Sunday, June 06, 2010

Book Descriptions

Two paragraphs down is an alternate description for my book On the Way to the Web. (Was ISBN 1430208694, now ISBN 143797242X, and being sold by Diane Publishing.) I bring it up because the copy, from Diane's Web site, is more interesting than the original. Compare it with the existing bookseller listings. Whoever wrote it tightened it up considerably. (I wrote a rough version of the original.)

I'd be more likely to buy the book with the new description. I would change a couple of things ("the failed entrepreneurs" ought to be "the failed entrepreneurs who somehow managed to recover and build empires out of little more than empty time..."). But it works as-is.

Introduces you to failed entrepreneurs, people who built empires out of little more than empty time, the innovators who laid the foundation for the Internet and the World Wide Web, the man who invented online chat, and the people who invented the products all of us use online every day -- in the 1980s, the 1970s, and before! Learn where, when, how and why the Internet came into being, and exactly what hundreds of thousands of people were doing online before the Web. See who was behind it all, and what inspired it all. The real stories are all here -- the great businesses, colossal blunders, and great showmanship that led up to the Net and the Web -- and beyond, turning your perception of the Web and the people who created it upside down. Illus.

2 comments:

Dave Kennedy said...

Hey Mike - I love this book. I've bought a copy for a friend, and encourage many of my fellow software-startup colleagues to read it.

I really like the description above as well, but for anyone considering reading the book I also offer my strong recommendation.

Thanks for writing the book Mike!

Michael A. Banks said...

Thank you, Dave. I'm really glad you enjoyed it--and shared it.
--Mike