Announcement #1: On June 8th we opened The EQ Press Forum. This is a free space where people working on learning and building EQ skills can consult with others engaged in similar work. I’m available on the Forum to answer questions. It would be great to build a supportive community together. You can check it out here: https://the-eqpress-forum.com/. Help us get things started with your questions and comments!
Moving on, many readers of this blog purchased A Little Book to Save Humanity. Much appreciated! The book sold nearly 500 copies, which is more than 85% of books published. By that measure, the book was successful.
But not by my measure. As readers of this blog know, I’m passionate about the benefits to individuals and to our society that can accrue as more people build their EQ skills. I want to see the book in a lot more hands.
Announcement #2: With that in mind, I’ve re-issued the book with a new title: Emotional Intelligence for a Divided World: 16 skills to master your brain, get a promotion, build better relationships, and resist manipulation. That title makes it much clearer how the book may be useful.
To be clear, if you already own the book, you may not want to buy the re-titled one. It is 95% the same book. That said, in re-issuing the book, we did improve the production values with larger type, better paper, and better use of color. I also corrected some mistakes. So, while you may own the book, you might find the new one easier to read. More importantly, your friends, family, and anybody else who hasn’t read it yet will definitely enjoy the new/improved version!
What follows is the Preface of the new book, which more fully explains the title change.
PREFACE
“This book was first released under the title A Little Book to Save Humanity. My editor and I loved that title. Most potential buyers didn’t. While the book opened as a best seller for book distributor Itasca, sales did not sustain that momentum. Google ads led 18,000 people to our website, but people didn’t buy, even though the book was probably what they were looking for. It was a mystery. We did some sleuthing to find the answer, which was this:
The title misled people.
How did we find out? We used EQ. We practiced what the book preaches. This preface is a confession, and hopefully models how EQ skills can facilitate success, particularly in the face of failure. Here’s the story.
My editor and I are not amateurs. We both bring important credentials. You can read mine in the About the Author section. My editor, Patrick Davis, is both a book publisher and a national leader in the brand/marketing industry. His marketing credits include some of the biggest companies in the country. With my enthusiastic support, he used the skills and methods he has honed over the years to advertise the book. The ads successfully got lots of people to the website. Then, “splat.”
We could have accepted defeat. We could have decided that this task was just too hard. But our mission is to get this book read. The power of its message drives us. So, we turned to EQ.
As you read this book, you will discover that EQ consists of 16 component skills. Here is how we used some of them:
STRESS TOLERANCE: We had to tolerate the anxiety of admitting that the title we both loved was a mistake. Humility has its benefits.
SELF-REGARD: We could have wallowed in failure. Instead, we believed in ourselves, our message, and our ability to find a solution. Humility is not the same as low Self-Regard.
EMPATHY: We had to get into the heads of people who got to the website and moved on. What were they telling us? What was the turn-off?
FLEXIBILITY: We could have stuck rigidly with our “brilliant” title. Instead, by creating and testing a new title, we opted to be flexible in the way we let people know about the book’s message.
OPTIMISM: We believed we faced a setback, not defeat. That allowed us to find ways to recover.
PROBLEM SOLVING: We did not allow our feelings of disappointment to be so intense as to distract us from figuring out the mystery. Here’s what we found:
There was a disconnect between what those Google ad responders were looking for (the ads talked about what the book could deliver, but did not refer to the book by name) and what the old book title promised. Once we understood the problem, the solution was clear. Change the title to make the book’s message stand out.
Success is hard! Whether you are looking for success in your personal life, your work life, or in your efforts to make our world a better place, success requires processes like the ones described above, explained in empowering detail in this book. The mission of Emotional Intelligence for a Divided World: 16 skills to master your brain, build better relationships, and resist manipulation is to give you tools that, when added to those you already have, will take you to new levels of success. Thank you for joining us on this adventure.”
