We all want our kids to get a good education and be successful in school.  BUT not every school fits your child’s unique needs and abilities. Is your child gifted?  Does your child have learning disabilities? Is the school your child in just not a good fit? Do you know you have a choice and the right to choose a school that fits your child?  Are you aware of the many options that are available? This may seem like an exciting concept but also daunting because where do you start? 

In this episode, Andrew Campanella, the President of National School Choice week in The United States talks about how and when parents can look for alternatives for their kids based on their needs.  

To listen to the podcast, click here.

To learn more about The School Choice Roadmap, click here.