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We publish business fiction and other business light entertainment and educational materials for one reason - everybody told us it was a wonderful idea.
You are travelling on business. You are booking into your hotel, or eating alone in a restaurant, or in the airport, and you have nothing specific to do.
So how about some business entertainment - a good book to amuse, enthuse and inspire you?
We have a list here. Some we publish ourselves. Others we simply recommend.
Have a good trip!
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Then we came to the end, by Joshua Ferris - 2007
"It's worth saying up front that I've earned my living over the past decade by working with organizations going through massive change -- especially layoffs, acquistions, and in the first four years after 9-11, drastic restructuring in a fight for survival. Joshua Ferris' novel, "Then We Came to the End" is the most realistic rendering of a workplace under stress that I've ever read -- much more realistic than any business how-to book, and much much more realistic than any HR self-help guides. That said, it is also -- for much of its length -- hilarious.
Aside from the obvious chaos that rolling job cuts create in a workforce (things like complete standstills in productivity and wiped-out morale), Ferris also captures the reality of the subculture that forms within small companies or small teams within larger organizations."
To view extract and/or buy via Amazon.com, click here
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The Loan Samurai, by James Johnson - 2004
The Loan Samurai is a fast-paced business adventure laced with captivating insights on corporate morals.
The novel unmasks an image cultivated by skillful public relations to reveal disturbing realities behind a giant corporation.
Unbeknown to almost everyone, IntegriBank actually is permeated with corrupt executives, faulty accounting, deceit, cover-up, perverse profit motives, and massive undisclosed losses.
"THE SEDUCTION OF Sarah Stevens began innocently enough, when she stepped into the posh East River penthouse of flamboyant IntegriBank Chairman Simon Irving for the..."
To view extract and/or buy the paperback / hardback via Amazon.com, click here
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E, by Matt Beaumont - 2000
Set in a London ad agency desperate to land a coveted big account, e follows the bureaucratic bungling, cutthroat maneuvers, and outrageous sexual antics of a group of Miller-Shanks employees as they scheme, lie, lust, and claw their way up (and down) the company ladder.
Written by a former advertising copywriter, this hilarious, dead-on-target novel marks the debut of a hip and exciting new voice in contemporary fiction.
With the click of a mouse, Matt Beaumont brings the novel of letters into the twenty-first century, turning his merciless, unerring eye on today's Machiavellian corporate culture-with uproarious results.
To view extract and/or buy the paperback via Amazon.com, click here
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Syrup, by Maxx Barry - 2000
Ingenuous new marketing graduate Scat (he feels that his full name, Michael George Holloway, just won't do for a career in marketing) moves to L.A. hoping to become rich and famous.
After he gets a million-dollar idea for a new cola product, cheeky and arrogant Scat approaches a beautiful, ruthless marketing manager named 6 at Coca-Cola. The new product's name is, hilariously, a "dirty" word, spelled unconventionally and in stylish font on a black can.
But before Scat's cash cow can be milked, his roommate Sneaky Pete steals the idea, is hired by Coke, and soon holds the purse-strings for Coca-Cola's biggest marketing undertaking ever, a $140 million movie. The infuriated Scat joins forces with 6 to create their own, better movie, with a measly $10,000 budget.
With Scat's creative ideas, 6's business acumen and the help of 6's film-major roommate Tina, and Scat's actress ex-girlfriend Cindy, they set out to beat Sneaky Pete at his own game.
To view extract and/or buy via Amazon.com, click here
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Jennifer Government, by Max Barry - 2004
In the horrifying, satirical near future of Max Barry's Jennifer Government, American corporations literally rule the world.
Everyone takes his employer's name as his last name; once-autonomous nations as far-flung as Australia belong to the USA; and the National Rifle Association is not just a worldwide corporation, it's a hot, publicly traded stock.
Hack Nike, a hapless employee seeking advancement, signs a multipage contract and then reads it.
He discovers he's agreed to assassinate kids purchasing Nike's new line of athletic shoes, a stealth marketing maneuver designed to increase sales.
And the dreaded government agent Jennifer Government is after him.
To view an extract and/or buy via Amazon.com, click here
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Company, by Max Barry - 2007
With broad strokes, Barry once again satirizes corporate America in his third caustic novel (after Jennifer Government).
This time, he takes aim at the perennial corporate crime of turning people into cogs in a machine.
Recent b-school grad Stephen Jones, a fresh-faced new hire at a Seattle-based holding company called Zephyr, jumps on the fast track to success when he's immediately promoted from sales assistant to sales rep in Zephyr's training sales department. "Don't try to understand the company. Just go with it," a colleague advises when Jones is flummoxed to learn his team sells training packages to other internal Zephyr departments.
But unlike his co-workers, he won't accept ignorance of his employer's business, and his unusual display of initiative catapults him into the ranks of senior management, where he discovers the "customer-free" company's true, sinister raison d'être.
To view an extract and/or buy via Amazon.com, click here
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The Sword & The Spirit, by André Bello - 2006
For busy professionals there is finally a book that delivers a simple, understandable methodology for being a better negotiator.
THE SWORD AND THE SPIRIT, by André Bello, takes readers on an expedition to the kingdom of Cyden and it is through the travels of the clever Anthos that we learn basic negotiation skills; skills that saved this fabled kingdom, and skills, that, when learned, can provide anyone with the ability to save their own piece of the world.
Professor Lawrence Susskind for the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School writes of the book, "Bello manages to condense large swatches of the negotiation literature into just a few masterfully written pages. My hat is off to André Bello. Once you have read THE SWORD AND THE SPIRIT you will have been introduced to much of what you need to know to be a better negotiator."
To view and extract and/or buy via Amazon.com, click here
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Girl on a Bar Stool, by Tim Roux - 2007
Branding isn't real life, or is it?
When Adam Melton, the ambitious brand manager of Petrovsk Vodka went out on the town that night, he was hoping to pick up a beautiful girl and a few hints and tips from his target market, the vodka-swilling ladettes of Reading.
Meeting the sultry Yasemin at the bar in one of his favourite haunts, he got all that he was hoping for, and ominously more.
Now he has been condemned to save the world.
To view an extract and/or buy via Mud Valley, click here.
To buy via Amazon.com, click here
To view an extract and/or buy via Xlibris - USA ONLY, click here
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Ambitions end, by Mike Upton - 2006
This is a story of one man’s ambition.
Mark Watson while still a schoolboy sees his father’s business destroyed by the bombastic industrialist Sir Charles Houghton and vows to find a way to avenge his father when he grows up.
The story tells of Mark’s birth, his early years and his schooling while alongside charting the progression of his father’s business from its humble beginnings then through its growth and expansion phases until as a result of the underhand dealing of Sir Charles it stumbles into serious financial problems. An unsupportive bank’s refusal to lend more money forces the business to collapse.
"A thumping good read. A tale of revenge with well drawn characters and lots of realistic details and a satisfying end."
To view extract and/or buy via Author House, click here
To buy via Amazon.com, click here
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Wall and Mean, by Tom Bernard - 2007
George Wilhelm gets his kicks from sex, bond trading and gambling in this promising debut, which mixes those volatile elements with Tarantino-style violence. In 1993, George, a rookie Wall Street trader, is trying to make his mark in the cutthroat emerging markets funds.
If the financial jargon Bernard uses is arcane, the frenetic pace and high-stakes maneuvers still emerge clearly.
When paper success (low salary but prospects for high bonuses) goes to George's head, he ups his bets on sporting events to levels that leave him facing financial disaster.
Suddenly, he's in over his head with a pair of sadistic debt collectors, who get their best ideas from movies like Reservoir Dogs.
To buy via Amazon.com, click here
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Bank, by David Bledin - 2007
Anyone who works for an investment bank has heard the analyst horror stories.
Why anyone would sacrifice the majority of their prime years to go work "white-collar slavery" hours, is beyond the ability of most people to rationalize.
"Bank" gives you a bit more perspective into what is going through the minds of these 20-somethings as they work relentless 110+ hour weeks, sacrifice every relationship, and absorb ridiculous amounts of abuse from their superiors.
Oh -- and then there's the money. The money is good, but its interesting to note how the characters in Bank aren't as preoccupied with money as they are with simply getting through the week alive.
To view an extract and/or buy via Amazon.com, click here
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The Goal, by Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox - 2004
In this intriguing, readable business novel, which illustrates state-of-the-art economic theory, Alex Rogo is a UniCo plant manager whose factory and marriage are failing.
To revitalize the plant, he follows piecemeal advice from an elusive former college professor who teaches, for example, that reduction in the efficiency of some plant operations may make the entire operation more productive.
Alex's attempts to find the path to profitability and to engage his employeesi in the struggle involve the reader; and thankfully the authors' economic models, including a game with match sticks and bowls, are easy to understand.
Although some characters are as anonymous as the goods manufactured in the factory, others ring true. In addition, the tender story of Alex and his wife's separation and reconciliation makes a touching contrast to the rest of the book.
To view an extract and/or buy via Amazon.com, click here
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