Steve Jobs stepped down as the CEO of Apple on Aug. 24, 2011, and if you read the news on Twitter first, then you also saw the millions of tweets thanking him and feeling sad at the news of his departure. Think about that for a minute: we, the people, were thanking the CEO of a company for making us better.

Most of us don’t even know the CEOs of companies, but we know Steve Jobs. We know him because he was always on our side. His decisions about design, beauty and elegance were not about technology; they were about us.

Apple makes great products, but I was not always a Mac fan. Actually, until 2007, I was a PC user. I just assumed that Macs were for those creative types, the artists and graphic designers and photographers and movie makers. I am a publicist and a small business owner. I figured I could do with a PC.

Our family’s love affair started with the iPod, of course. John, my husband and our home and company CIO, had bought several MP3 players and told our tween girls that they were the same as an iPod, just a lot cheaper. Of course, that was not going over well, so we bought them iPods. Those were the first Apple products in our home.

Upon seeing the elegance of the design, both John and I got iPods, as well. Then John bought a Mac Mini for the home to test it out in June 2007. We thought our girls would enjoy the music, photo and movie programs. Not only did they enjoy them, but we loved them, as well.

In fall 2007, John then bought himself a MacBook Pro, and for our daughter’s 13th birthday we got her a MacBook (we owe our current Mac devotion to her love of Apple products). After seeing John’s laptop, I, of course, had Mac envy and wanted a MacBook Pro for myself.

Now our home was almost totally powered by Mac computers, and we were loving them. The programs and templates allowed me to do my best work. The laptops were effortless. Gone were the days of my laptops overheating (yes I am talking to you, HP) or freezing for no reason (that’s you, Microsoft). I could already feel that this laptop was about me. It just worked.

In our Web design department at FSB (our firm), we moved to Macs in the office. Now the Macs had started moving into the office, as well. We were switching our website development to Dreamweaver and did not want to buy the expensive program for PC, so in came the Macs. They were, of course, a big hit.

In the meantime, one of our publicists’ computer crashed from a virus (remember the blue screen of death?). By this point, John was frustrated by how much tech support was needed by the PCs and decided to get her a Mac Mini. This required our company to change our software needs, which were PC based, so we developed an awesome database that was Web-based. Now we were platform-agnostic and could work from anywhere. Fabulous!

By 2008 the entire FSB office was converted to Macs. Everyone loved them and felt that they were so much easier to work with. None of us was thinking about how to work with our computer. We were just doing our work, and the Macs were just working. It was all about us.

Then there is the classic story of getting our first iPhones. John really wanted one, but I figured a phone is a phone, and I did not care. But he convinced me that it would be a great anniversary present for each other. I rolled my eyes but went along with it. So on our wedding anniversary, we were standing in line at a Mac store waiting to buy our iPhones. I rolled my eyes and told him he owed me. Then we got the iPhones, and 24 hours later I was converted and was found saying, “You can take my iPhone from my cold, dead fingers.”

There was no turning back. We were Mac devotees. Yesterday I started to count how many Apple products we own, and I lost the count at 30. Our home and our office are completely powered by Apple products, and we could not be happier.

As a small business and a tech-savvy family, our Apple products have made our lives better. We do our best work on our Apple hardware and software. The Macs in the office, including the server, have saved us money and hours of frustration in tech support.

Like millions of others whose lives have been made better by your products, we, as a family and a business, thank you, Steve Jobs, for improving our family life, saving us money in our small business and giving us the tools to do our best work. We all wish you the best of health and continued success.

Spinning the Law: Trying Cases in the Court of Public Opinion by Kendall Coffey

High-profile courtroom dramas fascinate our nation, especially when they concern the rich and famous. And while the American public has come to realize that the spin factor is a prime ingredient in political tactics and marketing campaigns, many are unaware of the strategies for shaping public opinion when it comes to major courtroom battles.

This behind-the-scenes analysis of media strategies presents intriguing and often entertaining insights into what they do not teach in law schools or journalism classes. As the lead counsel in some of the country’s most notable cases and a savvy legal commentator with hundreds of television appearances, author Kendall Coffey brings a distinctive combination of depth as a legal practitioner and experience as a media analyst to this illuminating, provocative, and practical book.

He begins with a historic election fraud trial, relying on his personal experience with the basics of law spin. He then masterfully guides the reader through an abbreviated, engrossing tour of spinning cases through the ages — including the trials of Socrates and Joan of Arc, as well as the Charles Lindbergh kidnapping case. Modern cases include the author’s firsthand experiences in the international Elian Gonzalez controversy — and his thoughts on the possible overwhelming effect that that controversy had on Florida in the 2000 presidential election between Gore and Bush.

Coffey also examines the most famous cases of recent times — those of Michael Jackson, Kobe Bryant, Martha Stewart, Scott Peterson, and former governor “Rod” Blagojevich.

Along the way, Coffey exposes many of the myths associated with the law, debunking assumptions about legal concepts ranging from circumstantial evidence and cooperating witnesses to so-called prosecutors’ vendettas.

Coffey’s many entertaining examples and engaging explanations make this book ideal reading for everyone fascinated by celebrity legal problems: all of us who make up the court of public opinion.

Spinning the Law from Prometheus Books is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Think: Straight Talk for Women to Stay Smart in a Dumbed-Down World by Lisa Bloom

Girlfriends, what is happening to us? Lisa Bloom asks.

In Think, Bloom reveals the stark paradoxes that American girls and women are living today, including:

• We are excelling in education at every level but are likewise obsessing over celebrity lifestyles and tabloid media, leaving many of us unable to name a single branch of government — but nearly all of us can name at least one Kardashian.
• We are outperforming our male counterparts in employment in urban areas for the first time in history, yet spending more time and money on our appearances, including electing life-endangering plastic surgery in record-breaking numbers.

In a culture that continually rewards beauty over brains, it’s no wonder that straight-A high school girls believe “it’s more important to be hot than smart” as they giggle into television cameras that they don’t know how many sides a triangle has, nor in which country Mexico City is located.

All of these factors have left Bloom wondering: How did we get from the Equal Pay Act and Title IX to celebutainment and Botox, and — more importantly – what can we do about it?

Bloom offers the solution, and it involves one simple word: THINK.

In this provocative, entertaining, and thoroughly researched book, Bloom illuminates specific steps to reclaiming our brains, regaining focus, and taking charge of our lives. As a working mom who appreciates the value of time, Bloom first revels how rethinking some common but outdated practices can give us more time to breathe and engage our minds. Next, Bloom details how to use these newfound hours more meaningfully by turning away from reality shows and toward compelling and substantive news sites, magazines and books (reading list included), reconnecting with our communities, and becoming more thoughtful and proactive contributors to local, national, and global causes.

Packed with thought-provoking, revelatory points that will get your gray matter growing again, Think is delivered in a no-nonsense, straight-talk manner that will make you laugh, squirm, and question yourself — and most importantly — make you start thinking again.

Think from Vanguard Press is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Revealing the high-stakes drama behind the scenes of the hit television show American Idol comes a new book by veteran journalist Richard Rushfield, American Idol: The Untold Story.  On the heels of the book’s release, American Idol: The Untold Story has been creating quite a buzz in the media and we’re proud to have it featured on cnn.com, Can a reboot save ‘American Idol?’, villagevoice.com, American Idol Dish about Kara vs. Ellen, and collegecandy.com, The Top 10 American Idol Scandals.  American Idol: The Untold Story from Hyperion is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Simplicity isn’t about what you give up. It’s about what you gain.  That’s the focus behind Tsh Oxenreider’s book Organized Simplicity featuring simple outlines to organize your home and bring balance to your life.  Read her article, Learning value of stuff by moving overseas, on cnn.com for a lesson in cutting the clutter.  Organized Simplicity from Betterway Home is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Naked Fitness by Andrea Metcalf is not about working out in the nude.  It’s about stripping away all the clutter that stops you from getting your wonderful, beautiful body into the best shape possible.  And what better time to start building a new you than the new year?  We’re planning on seeing many start their plans after reading this article, Are You An Emotional Overeater? on mamapedia.com.  Naked Fitness from Vanguard Press is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

From the world’s leading authority on mind-body healing comes a revolutionary process for accessing the power of your true inner voice-the voice of wisdom, intuition, and the unconscious.  Dr. Brian Alman calls this voice TruSage in his book The Voice: Overcome Negative Self-Talk and Discover Your Inner Wisdom.  The author shares three steps on dealing with any physical or emotional challenge in an article, How to Find Your Inner Voice, on beliefnet.com.  The Voice: Overcome Negative Self-Talk and Discover Your Inner Wisdom from Vanguard Press is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Drowning in Oil by Loren Steffy is the first in-depth examination of how a lack of corporate responsibility and government oversight led to the April 20, 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion; the biggest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.  An in-depth review on seattlepi.com of the Houston Chronicle business reporter’s book will help readers discern the important issues this book presents from those in the general media that float on the surface.  Drowning in Oil: BP and the Reckless Pursuit of Profit from Vanguard Press is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

The weather may be cold outside, but book buzz surrounding our projects has been heating up the office. The publicists here are hard at work vying for precious exposure at a time when everyone is scampering for attention during the holiday shopping season. Perseverance has paid off, though, in the form of solid placements that have caught the attention of web viewers everywhere. Below you’ll find a sample of some of our recent favorite placements.

The Network is Your Customer by David Rogers

On The Huffington Post consultant and author David Rogers borrows from his book, The Network Is Your Customer, to share “Five Strategies for Business Growth in a World of Customer Networks.” This article represents important social media trends that are poised for greater action in 2011.  The Network is Your Customer from Yale University Press is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Now Build A Great Business! by Mark Thompson and Brian Tracy

Mark Thompson and Brian Tracy, the business dynamic-duo behind the book Now, Build A Great Business!, speak to a young generation of entrepreneurs with advice on team building in the article, “Being A Great Leader Means Not Doing It Alone,” on Under30CEO.com.  Now Build A Great Business! from AMACOM is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Cooking For Isaiah by Silvana Nardone

Those with celiac or on a gluten-free diet can shed worries over a lack of variety when they see the kind of spread author Silvana Nardone has to offer in her cookbook Cooking For Isaiah. Silvana Nardone and friends share an extravagant wheat-free feast while demonstrating what’s possible with a little kitchen ingenuity in the article, “Gluten-Free Potluck Dinner,” on ivillage.com.  Cooking For Isaiah from Reader’s Digest is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

The Nighttime Novelist by Joseph Bates

In The Nighttime Novelist, author Joseph Bates takes the labor out of writing for aspiring novelists by breaking fiction into small easily digestible sections and making the most out of daily time constraints. An article on suite101.com does an equal job by effectively outlining the contents of Joseph Bates’ book in, “The Nighttime Novelist is a Succinct Guide for Part Time Writers.”  The Nighttime Novelist from Writers Digest is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

ZooBorns by Andrew Bleiman and Chris Eastland

Authors Andrew Bleiman and Chris Eastland, who have compiled a high-resolution collection of irresistible photos of newborn animals in their book ZooBorns, share the joy of nature’s precious creatures on pawnation.com in the article “Zoo Babies From Around the World.”  This book is sure to be a hit for the holiday season.  ZooBorns from Simon & Schuster is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

John Lennon: Life is What Happens by John M. Borack

John Lennon’s monumental contribution to music and society is easily seen through the  wealth of attention the late Beatles member received this month surrounding the anniversary of his death on December 8th. For John Borack’s book, John Lennon: Life is What Happens, we created a slideshow presentation that eventually was chosen as a feature slide presentation by Slideshare.net on their “Books” page.

While we were able to secure coverage on multiple websites for John Borack’s tribute book, the article “Bros Before Hos: Lessons From John Lennon” on AskMen.com stands out for its connotation of equality. Despite his superstar status and advocacy for peace and freedom, John Lennon was not pardoned from the bitter laws of romantic relationships.  And that makes him closer to us all.  John Lennon: Life Is What Happens from Krause Publications is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Dead Or Alive by Tom Clancy

The FSB Associates Web Site Development team continues to create and maintain a wide variety of Web sites for authors and publishers. One recent project that we’re particularly proud of is Tom Clancy’s website, www.tomclancy.com, which features excerpts from past titles such as The Hunt For Red October and a video book trailer for his newest novel in almost a decade, Dead Or Alive.  Dead Or Alive from Penguin Group is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Here are to 10 quick links to help you on your Web PR journey. Hope you find them helpful.

1. Alltop (top stories and blogs by every topic imaginable)

All Top

2. PR Daily from Ragan’s. They have a great newsletter:

PR Daily

3. I think you have seen this: FSB’s blogger directory

FSB Media

4. HARO

Help a Reporter Out

Nice video explaining the service and blogger outreach: MyRagantv.com

5. Top Newspapers by Twitter followers

Journalistics.com

6. Top Newspapers on Facebook

Journalistics.com

7. Top Newspapers by traffic

Journalistics.com

8. How to pitch bloggers

Journalistics.com

9. How to add blogger outreach to your PR plan

Mashable.com

10. A comprehensive list of holidays and observances (helpful in pitching books to editors). Sometimes a small, silly holiday can make a quick blog post for someone:

Holiday List

by Ken Ishii

As we wrap up our giant list of August projects, the team at FSB realizes summer’s heat wasn’t limited to just the outdoors. We now have a moment to breathe and reflect on campaigns that really hit the mark and boosted the visibility of our authors.

We had the incredible honor of working with some fantastic trendsetters and thought leaders recently. FSB took command of an intense rally of updates as Rebecca Costa was instrumental in weaving breaking news with content from her book, The Watchman’s Rattle. Kristan Higgins’ RITA award gave us plenty to blast the social media lines with. Carmine Gallo whose number two ranked book on Amazon Japan is back for an encore with Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs. We paused to laugh up the hilarious creative content by John Stewart The Daily Show’s comics Kristen Schaal and Rich Blomquist celebrating their title, The Sexy Book of Sexy Sex. Throughout each campaign we kept close ties with our authors and their books which allowed us to find parallels between projects that could one day become pathways for client collaboration enabling each to pool communities and generate a greater buzz for all.

Digital is today’s standard. It’s no surprise that major news outlets have acted on their predictions about web popularity by shifting emphasis from traditional print to multimedia-rich Internet content. What is a welcome eye-opener is the rapid uptake of digital media by subscribers around the world. Online media is rapidly becoming the go-to choice for consuming current events. FSB took things a step further by delivering news such as Peter Miller’s features on CNN and The Washington Post, Silvana Nardone on ABC’s Good Morning America, and Rachel Simmons’ The New York Times story to the public through social media channels like Facebook and Twitter. Actively putting our authors front and center online saved readers from seeking stories themselves and guaranteed visibility for our authors. In the end, the resulting correlation between strong media placements and soaring Amazon sales ranks turned out to be no accident. Powerful campaigns and author participation turned profits every time.

Our fall lineup is shaping up to be an interesting one comprised of books spanning numerous categories both fiction and non-fiction. We’ve got our work cut out as Amazon’s ebook sales topping paper book announcement adds Kindle tracking to our trend watch and while social media usage continues to climb at record-breaking speeds. There’s no shortage of items on FSB President, Fauzia Burke’s plate this season either. Recently Fauzia has taken on the role of social media ambassador offering expert online network consultation to New York City’s premier book publishers. Additionally, Fauzia’s newly created Squidoo lens and Ezine article submissions have fortified her presence on the web in ways that can benefit our future clients.

Without a doubt, this summer offered us plenty of opportunities to learn and grow as a web influencer in an arena where many have yet to find their bearings. Our ability to keep up with the shape-shifting web publicity industry is something we are quite proud of and we’d pat ourselves on the back, but occasionally an author like Judith J. Wurtman, PhD of The Serotonin Power Diet will beat us to it with a warm note of appreciation. In the end, that’s what it’s all about.