On March 22, 2011 we posted this announcement to our blog about Restaurant Owners Uncorked being mentioned in a blog post by Colleen DeBaise, the former Small Business Editor of The Wall Street Journal.

Here’s a copy of the emails that Colleen and I exchanged after I had sent her a copy of the book and asked her to review it.

What Colleen wrote to me…
“Hi Will – I took a look at the book. Lots of nice interviews in there. In fact, the one strike against the book (in my opinion) is the inclusion of Schedulefly into so many of the profiles. I understand you are using the book to market your service, but the promotional element takes away from the credibility of the interviews.Other than that, it’s a useful book with good information.”

(What I was thinking…Oh no! She thinks it’s an “advertorial”! Dern it! I cut tons of references to Schedulefly to make sure it didn’t seem that way…but I think the few references are mostly in the first half of the book. Did she only read a few chapters and give up on it because of that? She must have because the majority of chapters don’t mention Schedulefly. Man, this is not good!!!)

What I wrote to her…
“Thanks Colleen. I really appreciate you taking the time to check it out and send me feedback. I had cut most owners’ references to Schedulefly for fear of it turning into an advertorial (I think only 8 or 9 of 20 chapters mention us). Unfortunately, I think the references are front-end loaded in the first half of the book. Thanks again, Wil”

(What I was thinking…Oh well, we’ve lost her. Not the end of the world – it doesn’t matter if the WSJ never mentions our book – what we really need is for all of the restaurant publications to mention it. But, still, that sucks on a personal level because I really like the WSJ and was stoked that I got Colleen’s attention to read ROU. Really wish she liked it. Damn!”)

What she wrote back to me…
“Hi Will – Glad you understand my concerns. I did think there were a lot of nice stories in your book, and I mentioned it in a blog post: http://blogs.wsj.com/in-charge/2011/03/21/how-to-open-a-restaurant/. Best of luck!”

(What I was thinking: YEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

What I wrote back to her…
“Thanks Colleen! I really appreciate that and I believe wholeheartedly the book will help people who want to start restaurants and don’t think they already know everything and would normally be smart enough to try to go find lots of restaurateurs to speak to as part their planning process. We’ve also already received comments from existing owners who’ve said they have learned a thing or two.”

So there you have it. That’s how we got mentioned in The Wall Street Journal.

(And for what it’s worth, nobody else that reviewed the book felt there were too many Schedulefly references. I was very careful to only include ones that were part of a bigger point the owner was making or when the owner was discussing various technologies their restaurant uses to run their business more effectively. Just sayin…)

Wil