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    The Author

    Mark Forster is the author of three books about time management and personal organisation. The most recent, Do It Tomorrow, was published by Hodder in 2006.

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    Thursday
    May292008

    Good News and Bad News

    Which would you like first? The good news or the bad news?

    The good news is that Trafalgar (a US distribution company) will be distributing Do It Tomorrow this autumn and it will feature in their next catalogue. This means that it should be available in the States very soon.

    The bad news is that the first print of How To Make Your Dreams Come True has sold out and it is not planned to reprint it. I intend to ask the publishers if they are willing to let the distribution rights revert to me so I can publish it as an e-book.

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    Reader Comments (16)

    Mark, I'm so pleased that DIT will be available in the US. I recommend it to my organizing clients often, but they seem to find ordering it from the UK challenging.

    Before you place the call to the publisher about How to Make Your Dreams Come True, be sure to check your publishing contract. At least here in the US, the issue of rights reversion is usually spelled out in the contract. It's my experience that the request has to be made in writing. Best of luck with that!

    Janine
    May 29, 2008 at 20:22 | Unregistered CommenterJanine Adams
    Hi Mark,

    I came across your blog awhile back and was intrigued by the title of your book: Do It Tomorrow. Being a collector of time management techniques, I couldn't help but buy it from Amazon.com. I also bought Forget the 7 Habits and Break All the Rules. This one caught my interest because I work for FranklinCovey and Stephen Covey is the author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

    I liked your ideas about time management. I've adapted them for use with my Franklin Planner. I'll be blogging about your book in the near future and with your permission I will promote your ideas in my upcoming workshops through Project Management Northwest. Do you have any tips from your own workshops?
    May 29, 2008 at 20:24 | Unregistered CommenterTheresa Frasch
    Hi, Janine

    Thanks for the kind words about DIT. I have had a lot of enquiries from people in the States about how best to get hold of the book, so it's really good news from my point of view.

    You are right about the contract. I can give written notice to the publishers to reprint, and if they don't signify their intention to do so within six weeks I can terminate the agreement - again in writing. But since they've already told me that they don't intend to reprint they may not require me to go through all that palaver!
    May 29, 2008 at 22:24 | Registered CommenterMark Forster
    Dear Theresa

    I'm delighted that you have found the ideas in DIT of use to you. I'll write to you about the seminars separately by email.

    Mark
    May 29, 2008 at 22:28 | Registered CommenterMark Forster
    Mark,

    I'd urge you to progress the repint of How To Make Your Dreams Come True. Having just reread it on holiday after a first read two years ago I'd forgotten just how good it is. I really enjoyed the way it is written and how it goes deeper as the book progresses. It is a very different book from your other two and one that I'd recommend to anyone. It's reminded me about Pull mode and spurrred me on to work on a cohesive narrative goal rather than my current list of discrete goals.

    Looking forward to more and regular blog and article updates.
    Regards,
    Jonathan
    June 3, 2008 at 13:50 | Unregistered CommenterJonathan
    Hi Mark,

    I'd echo Jonathan's words -- push for a reprint! *How to Make Your Dreams Come True* is in many ways my favourite of your books. I still remember reading it for the first time at university a couple of years ago, and my copy is now getting somewhat dog-eared...

    Though, if you do publish it as an e-book, I'll certainly be pointing US friends towards it. :-)

    Best,

    Ali
    June 4, 2008 at 13:44 | Unregistered CommenterAli
    Jonathan and Ali,
    Thanks for your kind remarks re "Dreams". I will be taking action on this just as soon as the publisher releases it back to me (they have agreed to do so). I will probably take the opportunity to update and revise it a bit.
    Mark
    June 7, 2008 at 13:13 | Registered CommenterMark Forster
    I'm glad to hear it's coming out in the US. Our household ordered it from the UK. My partner has started implementing some of the techniques at work & some of his coworkers have started also.

    All the best,
    Les
    June 15, 2008 at 1:41 | Unregistered CommenterLes
    Dear Les

    Thanks for the post. I would be delighted to hear of some of the experiences you all have had with the methods if you feel like writing more.

    Mark
    June 16, 2008 at 10:38 | Registered CommenterMark Forster
    Mark,
    Will the US/Amazon distribution DIT in Nov08 be the same as that available now from the UK? I am eager to read the full book, and don't want to wait until Nov to get a copy (unless the Nov08 version is significantly different)

    Many thanks.

    -- John
    July 21, 2008 at 15:42 | Unregistered CommenterJMilanski
    John:

    As far as I am aware the DIT book which Trafalgar will be distributing will be identical to the one on sale in the UK. I've not been approached for any new material, and I don't think they have any plans to produce an "americanized" edition.
    July 21, 2008 at 17:31 | Registered CommenterMark Forster
    Mark, any news on this? I'm re-reading this at the moment and am sure that many others would like to get hold of it - have you seen the second-hand prices? TIme to dig our your secret stash of kept-back copies :)

    I'm adding Goal Achievement Method updates, dialoguing and What was better about today tasks to AF as I'd love to see how this can help pull together AF and these higher-level ideas.

    "
    Jonathan and Ali,
    Thanks for your kind remarks re "Dreams". I will be taking action on this just as soon as the publisher releases it back to me (they have agreed to do so). I will probably take the opportunity to update and revise it a bit.
    Mark
    June 7, 2008 | Registered CommenterMark Forster
    "
    January 15, 2009 at 18:55 | Unregistered CommenterJonathan in London
    Jonathan:

    Well I did start to update and revise it a bit and the result was Autofocus!
    January 15, 2009 at 19:39 | Registered CommenterMark Forster
    Mark, thanks for replying. I have to say AF is looking something special, interesting to hear that it's grown out of "Dreams" rather than just being an extension of DIT to a page approach.
    January 17, 2009 at 18:32 | Unregistered CommenterJonathan in London
    Mark

    I posted a comment about this blog entry in the discussion forum but wasn't sure if it was more appropriate to post it as a reply here.

    Here's the link to the forum entry:

    http://www.markforster.net/forum/post/633332

    Basically I was curious about what you said here:

    "Jonathan:

    Well I did start to update and revise it a bit and the result was Autofocus!
    January 15, 2009 at 19:39 | Mark Forster"

    I'd love to hear more detail from you about how revisiting "Dreams" turned into Autofocus. I love the new system as it's so simple and elegant. Even though other things have got in the way a bit lately so I haven't had a great deal of time for my Autofocus list it has really helped me to regain the 'focus' I felt I had been lacking of late.

    So thanks again for such a great system and I'd love to hear more about the metamorphosis from "Dreams" to Autofocus...
    January 19, 2009 at 16:06 | Unregistered CommenterHannah
    Hannah:

    I think that would be very difficult to describe, and I'm not sure I could do so in any way which would make sense to someone else.
    January 19, 2009 at 16:10 | Registered CommenterMark Forster

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