I'd love for you to read the rest of the book (several chapters are already online for free). I'd be interested in seeing how you feel about it after doing so.

I'd love for you to read the rest of the book (several chapters are already online for free). I'd be interested in seeing how you feel about it after doing so. We've worked with a number of small organizations in helping them find their stories and tell them. Largely, what we've come back to is similar to what you're stating here: there are very few immutable rules. You just have to figure out what you're doing, try things out, and make the best choices you can. The challenge for the marketer (or writer in this case) is to try to find patterns and distill meaning from them. The truth is, marketing--and business success--is hard to pin down, or repeat. Nevertheless, owners of small companies often seem to think (erroneously) that the big guys have it all worked out, and that it's easy for them. What I worked to do with this book, was outline a set of good, solid suggestions, peppered with anecdotes relating to those who seem to have been successful, as well as those efforts that haven't. It's imperfect, but I believe there are useful suggestions in there; it's up to the reader to determine what might work for them. For the record, I like the strategy: "Work hard, even if you don't see any immediate payoff, and get a little lucky." The tough part is that there are a number of other questions that such a suggestion won't help answer. At those times, we have to dig deeper and get into the more gray areas. It's harder to make clear and irrefutable statements about those, but no less important to try to find some plausible arguments.