Book Review: The Ultimate Presentation Roadmap

Title: The Ultimate Presentation Roadmap 

Author: Kelli Y. Stonework

Publisher: KYS Solutions 

Publisher's web site: www.KYSSolutions.com

ISBN: 978-1981920181

Date: 2017

Quote: "I’m on a mission to provide tools to help business professionals learn How to Write for the Right Audience and Present with Confidence."

Fair disclosure: This book was recommended to me, specifically, by a writers' network. As regular readers know, I write different types of book reviews. There's a long form, like the reviews I've done for Singapore Unbound, that's polished and revised and aimed at people who consider themselves "literary." (Those cost money.) There's a short form, like the reviews I've posted on Amazon, that's aimed at people who think half a computer screen is enough for a review of a book they're considering buying. (Those cost enough Amazon book purchases to keep me in their system. You have to buy $50 worth of books, these days, with a credit card not a giftcard, to get your review of one friend's new book to show.) There's a Goodreads form, which is generally terse, not necessarily quite as terse as the Amazon review, but costs only one copy of one book per review. Then there's the blog form, which is free as long as I have the book, and is supposed to be bloggy--typically generated from notes typed during the second (or a later) reading of the book. Apparently some of the writers in the network thought a recent review that I admitted was "ranty" had rambled too far, especially in view of how short the book itself is. (That would be the book that's meant to stimulate lots of lively discussions, yes.) Although The Ultimate Presentation Roadmap is addressed primarily to people making short sales presentations, yes! The network did include a writer who'd made some comments on the subject of focus that are also applicable to blog posts!

Right. I think I got the message. That's the introduction. Now, what are you likely to get out of this book?

1. You'll get some tips on how to focus on your audience. That's not necessarily possible for a web site like this one, whose reason for existing is a small group of people now in their teens and twenties, whose comments have come mostly from a different group now between ages 55 and 80, and whose steadiest readers over the years have been in a country with which I'm not sure I'm supposed to be on speaking terms now. It will be much easier if your audience is a small group of business managers to whom you're marketing a product or service, or students you're teaching about the plural forms of nouns in English, or fans to whom you're reading poems. Focus on the audience is the key to taking the focus off your own feelings and not being paralyzed by stage fright.

2. You'll get some tips on how to gather lots of information, shape it around an outline, and trim it down to fit the space available. You probably learned this stuff in high school, but you might not have been thinking about it if you were asked to do a business presentation. (Or a blog post.)

3. You'll get a surprising but potentially useful tip on handling questions. Not all public speaking situations allow people to use this tip. (Blogging certainly doesn't, unless you take questions from random readers who are likely to ask unusable questions like "What really went on between your divorced neighbors?" or "Do you pad your underwear?"). When approaching a situation where Stonework's tip can be used, you will probably agree that it opens up some fantastic possibilities for making your presentation brilliantly precise. This is the part that was not covered even in a college level speech course, the reason why even people who got A's in their college speech courses should read the book.

You don't have to take my word for this one. Everyone who's reviewed it on Amazon gave The Ultimate Presentation Roadmap full points. Its average rating is five stars. It's available in paperback, Kindle, or audiobook format, and in this case there's something to be said for Amazon's featuring the audiobook version since listening to the professional reader (Tracey Rooney) may provide some nonverbal cues on "tone of voice." 

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