BESTSELLERS & BEST FRIENDS
My book publishing blog, with murder mysteries woven through it.
If this is your first visit, be sure to start with “1. Let’s do it!”
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A couple of years after Rich’s headline-stealing resignation from the Washington Times, he gave up on journalism for good. Done. Enough. Over.
He had covered Three Mile Island, the U.S. Supreme Court, Strom Thurmond, and the Reagan White House (he nearly fell out of the press helicopter—seriously—as it followed Reagan’s helicopter out of London and over to Heathrow). He had a young family, he worked too hard, his hours were too long, and his paychecks too small.
Worst of all, to my great disappointment, Rich grew cynical. Washington does that to its best members of Congress, its once hopeful legislative staffs, and its dedicated journalists who watch and write of the circus. “Fuck it,” Rich explained, “I’m cashing in.”
Rich partnered with a big-shot attorney to open a crisis management firm. Their strategy was simple. Suppose you or your company screws up. If you only respond with a legal strategy, you’ll lose the public debate carried out in the media. Yet if you only respond with a media strategy, you risk a fatal legal misstep. Instead, a crisis is best managed with a two-headed legal and media strategy working in concert. And you pay the people getting you out of that crisis—which may be embarrassing, personal, and/or deadly to your business—a LOT of money.
So Rich opened up an office on Duke Street in Alexandria, Virginia, and was quickly rolling in the cash.
And like so many, he wanted to add a bestselling book to his trophy case.
We talked.
“Crisis management book? Yep, good idea, market needs one,” I said.
“Could I be the guy to write it?”
“Sure.”
“Can it be a bestseller?”
“Absolutely.”
“How?”
I said that the bestseller conversation had to be off-line.
We scheduled lunch.
Meanwhile, I saw that Freeman was breaking any of the news coming out of the office of Pennsylvania U.S. Senator John Heinz. Something was clicking there.
Tomorrow: How to be a little shit and make a bestseller
U.S. Senator John Heinz