Customer Reviews

Typo: The Last American Typesetter or How I Made and Lost 4 Million Dollars

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The book certainly held my interest, and I enjoyed reading it. The blow-by-blow story of how an American company is crushed by industry forces (in this case, failing to adapt to low wage off-shoring competition) is compelling.

And yet, after finishing the book, the more I reflected on it, the less I liked it, and the less comfortable I felt with the author. One the plus side, he comes across as being forthright, and I give him props for baring his soul about how his company failed under his watch. Not many people would do that.

At the same time, Silverman did not seem to have much respect or empathy for his employees. He goes out of his way to make derogatory comments about their appearance or habits. The whole state of Iowa is portrayed as a grotesque backwater ... there are gratuitous digs taken against other locations ... indeed, if I recall correctly, no place away from the East Coast gets his respect. And that actually doesn't bother me much, except, that (i) I'm not sure that Silverman ever reconciles his utter failure to reach his employees with his lack of appreciation for them, and (ii) who in their right mind would buy a company in small-town Iowa and expect it to be driven by hard-charging cutting-edge types? That's not a knock on Iowa; the hard truth is that in small towns, opportunities are limited, so many ambitious, intelligent people leave, setting up a negative cycle where it's hard to start a new business because the labor pool isn't right.

Beyond that, there's a little too much of a victim mentality in the book, as if the company would have been fine if Fortuna hadn't thrown all these cataclysms into its way. And yet, the challenges the company faced were fairly prosaic: competition, unscrupulous salesmen, customers who backed out of contracts, employees who were incompetent, obstructionist, and/or resistant to change. Significant challenges to be sure, but ones that should have been expected all along.

There appears to be an element of axe-grinding in this book, which makes me treat it cautiously. That's understandable; as Silverman says, he lost his life savings, his father's life savings, and his father and friend passed away during that time.

Finally, I agree with a previous reviewer: the subtitle is misleading, as Clarinda was not the last American typesetting company, and the obfuscation of the name of Silverman's previous company is curious; it at least should have been explained.

For a book that gives you the overall plot in the title, I found this book fascinating. I was riveted to the story, the people and to the journey itself. I have read few fictional books that I cared this much about. Could this really be a business memoir?

It is indeed. It is a business memoir like no other. It's funny, even when the chips are down it still manages to be funny. The only thing I find more impressive than the humor and style with which the book was written is the unforgiving honesty about what is occurring. It is a roller coaster of emotion as you hope (like the author did) for success.

After reading Typo, I now feel like have experienced running my own company. Even ending in failure, this book inspires me even more to try my own hand at it.

This book is not about how to succeed or how to fail. It's about the nature of humanity and the nature of the Universe. Things change while they stay the same. A man stays the same as the world around him changes, and he is lost. A business stays the same as the industry changes, and it is lost. This book will make you question your assumptions and even your principles, not because they are inherently wrong but because they are not always right... they can be left behind in the wake of global trends. In this book you will see foolish heros and heroic fools, and nobody is ever perfect.

And then when you get to the end, and you think you've got this hard, miserable world figured out, you will hear a story of redemption, a whispered hint of what it could mean to believe in something that never changes.

It's rare to find a true business tale that reads like a novel AND is insightful without being preachy. The story is riveting and gives insight to the nuts and bolts of taking over a company that most investors and even many managers are oblivious to. I don't see how a happy ending could have ever been possible for this story but David Silverman bares his soul with wit and grace.

If you're thinking of starting or buying a company or partnering with or lending money to someone who is, you should read this book.

Only the first word of the title is accurate --- much of this book is a mistake, but Clarinda was not ``the last American typesetter'' (there are a number still in business), and a lot of the ``facts'' in the book are mistaken (or made up). Quark XPress cannot automatically hang punctuation (there was one plug-in which enabled this, by a German company, but the plug-in went away before being released because the API it needed, while present in v3, went away in v4), it is possible to directly compose pages from XML (or SGML), LaTeX is a TeX macro package, not a descendent or derivative of TeX, &c.

The author exhibits a reprehensible lack of respect for others, violating a number of personal confidences, the exposures of which do nothing for the book or the reader (most egregiously, I don't see how a detailed recounting of his business partner's sex life is germane). This lack of respect even extends to the reader --- while a number of company and product names are changed in the book, no note of that is made in the frontmatter as is customary, nor does the author make any mention of this in his list of errata. (For the curious, DataData was really InnoData, SuperLeaf was really InterLeaf and I believe FUN coding is XML, but there's not enough context for me to tell.) There's also no index.

The typesetting of the book is quite pedestrian, rife with errors such as bad breaks, orphans, widows and stacks (as well as the numerous grammatical errors and misspellings noted on the author's errata page).

Most painful of all is the knowledge that many others in the industry overcame the same difficulties which bankrupted the author's company --- succeeding by working harder and smarter and finding new business instead of hiding in their private office playing computer games --- but their story won't be told because they're all too busy working and meeting their commitments, too honest and decent to run away and make up stories as the author of this book did.

This book was outstanding.

Most "business books" focus on high finance, venture capital, or big company leadership or experiences. Yet most of the economy is small and medium businesses such as the one David describes. A New York jew attempting to convince Iowan grandmothers to revolutionize their business or be outsourced is laughable in one sense, but the core of American business innovation in the other.

His descriptions of what it is like to fire grandmothers, to attempt to empower people who have no interest in stepping up, and his senior partner and mentor's downward personal spiral get to the heart of business. These are the enormous challenges in the heart of the economy that has never seen an MBA and yet is vital to towns like Clarinda.

Even though he invested and lost his life savings, he made the right decision. He was just overwhelmed by strategic forces that swamped the industry.

What an original and soul baring book Mr. Silverman has written. Anyone in business for themselves or thinking of entrepreneurial dreams should read this book! Even if you don't envision yourself as an entrepreneur, this book will give you some insight into what your business owner is thinking and going through.

Are people always who they seem to be? How hard-nosed can customers be? How difficult will the workload be when I'm on my own? How can I compete with outsourcing? Can I change a culture mindset? All these questions and many more are discussed in a hilarious, entertaining and sometimes saddening way. Life isn't always easy on your own!

Congratulations to David Silverman on being willing to risk everything to pursue the American Dream and (no spoiler, the title gives it away) even though it ended in failure for the company I think anyone who reads this book will be richer because of his experiences. My guess is David will be back doing something on his own at some point in the near future. I wouldn't be surprised if he takes Typo and turns it into a cottage industry much like Covey has done with Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.

Reading Typo is a lot like watching a disaster movie. You see the oncoming train, you hear the oncoming train, and the narrator doesn't know he's tied to the train tracks.

There's no possibility of rescue, and you can't look away.

The charts at the beginning of each chapter, which showed the rise and (mostly) fall of revenue and the author's net worth, were particularly amusing.

The business narrative of an industry that needs to change and can't is also fascinating.

Typo does a superb job of relating the trials related to taking over an existing business and attempting to reform its operations. Within the context of David Silverman's personal narrative, you get to experience all of the confusion, anxiety and heart ache of trying to keep a business afloat under the pressures of outsourcing and managerial strife. As a former business student and someone who has been involved with various start up companies, similar in many ways to the Clarinda typesetting company at the heart of this story, I strongly recommend that anyone who is interested in entrepreneurship or business management read this book. You can step away with valuable lessons without having to go through the unfortunate consequences that come from first hand experience.

If you enjoy exercises in frustration, TYPO is the perfect book for you! I'm not sure who is more infuriating to follow, the employees who don't get it or the big boss who believes in molly-coddling the staff or the junior big boss who retreats to his office to play computer games rather than learning the business.

Here's a tip for future small business owners, free of charge. If you buy a business that is hemmoraging red ink, don't lollygag your way through the days holding a small band-aid and quietly asking if anyone wants your help. Take immediate, drastic action including learning the business better than any and all of your employees, firing insubordinate staffers by the end of the first month and knowing what your customers expect before shooting your mouth off in a business meeting.

And yes, the author is exceptionally snotty about everything west of New York. Unfortunately for him, he turns out to be all hat and no cattle so his holier than thou attitude is perplexing.

Dreadfully sorry for all his misfortune, but he played a tremendous part in his own downfall.