While it was nice to get some press taking note of the self-publishing of my book “The Rise & Stall of Kohl’s Department Stores”, there are couple points of clarification and corrections regarding this morning’s article:
1. ETR Group did own Christmas.com, but I sold it in late 2006;
2. The genesis of trying to get the book published was pretty much like this: I wrote the book in 2001-2002, tried for about 6 months to get it published (and as outlined in the book, to no avail), then put the whole thing on hold until late last year, then decided to update it and put in on this website so people could read it. I don’t recall telling the writers of the article, Doris or Kathleen, that I was “fed up”; often writers try to create an ‘edge’ or a 'controversy’ to their stories, and as a result, they end up not capturing the real genesis or dynamic of a situation. In this case, when they were interviewing me, they kept wondering why I wouldn’t go out and try to get it 'published’ now. Basically, I went through all that process in 2002, and learned that you don’t publish a book like this and make any money, and that it’s just a hassle to go to publishers and make the pitch. I would much rather just put it on this site and make it available to people, for free. It was no big deal. The book was written, why not get it out there for people to read?
3. The book is far more of a business model analysis, to be enjoyed by students of business, people in the retail industry and, of course, anyone who is familiar with the story of Kohl’s, than it is an expose. I thought that some of the highlights chosen for the bullet points in the article, while accurate, were minor. Not that I was expecting a book review a la The New York Times! Here’s a link to the article:
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=708851