Just got a quick email from our editor at Free Press (Simon & Schuster), who sent along this excerpt from an internal marketing report:

“Cameron Johnson and You Call the Shots are a hit in the blogosphere. Not only did he post a series of great entries on ConsumerismCommentary.com this month [note: see our post on 2-9--JDM], but he is also doing a Q&A for another financial blog: KateSpillstheBeans.com. Kate has already posted a wonderful review of Cameron’s book, and mentions that it even inspired her to start her own business!”

At the end of her note she mentioned another late-breaking great review of our book on the financial blog “Money and Investing.”

Hard to believe it’s been almost ten days since I last posted an entry here. (Bad blogger, no donut!) Much going on behind the scenes . . . but alas, not in a form I can report on just yet. New and major media projects by Cameron, new books by me, a new web site feature–all coming soon, promise.

Meanwhile, I’ve been listening in idle moments to William Dufris’s reading in the You Call the Shots audiobook. At first, it was a strange experience to hear these words that I’d written and Cameron had lived, and have the voice be neither mine nor Cameron’s. But once I got past that, I discovered to my delight that Dufris does a superb job.

I’ve always had a special affinity for Maine-born raconteurs; in part that’s because I love hearing sermons by my Maine friend, Episcopal minister John Ineson, and in part because I love hearing Stephen King and John Irving both read their own stuff. But mostly I just love that delicious, down-to-earth semi-nasal Maine twang. And all the years of London training have not sandpapered the Maine out of Dufris’ delivery–thank heavens!

I’m listening to mine on my iPod in its MP3 version, available through iTunes for $15.95. If you’re the listen-in-the-car type, you’ll find the exact same reading on CD; the 7-CD set lists for $34.99 but can be had at Amazon for about $23.

It’s too early to give any details, but I have two brand new books that are now officially in the production pipeline and working their way towards publication.

The first–sixteen years in the making!–is a compilation of my writings on leadership and network marketing. Published by Networking Times Press, this book will be publically announced in the March/April issue of Networking Times, with a link to a very cool new site and a special audio-file preview.

The second is something altogether different: a book on international affairs and the challenge of bridging the Christian-West/Muslim-East divide. This book was an absolutely fascinating odyssey to write, and is being published by HarperSanFrancisco, the people who brought us Amazing Grace and Sidney Poitier’s The Measure of a Man. I’ll tell you more about this book as soon as I can–keep your eyes on this spot.

We just learned that CNBC’s “The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch” aired its Jan. 10 episode with Cameron Johnson yet again, last Friday evening at 10 and again three hours later. If you’re counting, this is their third broadcast of Cameron’s appearance. (And if you’re wondering why they keep airing this show, just view the clip again and keep a close watch on Deutsch’s face: Is this man having a blast with this guest or what?)

The other networks are starting to notice, too. On March 1 Cameron is taping an appearance on ABC’s morning show, “America This Morning,” and a number of high-profile TV shows (no hints, sorry) have requested media kits and copies of the “Big Idea” footage.

Keep watching this spot . . . because the splash You Call the Shots is making is just getting started!

Cameron Johnson will be guest speaker at a powerful weekend event titled “Extreme Business Makeovers,” sharing the dais with such legendary speakers as Fran Tarkenton, Bob Proctor and Bob Burg. The event is in Orlando Florida, February 23–24; for more information on the event, click the link above.

The personal finance blog Consumerism Commentary posted an excellent review of You Call the Shots a few days ago: you can read it here. Consumerism Commentary, a four-year-old site run by an anonymous thirty-year-old entrepreneur who blogs as “Flexo,” has been named one of “Ten Money Blogs Everyone Should Read” by Yahoo and a must-read blog by Kiplinger’s.

We finally got a digitized version of Cameron’s hit Jan. 10 appearance on “The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch.” (Deutsch loved it so much, he had Cameron on again a week later.) It’s just under ten minutes, and a blast. Look closely and you’ll see short clips of Cameron at age eleven, climbing the stairs to his “office” (bedroom) in the very first TV spot he ever appeared in (it was June of ’96). Click here to see it on Google Video–and send it on to your friends.

Don’t have time to read the book? No problem–now you can listen to it on your iPod! Go to iTunes and search for “Cameron Johnson” (or for that matter, for “John David Mann”), and you’ll now find the audiobook of You Call the Shots: unabridged, read by Maine-born and London-trained voice actor William Dufris (better known as the voice of Bob the Builder).