PC Buyer’s Handbook is long out of print and of no relevance to computer purchases today, but I did get a couple of responses that indicate the quality of writing that I put into it. The first was from a librarian in Florida. I had some copies of an older edition when the new one was published, so I mailed these older copies to public libraries all over the country in the hopes that people would find them on the shelf and buy the updated one.
This librarian said that she immediately read it when it arrived, as she wanted to buy a computer, but did not know anything about what to look for. She spent a couple of hours reading the relevant chapters, and then, still feeling insecure, invited a computer guru friend of hers, who was a database programmer, to go along in case she found herself still over her head.
As she wrote in the email she sent me afterward, “It was evident within five minutes of starting to talk to the salesman that I knew more about what I needed and which options mattered than either the salesman or my friend. What an ego boost! And all from reading your book. Thank you!”
The second recommendation was indirect, passed along to me from a fellow author. He was in one of the stores of a major office-supply chain in the Bay Area, when he saw one of the employees making a bunch of copies of my book. Sensitive to issues of copyright, he asked what it was, and was told that it was “the best training manual ever for our computer salesmen.” He had been assigned to make copies for each of their salesmen, with a few extra for future new hires.
The author who related this to me asked if he could have a copy, and was given one, from which he found my email and contacted me. I contacted a lawyer, who contacted their corporate office and apparently got the illicit copying shut down, but even though I was annoyed at the copying (I would have gladly sent them wholesale copies for not much more than their cost of copying), I was glad to hear that the folks on the front line of computer sales found it to be “the best manual ever!”
I share these stories as independent testimonials to the clarity and relevance of my writing, and Ben is also quite good, although his strengths are not identical to mine. Between the two of us we can write clear and compelling copy that is easy to understand and enjoyable to read.