If you took one look at my mailbag, you’d be forgiven for assuming that publishing business books is a highly profitable enterprise, but I’m guessing the returns on the majority of publications aren’t great. In such a competitive market, you'd think that the quality would be consistently high.
Most won’t expect a business tome to be a literary masterwork, but you do expect well structured arguments, decent advice, and the author to have the ability to spin a good yarn. How disappointing then that the vast majority of the pulp non-fiction cluttering my desk is mind-numbingly poor.
The worst examples tend to be those written by consultants - people that have never run a company in their lives but have apparently seen enough examples of how not to do it that they’re qualified to write a didactic book on the subject. I don’t necessarily have a problem with that concept, but when the advice given is consistently poorly conceived, patently self evident or just plain wrong, it starts to get irritating.
Another warning sign that you’re in for a painful reading experience is a cover boasting both a corny title and a self-confessed guru plastered across the jacket, all bouffant hair and bleached teeth. The authors of these titles are usually American. If you don’t fancy being repeatedly affronted by the overuse of exclamation marks and useless truisms (“when you get kicked in the rear, you know you’re out in front!”), judge these titles by the poor taste exhibited on the covers.
Next comes the celebrity entrepreneur memoir. These are a mixed bag, sometimes entertaining, usually a vanity project. The quality of these titles depends largely on the pedigree of the ghost writer and the material he or she has to work with, i.e. the charisma of the entrepreneur concerned. The results range from disastrous to diverting, so proceed with caution.
As you can imagine, when I’m sent a decent title, it stands out. I picked up Sarah Lacy’s Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good with wariness and cynicism, but was pleasantly surprised. Lacy, an American business journalist, sets out to tell the story of the entrepreneurs who emerged from the dotcom crash to found online behemoths, but she does much more: she shows countless other business authors how it should be done, delivering an intimate glimpse of start-up life in Silicon Valley and insights into the boardrooms of the new online power brokers.
It’s well written, captivating and inspiring. I’d recommend it to every tech entrepreneur and most business owners in general, not least as an antidote to the weak and prosaic titles that they’ll probably be familiar with. Sadly, I’ve finished Lacy’s book now, so if you’ve got any recommendations of your own, do let me know.