I'm often asked "do I really need to believe in my product to sell it effectively". In general, I think the answer is yes unless you are an unbelievable salesperson, but as I entrepreneur the answer is yes, yes, yes. You absolutely MUST believe in your product with such passion that it comes through in your voice when you talk about it. At Cambridge University Press, I certainly believed in the product/service - namely that we produced an aesthetic, well edited book, that more importantly came from a Press that was good enough for Universities to effect a promotion. On the other points I wasn't too sure - was the marketing department good enough to sell the largest number of copies? Were we ever going to publish a paperback? etc. But I believed enough to be a convincing acquisitions editor with 45 new titles in my last year at the Press.
At Versaware, however, although I was not an owner, I took real ownership in the company and passionately believed in what we were doing. Versaware was one of the first companies to come up with the idea of a digital book, and a digital library. While there were a number of companies that came shortly on our heels, they focused mostly on novels while we were interested in Textbooks and Reference Books. We believed that digital books were most useful when searching for information, and what we brought to the table was twofold - giving the end user, namely the researcher, a way to more easily find information, and giving the content owner another way to monetize what they had already invested in. When I was interviewed by the N.Y Times (see article here: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D02E2D81039F931A35750C0A9669C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=3) I was so excited (and not only because I was being interviewed by the NYTimes) that the reporter asked me sort of cynically "so you actually believe in this digital book revolution?" I still do! And whenever I think of the demise of Versaware, I become slightly teary eyed - because I really thought we could do something good for us and for the world.
At Versaware, however, although I was not an owner, I took real ownership in the company and passionately believed in what we were doing. Versaware was one of the first companies to come up with the idea of a digital book, and a digital library. While there were a number of companies that came shortly on our heels, they focused mostly on novels while we were interested in Textbooks and Reference Books. We believed that digital books were most useful when searching for information, and what we brought to the table was twofold - giving the end user, namely the researcher, a way to more easily find information, and giving the content owner another way to monetize what they had already invested in. When I was interviewed by the N.Y Times (see article here: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D02E2D81039F931A35750C0A9669C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=3) I was so excited (and not only because I was being interviewed by the NYTimes) that the reporter asked me sort of cynically "so you actually believe in this digital book revolution?" I still do! And whenever I think of the demise of Versaware, I become slightly teary eyed - because I really thought we could do something good for us and for the world.
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