I started Twittering on April 5, 2008. What started out as a 30-day experiment, has now turned into part of my daily life. I have written about 12 Reasons to Start Twittering. I even created A Beginner’s Guide to Twitter.

So far, I have more than 1,600 people following me, but I only follow about 180. (Some people, for reasons I can’t fathom, think that they must follow everyone who follows them. I do well to keep up with the people I am following.)

Several years ago, one of my colleagues walked out of his office and collapsed on the floor in front of me. I had no idea what was wrong. Several people rushed to the scene, but all we could do was call 911 and wait for an ambulance to arrive. It was a terrible, helpless feeling. As it turned out, he had pneumonia.

Based on this—and a few other similar experiences—we created a “First Responders†program at our company about a year ago. We wanted to provide selected employees with the knowledge and skills necessary to act in an emergency situation. The role of our First Responders is “to sustain life, reduce pain, and minimize the consequences of an injury or sudden illness until more advanced medical help can arrive.â€

A few months ago, we began an experiment. We offered a free book to anyone who agreed to post a 200-word review on their blog. We started with The Faith of Barack Obama by Stephen Mansfield. We had almost 200 people request books and almost 70% of them posted book reviews.

We were so pleased with the results, we decided to do it again. We offered Through the Storm by Lynne Spears. However, this time we required bloggers to post their review on Amazon in addition to their own site. We had slightly fewer requests and reviews, but we were still pleased with the results. Almost all the reviews were positive.

Often, decision-making in corporations crawls along at a snail’s pace. Or so it seems. But occasionally, when the right idea surfaces at the right time, things can move quickly.

On Thursday, October 16, at 4:30 p.m. Gabe Wicks, the VP in charge of our Design and Multimedia Group, sent me an email. He challenged our dress code policy, saying

The old model of leadership is all about having the answers. According to the theory, you get to the top by being able to answer the tough questions and come up with compelling answers—usually on your feet.

But I am noticing that that a new model of leadership is taking root in many organizations, including our own here at Thomas Nelson. In this model, the leader’s primary role is to initiate conversations that bring out the best thinking of the tribe and direct those conversations toward a positive outcome.

Last week we published Through the Storm by Lynne Spears, mother of Britney and Jamie Lynn. The book appeared in the Amazon top 100 bestsellers for most of last week.

As part of the launch, Lynne appeared on The Today Show, Entertainment Tonight, The Rachael Ray Show, ShowBiz Tonight, and Inside Edition.

Women of Faith is a conference designed specifically for women. It is owned by Thomas Nelson. We do about 30 of these events a year in cities all across America.

When I tell people about these conferences for the first time, they usually envision small church meetings with maybe a couple of thousand women. The reality is that these conferences are held in large sports arenas in major metropolitan areas. The average attendance is 13,000-plus. They are as polished and professional as any large performance event you have ever attended.

It takes years to build a brand. Unfortunately, there aren’t many shortcuts. You build a brand—like a reputation—one impression at a time. Every encounter with a customer results in either a “deposit†or a “withdrawal†in your “brand account.â€

Twenty years ago, if a customer had a bad experience with your company, it didn’t matter quite as much. Sure they could tell their friends, and if enough people had bad experiences, they could tell their friends. Eventually, it would catch up with you. But it didn’t happen overnight.

In many of his books, Andy Andrews talks about the butterfly effect, a theory put forward in a doctoral thesis by Edward Lorenz, a mathematician and meteorologist.

In short the butterfly effect states that a butterfly can flap its wings on one side of the world and set in motion molecules of air that in turn set in motion other molecules of air and eventually create a hurricane on the other side of the world.

A couple of weeks ago, I made an offer to bloggers. I told them that we would send them a free copy of The Faith of Barack Obama by Stephen Mansfield in exchange for their agreement to write a 200-word review of the book.

I did not require that the reviews be positive. My thinking is that any publicity would helpful, even if it is negative. Interestingly, nearly all of the reviews have been positive.

Today is the official pub date for The Faith of Barack Obama by Stephen Mansfield. I am very excited about its publication. Of all the books about Obama that have been or will be published, this is the only one I know of that deals exclusively with his faith.

Two years ago, virtually no one outside of the state of Illinois had heard of him. Today, he is a household name, not only in America but around the world. Millions find him to be an inspirational and articulate leader—just what we need at this moment in history. Others find him calculating and dangerous—the same old liberalism in a different package.

The only problem was that we didn’t have much money. Our competitors had seemingly every advantage, including piles of working capital (or so we thought). All we had was a dream and our ability to respond quickly.

The Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) just announced that our Word of Promise audio bible won the “Book of the Year†award for 2008. Wayne Hastings, Senior Vice President and Group Publisher for our Bible & Reference Group, accepted the award at the Christian Book Awards, held in Orlando, Florida, at the International Christian Retail Show (ICRS).

The amazing thing is that it is the first time in the 30-year history of the award that it went to a non-book. Think about it. First, it’s an audio Bible, rather than a traditional print book. Second, it’s a Bible rather than a book. This is fascinating. What does it mean for the future of publishing?

Usually, Publishers Weekly (or “PW,†as industry insiders call it) gets it right. Through the years, they have been very good to Thomas Nelson and to me. But today, I think they missed the boat. In “The PW Morning Report,†they said:

It’s been more than a year since I updated our list of the Top Ten Publishers in America. Because of some changes in the available point-of-sale data, we were not able to get create a reliable ranking. However, we have seen an improvement in recent months. It’s not perfect, but we do believe it represents the best data currently available.

These lists are based on revenues for the twelve months ending March 31, 2008. We created these lists from a proprietary database we have assembled at Thomas Nelson. It is based on various point-of-sale systems from multiple sales channels.

Today, Christian Retailing ran a story about Thomas Nelson pulling out of the International Christian Retail Show (i.e., “ICRS,†the show formerly known as “CBAâ€). The article was entitled, “Thomas Nelson: ICRS Pull Out.†Unfortunately, it is not available online, so I can't link to it.

For the most part, CR got the story right. However, there are two items I’d like to correct. Both of them are near the end of the article. The first item is a simple omission.   A few weeks ago, in response to our decision not to attend ICRS, CBA issued a press release. The last paragraph said,

During this time, I have learned a good deal about blogging. I’m sure I still have a long way to go, but I thought I would summarize what I have learned so far:

In late December of 2007, I issued the 2008 Half Marathon Challenge. An amazing 135 of our employees participated in the event and participated. It was my second half marathon, and I enjoyed it even more than last year.

Last week, Lindsey Nobles, my Director of Corporate Communications, invited everyone who finished to write about their experience. Like last year, we were overwhelmed. It seemed that the majority of runners wanted to share their experience. As a result, I have included them below in full. (They are listed alphabetically by last name.) I found them truly inspiring.

One week ago today, I was running the Country Music Half Marathon. It was an incredible experience. I enjoyed this year’s race even more than last year’s—which is saying a lot.

Amazingly, some 32,000 people participated in either the race. According to various media reports, another 32,000 or so spectators attended. Regardless, it was a sea of people. Unless you run these types of races, you can’t imagine the energy.

My post, Too Many Books, Too Few Shelves, raised a lot of great questions about how we determine what we publish at Thomas Nelson. Therefore, I would like to address a persistent issue that was raised in the comments section of that post.

Let me say at the outset that I appreciate the robust dialog. It is very helpful to me, and I hope to other readers. Not only does it help me to clarify my position, but it may actually help shape my position. My thinking is not static, and neither is our strategy. It is a “work in progress.â€

If we can’t stop the presses, we should at least slow them down. U.S. publishers produced almost 300,000 new titles last year, a number that Sara Nelson of Publishers Weekly referred to as “a ridiculous number.â€

With bookstore sales rising a modest 3.6% in the last five years, we have more and more books competing for what amounts to the same exact shelf space. Clearly, something is wrong.

I hesitated about blogging on this. But it’s kind of the “elephant†in the room. I think I owe it to you, my readers, to blog about the good things as well as the difficult.

As you may have read in Publishers Weekly or the Tennessean, yesterday we laid off slightly less than 10% of our workforce. This was not an easy decision. It fact, it would not be an exaggeration to say this was one of the most difficult decisions of my tenure Thomas Nelson.

Last Saturday, April 12, I spoke to Christian Retailers at our inaugural Open House event. It was video-taped, and you can watch it here if you are interested.

Because the file was so large, I had to upload it as five separate videos. The total length is 40 minutes or so. However, if you click on the link above, it will play all five videos as a YouTube “playlist,†with each video playing one after the other.

Today, we announced that we will no longer be participating in the two major trade shows in our industry: Book Expo America (BEA) or the International Christian Retail Show (ICRS). As I said in our press release, we have been discussing this move for some time. In fact, it’s a conversation we have had every year since I have been at Nelson (ten years).

But the current economic downturn is forcing us to re-evaluate every marketing dollar we spend. This is not the reason for our shift in strategy, but it is the catalyst. The reality is that these trade shows provide very little return to us on a hugely significant investment.

On January 4th, I set a goal of enrolling 158 of our employees in one of two half marathon races this spring. This represents roughly 25% of our workforce.

I knew this was a big goal and, frankly, it was a little daunting. However, I am happy to report that we now have 160 employees registered. In addition, we have 32 spouses, and 14 authors or agents registered for a total of 206 people. Wow.

A little over a month ago, I issued the The 2008 Half Marathon Challenge. I invited our employees, spouses, authors and agents to run either the The Big-D Texas Marathon & Half Marathon in Dallas on April 6 or The Country Music Marathon & Half Marathon in Nashville on April 26. So far, we have 102 employees signed up. My goal is 158.

In various meetings last week, several people told me they were “on the fence.†This post is a shameless attempt to get you off the fence and sign-up! Here are seven reasons why you need to do so:

The Little Blue Book Series

Our company has a long and fascinating history. The story begins in Scotland with the birth of Thomas Neilson (sic) in 1780. Though his parents were farmers, he developed an interest in printing, the most high-tech industry of the 18th century. As a result, his parents sent him to London to become an apprentice in a print shop on Paternoster Row, which was kind of the Silicon Valley of the Day.

In 1798, at the tender age of 18, Neilson started a second-hand bookstore in Edinburgh, Scotland. The store was located at 7 West Bow Street. The store did quite well, but in the early 1800s, he decided to branch out. He began to realize there was a market for inexpensive editions of public domain books. So, in 1818, he began reprinting the classics. He also legally changed the spelling of his name to “Nelson.â€

Sometimes people just need a nudge from a friend to get with the program. This is particularly true with exercise.

Last week, Suzanne Thompson, our Nashville-based half marathon team leader, sent out an email to some employees. Lisa Stilwell, our Senior Editor for Gift Books, was one of the recipients. Yesterday, Suzanne received this response from Lisa:

Last year, I ran the Country Music Half Marathon. About 65 of my Thomas Nelson colleagues ran with me. It was my first half marathon, and it was an awesome experience. I think that most of my colleagues would agree.

Well, I want to do it again this year. Between our Nashville office and our Dallas office, I want to see 158 people run or walk the race. That would represent 25% of our workforce of 630. The Country Music Marathon & Half Marathon is scheduled in Nashville for April 26. The Big-D Texas Marathon & Half Marathon is scheduled in Dallas for April 6.

Since I wrote my initial post last night, Amazon’s Kindle page has gone live. If you don’t do anything else, go to the page and watch the basic intro video. (If you scroll down, you’ll see a larger version of the intro video.) It looks even more interesting than I thought. It has certainly come a long way since I first saw the device 18 months ago.

As of today, Thomas Nelson has 668 titles available for Kindle download. Bob Edington, our VP of Internet Sales, tells me that many, many more are on their way. (Evidently, Amazon is trying to catch up with the backlog.) Just to put this into perspective, Zondervan, the second largest publisher in our space, has 53 titles. Tyndale, the third largest publisher in our space, has 57.

I have worked at Thomas Nelson for almost ten years. The most books we’ve ever had on the New York Times bestsellers list at one time is three. That was more than two years ago.

Yesterday, we were notified by the Times that we will have five books on the October 21, 2007 list. This is a new record for our company. These include:

We just announced today that the quarter ending September 30 was the largest in our 209-year history. Net revenues were up 10% for the quarter and 10% for the first six months of its fiscal year. (Our fiscal year runs from April 1 to March 31.) EBITDA was up 10% for the quarter and 18% fiscal year-to-date.

Our publishing segment has been especially sucessful this year. It was up 12% for the six months ending September 30. I believe this is the direct result of our One Company initiative. This initiative has afforded us the focus we needed to create products that are relevant to consumers.

I spoke at Book Expo America last week in New York. In case you are not in the publishing business, this is our largest U.S. trade show. I spoke on the topic of “Customer Focused Publishing: How Thomas Nelson Moved Away from Imprints and Closer to Customer Wants.â€

(If you are a member of Publisher’s Lunch, you can click here to watch my presentation on video. I have also asked the BEA organizer to upload it on YouTube.com, but I have not received a response. Also, the video does not show my slides. If you want to see those, click here (12.7 MB) to download a PDF of my slides. I created them in Apple Keynote, but the PDF will enable you to view them on any platform. If you want to view the two video clips I showed, you can view them here and here.)

My assignment was to justify why we eliminated our twenty-one separate imprints and are now focusing on the Thomas Nelson brand. In the eyes of some, this action amounted to heresy, since imprints are such a staple of traditional publishing.

Book publishers are notorious for not doing consumer research. I am not sure exactly why, but it seems they want to decide what is best for the market. Early in my publishing career, I got my first taste of this.

In my second job out of college, I became a Marketing Director for a medium-size publishing house. I had been in the job less than 90 days when I suddenly realized that no one seemed to know which marketing vehicles really affected consumer buying behavior. For example, at the time, I couldn’t tell you what was more effective—a magazine advertisement, a “shelf-talker,†or an author appearance on television.