Our Handbook Makes Forbes "Best"!

This blog post contains some unexpected and exciting news about The Toy and Game Inventor's Handbook. Richard C.Levy and I always hoped that the Handbook, when originally released by Penguin/Random House as a How-To or Self-Help book, would be acclaimed as a compendium of topics important to novice inventors with dreams of creating breakout toys and to anyone active in the toy industry. Now available on Amazon in it's 3rd edition as an e-book, our hopes have been confirmed by an unexpected source. The Handbook has been selected as #2 on Forbes List of Best Books recommended by 2016 Shark Tank Entrepreneurs.

Forbes List link: http://www.forbes.com/pictures/eglg45hljgh/the-toy-and-game-invento/#7bf1a48a6194


Forbes asked those Shark Tank entrepreneurs to recommend some good reads about business and the key takeaways. An example of strong support for the Handbook came from Mark and Lisa Burginger, founders of Qubits Toy, Inc. The Buringer's said, "Two toy industry veterans offer an authoritative guide to toy and game licensing, providing everything an inventor needs to know about bringing a concept to market. This book is chock-full of real world examples. inspires by example and teaches you to trust yourself and your instincts. One of many important tips is to remain a kid at heart and never give up and never grow up."

Those of you that have downloaded the Handbook already, thanks. If you have an idea for the next hot toy or game, this book is a blueprint for that possible leap to the market.. Or if you're just looking for a good book to read, the Handbook contains some fascinating and charming history of the toys and games that were a part of all our lives.

What is Inventortainment?

"Life's a Pitch"!! That's the title of Chapter 7 in The Toy and Game Inventor's Handbook (Inventors Handbook) where we advise readers on "how to" license ideas to toy industry marketers. Inventors hope that their idea is the next mega-hit and marketers hope for the next WOW! product that will leap off toy aisle shelves or through Amazon screens. When inventor meets marketer to show a new idea, it's "pitch time", but oh my, how the modus operandi in toy world today has changed.

At one time, the traditional inventor new idea pitch was done across a table in a face-to-face meeting. Inventors would come to a company's offices or the company would send emissaries to the inventor's place of business. A hands-on demo was de rigueur. But with the emergence of new media techniques and with detached global licensing participants often viewing a pitch, digital demos are more common. Skype, Face Time, video conferencing, or a private channel YouTube video all make the inventor-marketer contact impersonal. What was once a very confidential and private pitch has become widely disclosed on screens everywhere.

Add to this paradigm shift in new product pitch time the broad, public screen exposure of concepts on Shark Tank, Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and the like. In fact, a You Tube pitch often gets archived to become a basic form of consumer promotion when the product is marketed. Check out Swingy Thing Pitch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HE1_R2vWVaA

Yet the inventor's goal remains the same; to secure a license or financial backing that gets the idea to market. Today, the pitch has become, in some cases, a form of entertainment for a wide populous of viewers. Pitch time has become show time. The inventor and idea are on center stage providing a unique form of inventortainment to an influential audience that can make or break the future of the new idea. Today, we can add inventortainment to toy industry jargon.