Here on my desk, I keep a dozen or so small books around the inspiration (and sometimes therapy): the Tao Te Ching, the collected works of Emerson and Thoreau, the books of William Zinsser. Yesterday I picked up a new one, and you should pick it up too. 

I love it when one of my clients makes good, especially when that client happens to be a close personal friend. Today was a very good day. My friend Emily Varan took the stand in one of Florida's biggest criminal court cases - the "Deltona Massacre".  

Many years ago, before writing became my full-time job, my daily wages came from the tech life. I scribbled stories and articles and little favors for friends at night, while my daytime hours were spent with code, hardware and UNIX commands.  

I understand your apprehension. I really do. Hiring an independent writer - or programmer, or graphic designer, or anyone else - can at first seem to be a scary enterprise. There's a bunch of us out there, and no one wants to make a bad decision. Both time and money are at stake. It's totally understandable that you want to guard against every contingency of being burned. 

I try to make it a policy to keep politics and religion - areas in which I, like most of us, have strong opinion - out of my professional life, including this blog. But the recent talk about press negativity in Iraq just cries out for some points to be made. 

Over the last couple of years, I've slowly become more and more obsessed with the dream of doing everything digitally. Not really the "paperless environment", per se - I still use a manual typewriter for some projects - but with so many electronic toys available these days, it's criminal not to exploit them to the fullest.  

Like that of the traditional sales letter, the death of the formal press release has been greatly exaggerated. Well-written and well-managed releases still work. Bad ones never did. Problem is, the vast majority of press releases sent out today range from the simply ineffective to the horrible examples of incompetence.. many with follow-throughs the stuff of media nightmare.

Here's a quick primer on the proper care and feeding of a solid press release. 

It's like the game of musical chairs - there's never enough chairs for everyone, and the whole game is about making sure that you're not stuck standing when the music stops. In the business world, I call it "The Search For Stupids" - and if you're playing it, you've probably already lost.  

Generally speaking, small businesses seek out creative professionals - writers, graphic designers, etc. - only when they're in a state of transition, either expanding (empire building) or contracting (circling the wagons). Plans are underway; the enemies are at the gate; the time for bold decision has come. They need new marketing either to exploit a success or to head off a failure.  

Abraham Lincoln once said, "Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing." That quotation comes to mind as I read Fortune Magazine's just-released list of "America's Most Admired Companies."

Are you focused on your reputation, or your character?