GIVING TPi PRODUCTS A CHANCE

Before I got into books I was labeled that "chess stamps" guy. After I got into books the reviewers kept harping on that "chess stamps" thing as if I had never read a book in my life. The weirder thing is I received manuscripts from one author who claimed to have almost no chess books, none by Batsford, and his manuscript was completed full of needless mistakes, and this guy was rated over 2400. Apparently reading about chess and writing about it were BOTH foreign to him. His books did well! When he learned more, and read more, he started writing total crap. That was an interesting reverse!

After Thinkers' Press became better known than any other chess publisher in America it seemed I had finally arrived. Just the other day I got a call from a promoter in Las Vegas and he said, "Oh yeah Bob, every body in chess knows you." News to me. I haven't heard from these "everybodies."

Then in 2008 or so I started into the area of DVDs and was pretty much universally ignored though I sold some. It's now 2011 and this past week I have sold quite a few DVDs with the prospects increasing in Europe (hopefully). Fortunately, I have a great tendency to ignore people who to my mind KNOW nothing and prove it frequently. I guess if you keep bad mouthing me you can hope I will go away but the facts are quite the opposite, usually it is the bad mouther, not the mouthee, who disappears. That kind of marketing tactic to drive people away from one company and toward another (yours?) is a 2-edged sword. You better have some good reasons, but even then, getting them to stick with a fickle public isn't easy.

In fact, I have a couple ideas for some great DVDs but like everything, "in due time." When was the last DVD you saw that had a NEW idea that was good? (Or, even an idea?)

bob@thinkerspressinc.com