Since I got my very first book deal with John Wiley & Sons a few months ago, I’ve had professionals ask me how I did it. It’s not surprising that several of my colleagues are interested in writing books themselves, and that some of them have already written substantial portions of them in anticipation of landing their own publishing deals.

When I landed my contract, I had no idea how my experience compared with the normal experience of seeking out a publisher. But I promised my colleauges I’d write about my experience. In conjunction with that, I did some research to see how others typically get their publishing contracts. So this is the first installment in a series that discusses the process I went through to land my deal and get my book on bookshelves in Spring 2008.

Patrick over at Badger Blogger printed this and it just cracked me up. This is the fine, upstanding citizen Michael McGee Jr. (“The Alderman”) after a John Doe hearing on April 19. The judge advised him that he was not to speak about the proceedings, and here’s what he told his baby-mamma/girlfriend/mistress about it:

Last night the Crazy Eddie story was shown on Business Nation, in a short but interesting segment. The show featured a showdown between Eddie Antar and Sam Antar, cousins who perpetrated a massive corporate fraud for years.

When asked if he has forgiven himself for the crimes, Sam says he will never forgive himself. He hurt too many people.

Eddie and Sam went at each other, talking over each other and telling one another to be quiet and not interrupt. I get the distinct impression that Eddie bossed Sam around a lot when they worked together in Crazy Eddie. But Sam is a different man now, and won’t be told what to do by Eddie or anyone else.

The story also talked about Sam’s life now. Sam is an expert in real estate, but also has skills in the area of forensic accounting. Sam is taking on companies like Overstock.com and challenging their numbers and the integrity of the executives.

On the other hand, Eddie looks rather defeated. He spent 7 years in prison after a couple of years on the run. He looks frail. He looks like he has no fight left in him, no motivation, and no desire for anything. I could be completely wrong, but he looks like a shell of a man with no heart and no purpose.

Here’s the promotional video for the story. See if you can’t catch a rerun of the program.

I got a mention this week on a blog called The Race to the Bottom:

A consistently anti-Sarbanes-Oxley site is The FRAUDFiles Blog. Last week, for example, the blog noted a study discussing the changes in boards as a result of SOX and the increase in D&O insurance costs. As the Blog concluded: “Clearly there is a one significant cost of SOX noted here – an increase in the D&O premiums.”.

I tried to like Sarbanes-Oxley. I promise I did.

This afternoon the Wall Street Journal ran a short piece entitled: “Probe Into Usana Officials Ends With Settlement.” Lots of people apparently got excited at this headline, and interpreted it as complete vindication for Usana Health Sciences.

Alas, nothing could be further from the truth. The SEC is still looking into the company.

This article deals with the fact that Usana’s CEO Gilbert Fuller and the board of directors “audit committee financial expert” Jerry McClaim both called themselves CPAs when they were not.

The truth is that Gil and Jerry both admitted to breaking the law, as shown in these “Cease and Desist Stipulation and Order” Documents. Gil Fuller’s specifically says:

• Between 1996 and June 2007 Respondent represented himself as being a certified public accountant in the State of Utah on a number of annual reports and proxy statements for USANA, for which Respondent was Chief Financial Officer.
• Respondent’s license to practice as a certified public accountant in the State of Utah expircd in 1986.
• Respondent admits that Respondent’s conduct described above is unlawful conduct as defined in Utah Code Ann. 58- 1-50 1 (l)(a), and that said conduct provides a basis for the Division to issue an Order restraining Respondent from representing himself as a certified public
  accountant in the State of Utah pursuant to Utah Code Ann. 5 58-1 -40 l(4).

And Jerry McClain’s says:

The Securities and Exchange Commission is being asked to take another look at the cost of complying with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. This section deals with internal controls in public companies, and a major criticism of SOX is the enormous cost of compliance.Proposed Accounting Standard No. 5 would decrease the costs of compliance, as compared to Accounting Standard No. 2, the current standard. CFO.com says:

The costs will decrease because companies “will be able to focus on the areas that present the greatest risk of material misstatements in the financials” and their managers will be able to exert judgment concerning which part of their compliance efforts to stress.

Some critics complain that the costs are purported to be lower, but no proof has been offered.

How about this trip down memory lane? In 2003, the SEC estimated the total annual cost of implementing Section 404 at $1.24 billion. That was $91,000 per company. Critics of these numbers said the actual cost was probably 100 times higher.

The Business Journal had a great feature on Kelly and Jeff Fitzsimmons. Kelly is a well-known Milwaukee entrepreneur, and this venture seems a bit of a change from computer security. Their idea is an “American Idol” type of website for joke-telling. The site is Comic Wonder, and their money-making proposition revolves around selling advertising.

Users of Comic Wonder record audio of jokes, and other users vote for the best jokes and best joke-tellers. The site will feature a variety of weekly and monthly contests.

Kelly was the founder of Sun Tzu Security, which was eventually sold to Neohapsis in Chicago. She was the CEO of Neohapsis for a few years, and sold her equity in the company in October. Jeff’s background involves writing books and writing for television shows. His book, “The Art of the Bonsai Potato” has sold over 200,000 copies.

Comic Wonder is Jeff’s idea, dating back to 2000. The site has been developed under Jeff and Kelly’s company, Area 444, and more online products are in the works.

Kelly and Jeff invested $250,000 of their own money to get this site off the ground, and have been working it full-time since December. The site had its official roll-out late last week.

The Texas Attorney General doesn’t want to talk about why his office hasn’t taken legal action against multi-level marketing company Mannatech. His office was informed on October 5 by the Department of State Health Services that Mannatech is a threat to public health and safety.

Mannatech was recently featured on ABC’s news program 20/20. The program highlighted the bogus health claims made by representatives pushing Mannatech’s “Ambrotose” product, which is nothing more than a sugar pill.

According to the DSHS memo:

DSHS believes that these persons will continue to violate Texas law as described in the enclosed memorandum unless enjoined from doing so and that such continued operations pose a threat to the public health and safety.

The memo further states that the Mannatech website was:

Sam Antar says the following about his crimes: “What I did was pure evil. I am going to probably fry in hell for many years before I get upstairs. We were nothing but cold hearted and soulless criminals. We were two bit thugs.”

Sam and his cousin Crazy Eddie Antar were partners in crime for many years with the Crazy Eddie company. Eddie was once the darling of Wall Street. Then the false financial statements got in the way. The Antar family cashed out almost $100 million in stock…

Maybe the craziest part about the fraud was that at one point, Eddie was seen as a hero to consumers. He was seen as someone will to buck the system and ignore fair trade laws to give consumers lower prices. The truth was that those low, low prices were merely part of Eddie’s bait and switch. Get the customer in with an advertised price, and switch them to a different products with a higher margin (they called them house brands) and sell an inflated warranty. Then if the customer paid cash for an item, the sale was not reported and the sales tax was kept by the Antars.

The case of the pants lost by the drycleaners and the ensuing $54 million lawsuit has been decided. District of Columbia Superior Court Judge Judith Bartnoff ruled that Custom Cleaners did not violate the Consumer Protection Act with its “Satisfaction Guaranteed” sign.

Administrative law judge Roy L. Pearson accused the business of fraud under the Consumer Protection Act when they lost his pants and gave him a pair that was not his.

A two-day trial was heard earlier this month, the judge has just ruled. The judge has awarded Pearson no damages, and he has been ordered to pay the costs of the defendants, Soo Chung, Jin Nam Chung and Ki Y. Chung.