Joe Kraynak

Energy Crisis? Google to the Rescue

You might think that given the high cost of gas and the pollution spewed out by burning coal and other fossile fuels, our government would be spearheading the development of alternative fuels. As with most things, however, the solution is having to come from the private sector. Fortunately, an innovative and relatively new company is stepping up to the plate.

When most of us hear “Google,” we think of the search engine that helps us find stuff on the Internet, but Google is now taking the lead in tapping alternative sources of energy. As reported in the recent Geotimes article, “Changing the World One Kilowatt at a Time,” by Megan Sever, Google is putting its efforts behind three alternative sources of energy - solar thermal, high-altitude wind, and enhanced geothermal powers. Google’s goal? To have clean technologies that are ready to start to scale up and that will cost less than coal within 10 years.

Is Google doing anything to help with the current gas prices and future oil shortages? The article didn’t mention anything about this, but I think tapping any sort of clean energy source to produce electricity can contribute to resolving any future oil shortages. After all, the main thing preventing hydrogen from becoming an economical replacement for gas is the fact that it costs more (in electricity) to produce than the power it generates. With plenty of cheap electricity, we can start producing the hydrogen we need.

For more about Google’s plan, check out “ RE<C (Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal).”

What Does Al-Qaeda Want?

A close friend of mine recently mentioned a book that one of his friends, Robert O. Marlin IV, had put together called What Does Al-Qaeda Want? When I expressed interest in the topic, my friend proceeded to send me a copy, which I have just finished reading.

As a matter of critique, I was a little disappointed by the commentary, or lack thereof. The book consists of a collection of unedited communiqués along with a “brief introduction to each document [that] provides some historical context to aid our understanding of the fundamental issues as articulated by the authors.” The purpose of the book is supposedly, in the commentator’s own words, “to provide a perspective on al-Qaeda’s goals through a representative sample of the written demands of Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network.” I really wanted to know what Marlin thought of al-Qaeda. When I presented my review to Marlin, he replied as follows (the complete text of Marlin’s reply to my review follows this post):

I was pleased that you were unable to discern my thoughts regarding al-Qaeda as I sought to avoid bias in the presentation of the documents. It was never my intention to write a polemic and I hoped that critical readers would examine the materials and draw their own conclusions.

Fair enough, but after reading the book, I came away thinking that the book’s real purpose was to spread al-Qaeda propaganda and try to convince readers that Osama bin Laden and his henchman are reasonable fellows who just have the same dreams and goals for their families that we have for ours. If we were just good listeners, perhaps we could come to a better understanding with them and be friends. (Again, this is the assumption I made after reading the book. Please read Marlin’s response following this post.)

You can certainly read the entire 100 pages of the book, but I could pretty much figure out what Osama bin-Laden and al-Qaeda want by reading 1a of Document 11: Bin Laden’s “Letter to America” dated November 24, 2002 (on pages 64-65 of the book). In answer to Question 2: What are we (al Qaeda) calling you (Americans and allies) to, and what do we want from you? Bin Laden answers:

1) The first thing that we are calling you to is Islam.
(a) The religion of the Unification of God; of freedom from associating partners with Him, and rejection of this; of complete love of Him, the Exalted; of complete submission to His Laws; and of the discarding of all the opinions, orders, theories, and religions which contradict the religion He sent down to His Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Islam is the religion of all the prophets, and makes no distinction between them—peace be upon them all.

It is to this religion that we call you; the seal of all the previous religions. It is the religion of the Unification of God, sincerity, the best of manners, righteousness, mercy, honor, purity, and piety. It is the religion of showing kindness to others, establishing justice between them, granting them their rights, and defending the oppressed and the persecuted…

In other words, bin Laden wants us to subject ourselves to his interpretation of God’s law.

If I have any advice for bin Laden, it’s this: Don’t start negotiations with a deal killer. What you’re calling us to do is not going to happen. Christians, Jews, Buddhists, and other people of faith are not about to simply relinquish their beliefs because you believe your religion is superior, no matter how many ancient Buddhist statues you and your ignorant madmen blow up, no matter how many innocent people you kill in the name of Allah. Nor are we going to trade our freedoms for the tyranny of your interpretation of Islam law.

Like most of the dangerously self-righteous people in this world, bin Laden and other al Qaeda leaders come across through their many communiqués to be more than a little naive and very confused. On page 27 of this book, for example, bin Laden is quoted as saying, “God, praise and glory be to Him, has prohibited the killing of women and children unless the women are active fighters….” I can only guess that he made the mistaken assumption that America evacuated all the innocent women and children from in and around the World Trade Center before al Qaeda flew those planes into the towers, OR he honestly believes that the women and children he killed were active fighters.

More over, from what they say, al Qaeda’s purpose is to convince U.S. citizens to essentially replace our leaders (I’m guessing our business leaders as well as our political leaders) with people who are more Muslim-friendly. Their method for getting us on their side, however, seems a little counterproductive – killing over 3,000 civilians in an attack on the World Trade Center is not going to make us their allies.

Another thing I find inconceivable is the fact that bin Laden and his ilk hold all Americans and Jews individually and collectively responsible for just about everything that he feels is wrong in the Middle East. Wake up, bin Laden - Muslims are partially responsible. What if we were to hold every Muslim responsible for your crimes? Would that make any sense? If this is the kind of logic you are calling me to embrace, count me out.

The more I read about al-Qaeda and the more I think about the group, the more I come to realize that this is fast becoming a classic case of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Al-Qaeda is so convinced and afraid that “the crusaders” are going to try to conquer the Muslims and drive them from their lands, that every action they take brings this closer to happening. As bin Laden and his crew whip the Muslim world into a frenzy of blind hatred against the West, they are stimulating the fears of non-Muslims everywhere and inspiring hatred against all Muslims. If there was any time when the greatest fear was fear itself, this is it.

I can only hope that cooler heads prevail, but if it comes to choosing sides, I believe the West is the best, and after reading this collection of communiqués, I believe more than ever that al Qaeda needs to be eradicated from the planet. Unfortunately, these cowards not only kill innocents, but they also hide amongst them. That makes it difficult for anyone with a conscience to kill them without killing a few innocent bystanders. At least we feel bad about killing innocent bystanders - al Qaeda goes out of its way to do it.

Obviously, this book ruffled my feathers, but I don’t mean to take out my frustration on Marlin. I think the book is valuable as a resource for helping readers gain a better understanding of what al Qaeda wants, but I think the only conclusion that critical readers can possibly come to after reading this book is that what al Qaeda wants and how it goes about trying to get it is anything but reasonable.

Marlin’s Response via Email

As the editor, I attempted to offer a representative sample of documents that provided a perspective of al-Qaeda’s goals and to expose the reader to “direct testimony from the leadership of al-Qaeda regarding the development and justification of their movement.” (p. ix) I was pleased that you were unable to discern my thoughts regarding al-Qaeda as I sought to avoid bias in the presentation of the documents. It was never my intention to write a polemic and I hoped that critical readers would examine the materials and draw their own conclusions.

I was disappointed in your assessment of the book’s purpose, although it was not meant as a diatribe either. I anticipated, that by examining the communiqués, readers would enhance their understanding of what bin-Laden was thinking and why by confronting “al-Qaeda’s purpose and demands in the words of its spokesmen.” (p. ix). While in no way did I mean to indicate that Osama or his “henchmen” were “reasonable fellows” I leave that decision to the informed reader. However, I confess my belief that many al-Qaeda members probably do share “the same dreams and goals for their families as we have for ours.” To believe otherwise appears a bit ethnocentric to me.

Again, the communiqués were chosen to enable the critical reader to discern the fundamental convictions underlying the group’s demands and to decide for themselves the validity of those demands.

Global Warming or Cooling?

I’ve posted a couple pieces questioning the science that fuels global warming alarmism: “Global Warming? I Dunno” and “The Politics of Global Warming.” This morning, I woke up to an article on FOXNews entitled “Forget Global Warming, Prepare for New Ice Age, Says Scientist.”

Here we go again.

I don’t put any more stock in this ice age alarmism than I do in the current decade’s global warming alarmism. The truth is that we just don’t even have enough good scientific evidence yet to determine whether the Earth is warming up or cooling down let alone to determine what’s causing the warm up or cool down.

I’m just keeping my fingers crossed that we have the capacity to produce enough greenhouse gasses to prevent the next ice age. I may just need to keep my car running constantly.

Deconstructing Golden Tee LIVE

Deconstructing Golden Tee LIVE is the only book I’ve ever worked on in which we omitted Chapter 13. We decided to skip Chapter 13 and head directly to Chapter 14 in keeping with tradition. Larry Hodgson of Incredible Technologies (one of the game’s creators and developers) explains:

When we were shipping the release of Golden Tee Fore!, I insisted that the number 13 not show up in any of the boot screen indicators, including the game’s version numbers, (for example, 1.00.13), the build time (for example, 12:00:13), and the build date (for example, 02-13-2000).

I have since lightened my stance on the 13’s in the boot screen indicators, but for Golden Tee LIVE, we were not taking any chances. Since we started developing games on the Eagle platform in the late ’90’s, we’ve assigned a numerical product code to each game. Golden Tee Fore! Was product code 4.

When it came time to assign a product code to Golden Tee LIVE, the next number was 13. When Demetrius mentioned this to me, we decided to skip it and go straight to 14. Understand, we’re not necessarily superstitious people, but after all the work that we all poured into LIVE, I just couldn’t stomach assigning the game a product code of 13.

Deconstructing Golden Tee LIVE never took off in terms of sales, perhaps because we lacked a clear vision before we started. I still think it’s a great book, however. In part, it reveals the process and expertise that goes into developing a top video game of this caliber. In part, it offers some history of the video game industry. Perhaps the most interesting part, however, is that the book reveals how the developers used this video game as a revenue-generating machine and completely revolutionized the coin-op video game industry at the same time.

Instead of following the old model of selling its game to distributors and relying on only one stream of revenue to flow into the company, the visionaries at Incredible Technologies figured out how to multiply those streams. With the release of Golden Tee LIVE, Incredible Technologies was able to establish at least six revenue streams:

• Wholesale to distributors
• Direct sales to game operators
• Licensing fees from various manufacturers who wanted to capitalize on the popularity and success of Golden Tee
• Product update fees charged to game operators
• Per-play fees charged to players
• Advertising fees charged to manufacturers who wanted to post clever ads inside the game or on one of the displays

Whether you’re interested in video game development, learning more about the industry, or witnessing how some brilliant business people expanded their revenue streams from a single product, you’ll find Deconstructing Golden Tee LIVE a very enlightening read.

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Slam Poetry Earns Rave Review

On April 8, 2008, “Good Reads Columnist” Barbara Perlman-Whyman of the North Lake Tahoe Bonanza delivered a rave review of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Slam Poetry:

For a discussion of Slam poetry, let me highly recommend ‘The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Slam Poetry’ by Marc Kelly Smith and Joe Kraynak, both to budding Slam poets as well as any one interested in attending and/or knowing more about a Poetry Slam. Marc Smith actually invented Slam poetry in 1984 and has now taken the time to explain the concept and give really helpful pointers. As he stresses ‘Slam poetry attempts to invigorate poetry by giving equal weight and integrity to the poetry and the performance.’ No matter who wins the top prize, the poet/performers, the organizers and the audience all walk away winners. As you will discover, Slam Poetry equally involves the audience as well as the poet.

Unfortunately for the book (and for Marc and myself), this is a case of too little too late. The publisher has just informed us that the book is going out of print… so check that remainder rack at your local bookstore, because you could find a real bargain.
Perhaps Marc and I will acquire the rights to the book and come out with a new, improved incarnation. Stay tuned… we might just do that. We’d like to thank Barbara for her encouraging words!

The Politics of Global Warming

In “Global Warming? I Dunno,” I discussed my reservations about buying into the global warming alarmists belief that Earth is warming due to human activities. The May 2008 edition of the Trumpet carries a report written by Brad MacDonald entitled, “A Really Inconvenient Truth,” in which he exposes some of the political pressure tactics used to promote the global warming alarmists’ agenda.

Of course, everyone has a right to his or her own opinion, and we do need to manage our natural resources wisely, so I support many of the goals of the “alarmists.” The problem I have with them is the way they’re going about it—politicizing science and browbeating scientists whose research results contradict their own conclusions. That’s no way to get at the truth, however inconvenient the proper approach may be.

Catholic Church and Pedophilia

A close friend of mine expressed an interesting observation today - Pope Benedict is visiting the United States, and all we’re hearing about is pedophilia in the Catholic Church. He was also saddened to hear a caller on a radio program say that as a result of the scandal, many Catholic Churches and schools have had to close.

Just for the record, I attended Catholic schools and churches from kindergarten through high school. I was never touched or treated inappropriately by any of the priests, nuns, or secular teachers. I never even heard of any such thing happening among my many Catholic friends, fellow students, and acquaintances. I owe my parents and the Catholic Church a great deal for what I consider to be one of the most valuable and lasting gifts I have ever received - an excellent faith-based education.

Sometimes, I think every non-Catholic in America believes that every Catholic was groped throughout his or her childhood.

I, too, am saddened to see all the good the Catholic Church has done over its many years completely eclipsed by the wrongdoings of several of its members. These individuals should be brought to justice, and I do agree that the Catholic Church has done a miserable job, especially early on, of admitting fault and righting its wrongs. But if ever there was a tragic case of “throwing the baby out with the bathwater,” this is it.

Increasing Attendance at Sunday Services

On Good Saturday (Easter eve), I attended a two hour and forty minute service with my family at St. Turibius – a Catholic Church on the Southwest side of Chicago where I grew up. Two hours and forty minutes is only an estimate. We actually left after two hours and thirty minutes. We knew it was going to be long, because the mass was to be delivered in three languages – English, Spanish, and Polish – but two hours and forty minutes?!

Frankly, I think even an hour long service is too long. When I was attending high school at St. Ignatius College Prep, we had a service in the chapel during lunch that lasted all of about 20 minutes. The Jesuit priests managed to work everything in – Bible reading, sermon, even communion – in 20 minutes, so we’d still have time to eat lunch.

Can you imagine the attendance you’d get if you advertised a 30-minute service when all of the other houses of worship in town are offering hour-long-plus services? And isn’t 30 minutes all you’d really need to get your point across?

From my experience, I estimate that 95% of the ministers and priests who sermonize on any given Sunday (or Saturday) have no business in public speaking. They fail to clearly state their thesis, and then they proceed to ramble on for 20-30 minutes telling inane stories and revealing all too obvious “insights.” They’re not engaging, entertaining, or enlightening.

Besides, Jesus was one of the (if not the) best teachers who ever lived, so why not let Jesus do the teaching? He could teach more in a five-minute parable than any of the best preachers since him can teach in their 20-30 minute ramblings. I’m sure that this holds true for other religions, as well. This isn’t a football game – we don’t need play-by-play commentary, just tell us the Bible stories – they’re pretty good, really.

I challenge religious leaders in this country to step up to the plate and down from the pulpit and let Jesus do his thing. Schedule 30-minute services and hold yourself to it. You can offer Sunday school for those who want to opt in for more coverage. Maybe this less is more approach will get more people in the U.S. to return to their churches and spend at least 30-minutes a week thinking about God. Hey, it’s worth a try!

What’s Self Publishing All About?

Hopefully, you didn’t arrive here thinking that I was going to tell you what self-publishing is all about. As the title of my post indicates, I’m asking the question. I’ve been in the publishing business for over 18 years now, but I’ve worked exclusively with traditional publishers and am completely clueless when it comes to do-it-yourself publishing.

Self-publishing is something I’ve been thinking about for quite awhile, so I decided to look into it. After all, when I write for publishers, I’m earning 10% - 15% in royalties. Why not explore the opportunity to earn in excess of 50% by doing it myself?

Most people who aren’t in the publishing biz (and some people who are) have an exaggerated notion of how much money most “authors” earn.

The percentages are often deceiving. With the books I write, I normally earn about 10% to 15% in royalties if I am the sole author (not sharing with co-authors). Unfortunately, that’s based on the wholesale price – the price the publisher charges the retailer. On a $20 book at 10%, I’m earning $20 x .5 x .10 = $1 per book. If I co-author the book, I split that amount 50/50 with my co-author, so I’m earning $.50 per book. That’s on a good day.

Most publishers I’ve worked with slash the royalty percentage in half on high-discount sales, such as sales to Amazon.com. If they sell the book at a higher than 50% to 55% discount, instead of paying a 10% royalty, they pay 5%. What a rip, but that’s how it’s done.

What’s the bottom line? Well, a couple years ago, I co-authored a fairly successful book. So far, over 40,000 copies have been sold. My take: a little over $12K. In other words, I effectively earned about 3% per copy or 1.5% if the percentage were based on the retail cost of the book ($19.99). Heck, the government earns more than that in sales tax!

In a future post, I’ll discuss how some authors use books to generate additional revenue – the real reason most of the people I work with want to get published.

I emailed two companies to find out more about self-publishing:

• Jenkins Group, Inc.: The Jenkins Group is sort of the caviar of self-publishing – a custom book packager that prides itself on producing books that have the look and feel of something produced by a leading traditional publishing company. Most clients spend $15,000 or more to produce a few thousand copies of a book.
• Author Solutions: Author Solutions offers a more affordable solution via print on demand. If you need to get a book out in a hurry or simply want to have your name in print without going through a traditional publisher, this may be the perfect solutions for you. Packages start at about $1,000.

Within an hour, I received a phone call from a sales rep at Jenkins Group, Inc. He’s the one who filled me in on the basic differences between outfits like his and those like Author Solutions. His recommendation was that if you’re looking to print and sell maybe 500 copies of a book and you don’t need something that’s super high quality, then print on demand is probably the option for you. If, on the other hand, you want a high-quality publication with a nice cover or you’re going to need in excess of 3,000 units, then a custom book publisher is probably a better choice. (The more books you can sell, the less you pay in terms of cost per book.)

I had the mistaken idea that these self-publishing companies took care of everything. You simply delivered a manuscript, and they did the rest – design, page layout, printing, binding, distributing the book to retailers, collecting the money, and then issuing you checks when your book sold tens or hundreds of thousands of copies. Unfortunately, that’s not exactly how it works.

The self-publishing company produces the book, and that’s about all. You then have to hire a distributor to get your book into the various channels where it can be sold. The distributor issues your checks… assuming, of course, people buy the book.

Tip: Before you even think of self-publishing, consider how you’re going to market the book. This is not an “If you build it, they will come” proposition. You need to have a marketing machine in place to get the word out about your book. For more about the factors that go in to making a successful book, check out my previous post “Publishing a Best Seller.”

I’m just starting to learn about this self-publishing thing and have yet to talk with someone from Author Solutions. As I learn more about it, I’ll let you know what I discover. Stay tuned.

If you’re in the self-publishing business or are self-published, please share your insights.

Foreclosure Investing For Dummies Wins Gold

I am pleased to announce that the most recent book I co-authored with Ralph R. Roberts, Foreclosure Investing For Dummies, has won the Gold Medal in the Real Estate (Buying, Investment, Management) category in Axiom’s First Business Book Awards contest:

“The Axiom Business Book Awards are intended to bring increased recognition to exemplary business books and their creators, with the understanding that business people are a very well-read and informed segment of the population, eager to learn about great new books that will inspire and inform them, and help them improve their careers and businesses.

Nearly 400 entries were received in this inaugural year of our contest; the largest categories in terms of participation were Leadership, Entrepreneurship, and Success/Motivation, in that order. The big winners among publishers are Portfolio/Penguin with 5 medals; Wiley with 4; and Free Press and Bloomberg with 3 medals apiece.”

All books are a team project, and the book could not have achieved such success without the collaborative efforts of the editors, graphics artists, production crew, and marketing mavens at Wiley Publishing. We thank them, the many real estate professionals from around the country who contributed material to the State Foreclosure Rules & Regulations appendix, and to our readers, who inspired us to create this book.

Special thanks to Ralph R. Roberts, without whom I would never have considered writing a book about foreclosure investing.

We also congratulate the other winners in our category: Silver Medal Winner Flipping Confidential: The Secrets of Renovating Property for Profit in Any Market, by Kirsten Kemp (Wiley Publishing) and Bronze Medal Recipient Lawyers Are Liars: The Truth About Protecting Our Assets! by Mark J. Kohler (Life’s Plan Publishing).

For more about investing in foreclosures and flipping houses, visit GetFlipping.com.