October Appeal

The Author/Speaker Alliance

"Local authors and entrdepreneurs as valued speakers"

A Special Message from Managing Director Paul McNeese

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Hello, and welcome.

I'm Paul McNeese, founder and managing director of The Author/Speaker Alliance. We are a new web-based referral service for local authors and small business owners. Soon, the program chairpersons of literally thousands of speaker venues in the Greater Phoenix area will be able to find exciting, informative, appropriate speakers - like you - for their meetings and events. They will have - literally at their fingertips - details about authors and entrepreneurs who have valuable information to share with their members and guests at meetings of their social or fraternal club or society, service organization, church, school or college, or senior center.

As you probably know, we've been planning this service since the middle of last year, and we began actively contacting venues and developing the resources we'd need to implement the Author/Speaker Alliance back in January, at which time we hoped we'd be fully ready to "go live" in June.

Well, it didn't happen, for a couple of reasons. First, the task of making direct telephone contact with the more than 2,300 speaking venues in in the Phoenix market took a good deal longer than we originally thought it would. In fact, we're still doing some follow-up and still disovering additional groups that need and want speakers -- and that doesn't count any of the more than 6,000 businesses we eventually intend to include in our database. But we're working on it -- every day.

Our second disappointment was that after we had gotten well underway with our web site development, the original developer changed the rules, which meant, in effect, that we had to start over -- so we did. We now have a new web developer, and we're ready to move forward again. But here's where it gets difficult.

Until now, my little author services business, OPA Author Services, has been funding almost everything we do. Truth is, that can't continue, but I'm totally committed to this project. So I had an idea a couple of months ago, and it involves YOU -- and your commitment to yourself and to the growth of YOUR literary or entrepreneurial career.

At the very beginning of all this, I decided not to try to capitalize this service with outside or borrowed money. So I appealed to the more than 300 authors and businesspeople who had expressed an interest in membership over the prior half-year or so, and some of you came through for us when we said, “We need your help. We need your trust. We need you to be willing to make a small investment -- on your own behalf -- in a service that can bring you income through paid exposure as a professional speaker in markets that otherwise you probably wouldn't have access to, places and audiences that will help to create new sales for the book or books you've written or hope to write or new clients for the business that you're building.

We then told them that “We need to raise the money it will take -- first to pay the new web development company - which is somewhat more expensive than the original provider -- and second, to complete and continue the venue contact program that will let all the organizations that might offer you speaking opportunities know where to look for you on the Internet.”

Well, that appeal brought us enough money in membership fees to permit us to complete the venue contact program that's at the heart of the service, but we still have a significant expense to handle as we develop the web site that will announce you to the world.

Elsewhere on this preliminary website, and in our published brochure, you can review all of the features and benefits of our program, so I'm not going to tell you about them again, but I think that when you survey what we're up to you will definitely want to be a part of it.

But of course the key question is: "Would you be willing to pay now for a service you won't actually begin to receive for several months yet?"

That's exactly what we are asking you to do. We'd like you to join us in a special category of membership called a Founding Charter Member. Make a $120 investment in your first year's memberhsip, and thus make it possible for us to finish what we have so enthusiastically begun. If we can reach our financial goal we can have the service up and running at the very beginning of 2008.

About that $120 - what makes it a worthwhile investment for you?

First, you will enjoy a year's membership -- that won't begin, by the way, until we actually “go live” with the program. Second, you'll also get all of the benefits that Preferred Membership offers, including your own web page and the $60 saving off the regular $180 membership dues . . . and that higher, regular dues schedule will go into effect the minute the site is activated. Thirdly, as a Founding Charter Member, your annual membership renewal, for as long as you continuously remain a member, will be guaranteed not to exceed $120 -- ever. People who join us after we “go live” will not only pay the full membership price, but they'll also be subject to price increases in the future as we deliver more and more services. And, from the very beginning, they won't get any of the "extra" benefits built into your Founding Charter membership. Those benefits, such as the personal web page, will be offered, but at additional cost to them.

Well, that's the deal. Are you Interested? Just go to the special Founding Charter Member signup page -- there's a link at the bottom of this page. Complete an application and arrange for secure payment with a credit card or through PayPal, and that's all there is to it.

When we receive you application, we will acknowledge it immediately, handle it promptly, and you will soon receive a "proof" copy of your entry just as it will appear in our database. Once the final website "goes live," you'll be invited to choose a membership ID and a unique password that only you will know, and then you'll be able to make changes in, additions to or deletions from your profile, your category listings, and your web page - which means that your information will always be accurate and up-to-date - and fully under your control.

We believe that the Author/Speaker Alliance is a unique and particularly valuable idea, and we hope you agree that it can help you build your career as an author or a solo entrepreneur by putting you in front of people who will really care about what you have to say, audiences who will want to read your book or use your products or services.

Well, thanks for your attention. We look forward to welcoming you as a Founding Charter Member of the Phoenix Author/Speaker Alliance.

Go to Founding Charter Member Sign-Up Form

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