The goal: publish a book of stories from 100 entrepreneurs. With $100 and 30 days.
70 entrepreneurs, 35 states, 5 continents, 10 months, & $49 later, The Entrepreneur Story is that book. Click on "Us" to read more.
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Tomorrow’s the big launch!
Here’s a behind-the-scenes view on what it’s like for me– getting ready to send the book out to the general public tomorrow, and anticipating seeing how it will go.
Three marketing/blogging gurus, Andy Sernovitz, Chris Brogan, and Seth Godin, have been major inspirations to me as I’ve been planning the marketing campaigns for The Entrepreneur Story.
They all have interesting and effective perspectives on marketing and community building– and do an awesome job making information accessible to all of us via their blogs & books. Thanks, guys!
Just thought I’d show you guys some of the artifacts I’ve been collecting from the project thus far:
I can’t promise all of those will be fascinating to you, but check out the video for more details. 
Amazing– we have officially started the Beta Launch!
We had a few test purchases from real, live customers, and everything seems to be working fine.
By the way–props to our e-commerce solution, www.e-junkie.com. Earlier, I emailed the lead developer, Robin, when the server was down, and he sent back a quick reply letting me know they’d be back online soon. Thanks!
The book is only available by invite only until December 26th, as we’re making sure everything is going well before ramping up our marketing efforts.
If you’d like an invite to be one of our beta purchasers (with a $1 off discount code!), email me at carolynn@theentrepreneurstory.com.
And now, time to sleep!
Launches, especially when you’re dealing with websites, are inevitably full of delays. Can I get an “Amen?”
I keep forgetting that one should never announce a launch until after the product’s already been launched for days. Our Beta Launch was due to happen at 6 pm this evening, and wouldn’t you know it, the server went down. Nice!
I should have been more ambiguous about the time zone specified. We’re still launching tonight, and we’re still launching at 6 pm– just not Mountain Standard!
Will keep you posted– should be happening in the next 30-60 minutes, for our friends & fam Beta purchasers.
(All of this, by the way, is the reason to have a beta launch before our impending public launch next Wednesday. It’s a planned window of opportunity to get the kinks out of the system over a 6-day period while we ramp up to do some major PR work.)
Today is really exciting! But– tomorrow will be even more exciting.
I woke up at 7 am this morning and began working on the marketing strategy for The Entrepreneur Story e-book.
Almost 10 hours later, I’ve got a 20-page plan that I’m terribly excited to roll out beginning in our Beta Launch (for family & friends– email me at carolynn AT theentrepreneurstory DOT com if you’d like to be added) starting tomorrow!
We’ll have a gradual roll out over the next 2 weeks, with the official public release on Wednesday, December 26!
This year, I’ve been reading a ton about internet marketing, viral marketing, word of mouth campaigns, etc. from gurus like Seth Godin, Andy Sernovitz, Kathy Sierra, Chris Brogan, and MarketingSherpa.
I’m super excited to apply some of the things I’ve learned to this project, and hope it goes well. I suppose if you’re reading this, and I don’t know you at all, then perhaps some of the things we’re trying have been successful!
Image courtesy grilled cheese.
We’ve sent an open letter to Barnes & Noble, asking that if we can find 10,000 people who will buy “The Entrepreneur Story” from Barnes & Noble stores in the future, if they will help us find a way to publish it.
***
Dear Barnes & Noble Publishing Division:
The November 26th edition of Newsweek featured a picture of Jeff Bezos holding the Kindle, stating that “the future of reading is just a click away.”
It’s true that digital media and ebooks are quickly changing the shape of the publishing industry, and although there’s no argument that e-books are awesome– in fact, we have already an e-book version of The Entrepreneur Story– we’re guessing that walk-in customers to your brick & mortar bookstores probably prefer print books.
To be honest, we would love for The Entrepreneur Story to be available to them when they’re sitting at your tables, drinking a Starbucks, and planning their next business idea.
The Entrepreneur Story is a how-to manual for new business owners and entrepreneurs, on the realities of starting a business, with brainstorming worksheets as well as stories from 70 current entrepreneurs who have made it happen. We’re releasing the e-book for sale in the next few days, and will be deploying some major marketing strategies to spread the word to potential customers.
This book easily compliments titles such as The E-Myth Revisited, Think Like A Billionaire, and The Bootstrapper’s Bible, which have done very well among our target market of business-minded individuals. And, we think it’s a great fit for your usual clientele, many of whom are business owners, independent consultants, freelancers, or people who would like to start their own business but don’t know how.
If we can sell 10,000 copies of the e-book, and/or find 10,000 people who want to see The Entrepreneur Story on the shelves at Barnes & Noble the next time they visit, will you help us find a way to publish and put a print version of our book into your stores?
Let us know– we’re happy to be making this offer to you first, because of the high quality of your bookstores and the demographics of your target customers.
And, if you’d like to sign our 10,000 for Barnes & Noble pledge personally at http://www.pledgebank.com/barnesandnoble, of course, we’d be delighted.
Thanks,
–
Carolynn Duncan
The Entrepreneur Story
entrepreneurstory@gmail.com
***
So– picture yourself sitting at Barnes & Noble, sipping peppermint hot chocolate, reading an awesome how-to book about starting a business, and then taking out some paper to brainstorm putting your idea into action.
Sounds good, right? Help us make it happen! Sign the pledge here, and let others know as well.
Well, hi!
10 months ago, I came up with The Entrepreneur Story project, as the 2nd “Hundred Dollar Business” experiment. The intention was that we would spend 30 days and no more than $100 to create an e-book collection of 100 entrepreneurs’ stories from around the U.S. and each of the 7 continents.
–Map of the geographic locations of our profiled entrepreneurs.
Well, clearly it’s taken more than 30 days. A LOT longer, actually. I’m happy to say we only “spent” $9.20 purchasing this website URL, so far, although we will have to pony up for an ISBN number before officially releasing the book. 
The book is in its final stages of review and revision. We’re anticipating a December 2007 release, although, since life is often awkward, you never know. There’s a 30-page sample here, if you’d like a sneak peek.
Thanks for checking out the project! It’s very exciting when we meet new entrepreneurs who have a rich background of experiences working in business and living that elusive dream of being self-employed.
In fact, if you have a minute– consider sending us your story for Version 2! And keep reading the blog to stay up-to-date on the official release.
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