A long-time journalism friend, John Callahan, just published his first novel. But don’t look for Gettysburg Passage in any bookstores. At least, not yet. John has taken a novel approach to publishing his work.

The process of selling books has changed little since Johannes Gutenberg first started cranking them out back in the 15^th Century. Authors go in search of publishers impressed enough to risk fronting the money to print and distribute their manuscripts. When I published my novel back in 1980, I approached about 15 publishers before I found one willing to invest in me. At best, publishers might place a few ads in The New York Times, promoting a title. But in most cases, the book just appears on a bookshelf, destined to sink or swim on the whims of fate.

Like so many markets, however, the Internet has changed all that. Now, authors can by-pass the establishment and build their own followers through viral marketing. For practically nothing, they can engage directly with potential readers.

John gave fleeting thought to following the traditional route, but then took into account his 30+ year background in marketing, and realized that if he couldn’t get people interested in his novel, who could?

Gettysburg Passage is action adventure fiction (a great read, by the way, but more about that in a minute) that is available through Amazon in electronic format. But what is really interesting is that it’s one of the first mainstream novels targeting next generation e-reader capable devices, including Kindles, computers, iPads, and Blackberries. References to places, people, and historical milestones are embedded with hypertext links so as I read the book on my Kindle, I was able to view biographies, YouTube videos and other resources that provided context to his story. Rather than view footnotes at the end of each chapter, reading stories within the stories heightened the experience.

Once the novel was available through Amazon, John created a blog , social networking sites on Facebook and Twitter, video commentaries on YouTube, and he began interacting with others on their sites who could relate to the novel’s plot. A press release that was distributed has already been reproduced on more than 200 media sites and has resulted in television interviews. The novel has only been available for a few weeks, but already is quickly gaining a following. I predict you will be hearing about this book soon from people other than me.

I share John’s story with you because I believe it is indicative of this new world in which we live. Being able to communicate and share information with people worldwide is disruptive technology that is quickly changing our culture and the manner in which we interact with one another. And markets like book publishers increasingly are finding themselves irrelevant and struggle to build new business models around this evolving technology. All of us are challenged to either adapt or be replaced.

Finally, a word about Gettysburg Passage. It’s one of those books that defies category: part historical novel (Civil War), part travelogue, and a whole lot of suspense. Plus, you will not guess the ending.  In fact, I’ll make you a deal: if you can put the book down during the last 100 pages, I’ll reimburse your $5. Enjoy!

I have encountered during my lifetime a handful of young people I realized possess a great deal of talent. One of those individuals is Matt Walsh, the son of a friend who is completing his degree in journalism at the University of Florida. Matt’s creativity flows through his camera. He has the true eye of an artist and that sixth sense that enables him to be in the right place at the right time to capture the one-in-a-million shot.

On April 5^th of this year, Matt captured this image from a rooftop as the shuttle Discovery climbed into the early morning darkness over Florida’s Space Coast. The image appeared the next day in The New York Times.

Along with about 14,000 other people, Matt recently entered the photograph in a National Geographic contest for best picture. He is now one of two finalists in the Action/Energy category! I like what Geographic photographer Jim Richardson had to say in describing Matt’s shot: “The vast energy of a shuttle lighting up the sea and the beaches is just one part of the beauty of this image. Add to that the coming dawn, the tide and waves of the sea washing ashore, and the wonder and awe that you can just feel in all of the people transfixed by the scene and you have a profound sense of great forces at work.”

So this is where you come in; would you do me a favor and help Matt win the contest by voting for his picture? If you will go to his website (www.m2collective.com) and click on the shuttle image, it will take you to the page where you can cast your ballot. You are only allowed to vote once from each of your computers, but if you use more than one browser (i.e. Explorer, Firefox), you can vote each time. The deadline for voting is Sept. 15, so don’t delay. Please help him out; he would appreciate your vote and so would I.

Fear. Along with joy, sadness, and anger, it’s one of the primary emotions that affect our behavior. It was a boon for our ancestors in that it pumped enough adrenaline into their bodies to allow them to outrun the animals intent on eating them. But as we evolved from the cave to the cubicle, fear largely began to work against us.

Residing in the amygdala portion of our brains, fear is the reptilian response, as author Daniel Goleman calls it, that cautions us to slow down. Don’t make any decisions that might result in failure. Don’t move forward on an idea unless everybody agrees with you. Otherwise, you run the risk of someone, somewhere criticizing your vision. We cover our butts instead of doing the right thing.

Fear reminds us that it’s better to delegate, procrastinate, or defer to another day than risk failure. Regarding fear, the 19^th century physician and author Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. observed: “There is always danger for those who are afraid of it.” And perhaps former President Franklin D. Roosevelt said it best when he remarked: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

So how do we overcome our fear of fear? We put it in its place. We build a fence around it and resolve to ignore the warning signs and act on our hunches. We consciously choose to move beyond it. Yes, we will fail sometimes as a result. But think of the possibilities! I don’t know about you, but I suspect one of my last wishes on this Earth will be to wish that I’d taken more risks.

And by the way, if you’re interested, there is a new monthly e-zine that started up earlier this year called Fear.less, and I highly recommend it. The online publication is free and is chock full of interviews with interesting people and celebrities talking about how they overcame their fears. You can access the publication by going to their website at: www.fearlessstories.com.

Ever wonder why your Sunday paper is so much thicker than any weekday edition? Could it be there is more news to report on the weekends? Hardly. It shouldn’t surprise you that the advertising department determines how large tomorrow’s edition will be. The newsroom is then invited to fill in whatever space is left. On average, the ratio runs about 60 percent advertising to 40 percent editorial, although I think that’s a conservative estimate.

The good news in that equation is that the limited availability of space forces reporters to deliver the news using the least number of words possible. Same can be said for television news, where the networks are forced to cram a world full of headlines into just 22 minutes.

With the introduction of the Web, however, that discipline has been tossed out the window. Writers now feel free to write as much as they want, to take their time in telling their stories. Someone shared with me the other day a press release that actually ran on for nine pages!

The problem is that our audiences have not changed their level of expectation. They don’t want to slog through your flaccid, overwritten prose in order to understand what it is you are trying to say. So they hit the delete button or the on/off switch. They stop listening and end the dialogue. Your message falls on deaf ears.

Thanks to the wireless world in which we live, ours has become a linear society. If we want to know more, we simply click through to the next, more detailed level of information. And we keep clicking until our appetite for information is satisfied.

When I was editor of a national higher education magazine, I practiced what I like to call my 20-second rule. Because I had to read and often report on as many as two and three dozen press releases a day, if I couldn’t understand the story in a release in 20 seconds, I simply deleted it and moved to the next one.  

So the lesson learned is not to data-dump on your audience. Tell your story, in as direct a manner as possible, and tell it quickly. Leave them wanting to know more.