Absolute Beginner's Guide to Winning Presentations: No Prior Public Speaking Experience Necessary! (Absolute Beginner's Guides (Que)) [Paperback]

This is one of those books that poses more questions than it answers. The biggest question being:

Whoever decided this book was appropriate for "absolute beginners"?

Because that's one of the things it certainly isn't.

Seeing that this is just one book in a series - like "XXX For Dummies" - I suspect that the title has far more to do with giving the book a uniform appearance than with the contents.

Second question - did the big name half of the writing team that produced this book (that's Jerry Weissman) bother to read the finished manuscript? The reason I ask is that the hype at the front of the book (page xi - which has the wrong page header, by the way) claims that:

"Jerry Weissman is the world's number-one corporate presentations coach"

Yet several of the anecdotes in the body of the book suggest that his "coachees" forget everything he has supposedly taught them and have to call him in again when they want to do another presentation. Good for business, perhaps, but I wasn't exactly reassured about the quality of the teaching I was likely to get from this book. And sad to say, I my expectations were fully met.

Which brings us to the third question - why was it necessary to strew the text with stories about Mr Weissman and this or that big-name company board member? Are we supposed to be so dazzled by this array of senior business people that we overlook the quality of the teaching? A little blowing of one's own trumpet is fair enough, but the seemingly continuous name-dropping in this book is so far "over the top" that it goes from being 'incredible' to being 'uncredible' - in this reviewer's opinion - long before the book is even halfway through.

Which raises the next question - why is the book so long?

In fact the main text is just over 200 pages long, but for many of those pages the text consists of far too much waffle and far too little information.

Now this is not to say that the book doesn't contain "any" accurate or useful information. It does, but nothing like enough to warrent reading through the acres of waffle that constitutes a majority of the text.

Which is why I suggest the book is in no way suitable for "absolute beginners."

It seems to me that if you are just getting started as a presenter then you want something as succinct as possible, which covers all the basic points you need to know as briefly as possible so you can get on with actually putting the information to work. What you get here is the opportunity wade through pages of "what I told The Chairman of the Board at Mega Corp. in nineteen hundred and frozen stiff," and a few useful guidelines.

If you enjoy reading about someone else's experiences - and you have the time for such luxuries - then you might enjoy this book. If you want a genuine "nut and bolts of presenting skills"-type book then I'd recommend "Successful Presentation Skills" by Andrew Bradbury. It has to be one of the best, and most comprehensive, books on the subject that I ever bought.

While other reviews are a little too critical of this book, the book sets out to deliver exactly what the title suggests. If an individual is looking for a quick introduction to constructing and delivering presentations, this book aims to please. If anything, the Appendix: Tools of the Trade, is worth a scan. Also, note the Five Cardinal Sins:
1) No clear point
2) No audience benefit
3) No clear flow
4) Too detailed
5) Too long

As someone in a tech-related field, I like how Weissman gives examples of both companies and individuals that have improved through his coaching. However, some readers many not appreciate these examples.