Typo

the last American typesetter or how I lost 4 million dollars

David Silverman

Top Business Book of 2007 and Best Entrepreneurial Book of 2007 (strategy + business)


'This is a wonderfully wry and amusing account of trying to succeed in a business you don't understand … He may have lost his money, but he has written a very funny and informative book.'

Bruce Elder (Sydney Morning Herald)

'Typo, a memoir about buying a typesetting company ... is amusing, appalling, infuriating and wonderfully written.'

Todd G. Buchhholz (The Wall Street Journal)

'It is refreshing for an entrepreneur to give an inside peek at a business flop, rather than one more nostrum on how to get rich quick.'

(BusinessWeek)

Two months before David Silverman’s 32nd birthday, he visited the Charles Schwab branch in the basement of the World Trade Center to wire his father’s life savings towards the purchase of the Clarinda Typesetting company in Clarinda, Iowa.

Typo tells the true story of the Clarinda company’s last rise and fall — and with it one entrepreneur’s story of what it means to take on, run, and ultimately lose an entire life’s work.

This is more than a story of a business failure, or an insight into the collapse of part of an industry. It is a poignant, cautionary tale of an American dream run aground, told with wry, self-deprecating humor and insight. A business book of the year in the United States, Typo is for anyone who wants to run his or her own business, or to succeed in a corporation, without being stranded by the reality of shifting markets, outsourcing and, ultimately, capitalism itself.

'Following this wry character on his turbulent journey may well discourage many prospective entrepreneurs, but it is one of the most entertaining disaster stories that you will ever read.'

Tim Roberts (Media Culture)

'His beautifully written memoir avoids no detail about the realities of managing people, the natural conflict between capitalism and humanism, and, in his case, the business consequences of a young owner's naivete. His poignant memoir brings the "global" issue of globalisation to an all-too-human level.'

Tom Ehrenfeld, former editor at Harvard Business Review and Inc. Magazine

'Silverman is a good writer with a funny, self-deprecating tone, and his cautionary tale evolves into something more than a predictable rise-and-fall business tell-all.'

(Time Out New York)

'I can’t believe I just read a business book and enjoyed it.'

(Time Out Chicago)

'This is what we would try to teach our MBA students — but we lack Mr. Silverman's sense of humor and timing.'

Professor Robert Bloomfield, Cornell University Johnson School of Management's Director of Graduate Studies

'What really makes this book is the often entertaining picture it paints of the tribulations of trying to run a business … It is no wonder that at least one business school is making it mandatory reading for anyone considering starting their own business.'

(The Independent on Sunday)

David Silverman

In the past, David Silverman has, in reverse chronological order, been an executive in IT risk, done standup comedy dressed as a Mexican wrestler, been co-owner and president of the largest American-owned typesetting and editorial services company, sold and managed 'offshore' keyboarding services in the Philippines and India, designed electronic publishing systems in England, fixed computers for the US government, written computer manuals for IBM, run his own floppy disk repair business, taught writing to Koreans, worked in a deli, and sold handmade 'puff people' craft objects at Catskill resorts. David has lived in London, Baltimore, Prague and New Jersey, and currently resides in New York City.

Website: http://agman.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6&Itemid=

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Format: Pb
Extent: 368pp
Size: 234mm x 153mm
ISBN (13): 9781921215988
RRP: $35.00
Pub date: June 2008

Rights held:

ANZ, South Africa, Singapore, Malaysia