Mañana Man’s Adventures —DeWese

BACK DURING the 1990s, I wrote five “how to” books for graphic arts salespeople. I wrote those books because most printing company owners/managers are so busy trying to survive that there is no time to train the salespeople.

It turned out my book-writing idea was maybe one of four or five that was any good during that decade. The other 200 ideas were lousy ones.

One of the five books was titled, “Now get out there and sell something!” You will recognize that title as my sign-off for every column in PRINTING IMPRESSIONS. That book was a compilation of 55 columns selected by the book editors. The book was a best seller and sold out 5,000 copies, except for the 43 copies still in my garage.

I have now written and published two more books. They are available from PRINTING IMPRESSIONS. How’s that for crass commercialism?

I couldn’t think of good titles so I titled the books, “The Adventures of the Mañana Man–Book II” (216 pages) and “The Adventures of the Mañana Man–Book III” (195 pages). Book II contains 51 of my greatest columns and Book III contains 52 of my most outrageous columns.

Watch the pages of PI for space advertising on how to order your copies. Or, go to www.piworld.com/bookstore or call (800) 777-8074 to place an order. O Caramba!, be sure to purchase a bunch of the books.

This whole 2008 book publication idea was inspired by Amazon.com. A reader called to tell me that Amazon was selling an autographed copy of the first book, “Now get out there and sell something!” for $34.75! Amazon calls it a “collectors’ edition.” The reader, Wanda Fay Nelson, said, “Mañana Man, you ain’t even dead yet and the price of your book has increased a whole bunch.”

I remembered signing dozens of books, but I sure never sent any to Amazon.com. Amazon hasn’t sent me any money. Must be some book pirates purloined some of my autographed books and they’re layin’ back, livin’ the good life and cashing those checks.