Worst Ideas might be your best idea

By Daniel B. Kline

Sitting in my car the other day in front of a grocery store, I was about to turn off my radio and head inside, when Howard Stern began talking about me. More directly, he started talking about my book, Worst Ideas Ever.

As a long-time Stern listener, it was fairly stunning to hear him simply start talking about a book I had labored over for the best part of a year. Here I was sitting in my crummy Saturn Ion about to buy whatever ingredients I needed to make dinner and the King of All Media, for at least a minute or two, had at least some knowledge of my existence.

Now, of course, before my ego gets too large, I should mention that Stern started his talk-up of Worst Ideas Ever by getting my name wrong. His inexact quote was, “I just got handed this book, Worst Ideas Ever by David B. Kline and Jason Tomaszewski.”

Amazingly, he got Tomaszewski entirely correct, but missed Daniel. Still, he could call me Elizabeth Q. Jones and it would not lessen my amazement at hearing the most successful radio host ever read chapter headings from a book I wrote and appear to find them amusing.

The Howard Stern Show mention was followed up by an interview with Lisa G. from Stern's news team and was met with more friends congratulating me on Facebook then I've ever had notice anything I do before. The Stern mention, however, exemplifies the odd life of being a mostly unknown, published author.

Most days, I appear on the radio somewhere at least once, if not more times. For example, the other day, I did a morning show appearance for 15 minutes or so on the big talk station in Atlanta. Were you to listen to that appearance, you might think that I was, in fact, famous because I had both had a book published and was on the radio.

Sadly, you'd be mistaken as as hard as it is to get a publisher to release your book (and, wow, it's hard) it's much harder to get anyone to actually buy your book. So, while I might be mentioned by radio giants and will most likely appear on a radio station near you, I am only mildly more famous than someone who does not have a book and does not appear on radio shows.

In most cases, I would want to sell book in order to achieve more wealth and fame. And, while more of both of those would be great, in this case, I really just want people to read the book. It's funny. It's a conversation starter and, there are some bad ideas in there that you won't believe actually happened.

Consider this a naked plea for you to go to Amazon.com or your local bookstore (who can order it if they don't stock it) and buy yourself a copy of Worst Ideas Ever by Daniel B. Kline and Jason Tomaszewski. Better yet, buy one for everyone you know.

If you hate it, I'll send you a refund myself.

Daniel B. Kline's work appears in over 100 papers weekly. He can be reached at dan@notastep.com or you can see his archive at dbkline.com. You can listen to his podcast or buy his book, Worst Ideas Ever, at Worstideasever.com.