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Spotlight
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 Why Read It? Two and a half billion
people worldwide, too poor and too rural to be served by traditional financial institutions, desperately need a better way to save and borrow. Jeffrey Ashe and Kyla Jagger Neilan say the answer is savings groups.
In savings groups, members put what they can in a communal pot and make loans to individual members for needs like buying food to survive the lean season before the harvest, building a business, investing in livestock, or paying school fees. Once a year the entire pot including interest on the loans is divided among the members. Unlike other poverty-alleviation options, savings groups are run entirely by their members, and news of the groups spreads by word of mouth from village to village, allowing them to reach remote areas with remarkable success. By catalyzing the problem-solving capacity of the poor, savings groups allow their members to they avoid subsidies, debt, dependency, and high costs while reducing hunger and building assets and solidarity. For media review copies, please contact Katie Sheehan. |
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Publishing News
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Investing from the Inside Out  In this issue of the Communiqué, we explore how savings groups are the new model for poverty alleviation worldwide.One of the advantages of savings groups is that all the savings and funds are generated from within the community where the need is -- not from the outside. Here are Three Ways to Fight Poverty That Actually Don't. _________________
Other News  + Harry Potter may be coming back! + At the Frankfurt Book Fair, author Paul Coelho told publishers to not "be so greedy." + Who is the well-known performing artist whose ex-wife has won an injunction to stop him from publishing a book about his childhood sex abuse? + Nothing boosts sales for your book in China quite like having your book banned. + There's a new Catholic Literary Prize. + Controversial singer Sinead O'Conner is writing a memoir and promises to "dish the dirt on everyone I've slept with." + A prominent Washington Post journalist finally goes on record and explains why he will not read self-published books. + The former principal of a school founded by Nicholas Sparks is suing the author for promoting "racism, anti-Semitism, and homophobia." + Apparently the British have decided which is the most popular childhood poem of all. + Speaking of the Washington Post, it's becoming an Amazon product. + A French organization is accusing Scribd of piracy. ______________________
Freebies  + Free Excerpt from a New York Times Bestseller: The Mockingbird Next Door, by Marja Mills. Read an excerpt here. + Free Tools: Find fifteen interactive websites that teach you how to code here. + Free Resources: You know you've always wanted a zombie font. |
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Bid on Our Stuff!
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 The Berrett-Koehler Author Coop is a nonprofit that supports authors in the BK community. Every year, the coop hosts a charity auction to raise funds to help pay for expenses for those authors who would benefit from some financial assistance in order to attend author events.The auction is now open, so get bidding! |
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Which BK Book Is This?
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The Portuguese edition of this book is titled A Fonte. In this rare situation, the foreign name is identical to the original English name (titles are usually changed or modified to appeal to a particular language demographic).
While our cover sports the "big picture," they opted for the details, which is always interesting. Of course, this is the foreign edition of one of our bestselling titles.
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Marginally Unethical Life Hacks
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Some things are ethical; some things are not. And then there are those things that help you get ahead that are technically not unethical but, well --
This time we show you How to Get Rid of All Your Spam and Junk Mail in One Go.
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Confessions of an Editorial Assistant
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 Editorial Assistant Anna Leinberger sees things here at BK -- sometimes these things are beautiful, sometimes they're ugly, and sometimes they're just plain silly. But now she's telling all.For this issue, Anna talks about Two Very Surprising Things That Publishers are Looking for in Your Book Proposal |
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On the Subject of Sharing Assets...
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Reciprocity is now possible -- for the first time -- on a massive scale. In The Reciprocity Advantage, authors Bob Johansen and Karl Ronn explain how to create what they call a reciprocity advantage. By sharing your assets intelligently with carefully chosen partners, you can learn how to make money in new ways and have a broader social impact.
You create your own reciprocity advantage by (1) recognizing the underutilized resources you already own that you can share with others; (2) finding partners who can help you do what you cannot do alone; (3) experimenting to learn through the cloud; and (4) scaling, but only when your reciprocity advantage is desirable, viable, and ownable. Reciprocity advantage will be the new competitive advantage. Think "give to grow."
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Free E-Book (for 48 Hours)
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For forty-eight hours, we are giving away e-copies of Pharmacy on a Bicycle, by Eric G. Bing and Marc J. Epstein, here.
This offer is available exclusively for BK Communiqué subscribers. But act fast! After midnight on October 17, 2014, you're going to have to plunk down $29.95 like everyone else. Go now.
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We Recommend
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 Savings groups are a huge movement slowly launching worldwide. If you want to know what is happening with savings groups worldwide and how successful they are, check in with the Savings Group Information Exchange. |
| End Notes |
  Last time, I issued this challenge. The first correct answer came in from Bill Kahnweiler -- that's a rare picture of him on the right in a good mood. The answer to the challenge can be found here. Your next challenge can be found here. Email me with any comments or rants. And on a completely unrelated note, this is why humanity is doomed. Oh, and here is your biweekly dose of random. Jeevan  P.S. -- this isn't real, is it? _________________________________________ Not very smart, but at least somewhat entertaining...
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