Book excerpt: ABOUT THE BOOK Surrounded by books, sketches, fabrics, webbing, plastic hardware, notions, tools, and my sewing machine, I open Stephen Key’s One Simple Idea. Within a few hours, I understand more about licensing and product development than I gained over months of previous research. One Simple Idea does not contain legends of one-hit-wonders; Stephen Key seems to sit in the chair next to me offering decades of experience, methods, and priorities that help me assess products, research markets, understand the provisional patent process, and leverage my ideas into licensing agreements. The day I finished the book, I met with two friends that have significant marketing experience, pitched eight ideas, showed three prototypes, received a great reception, and decided to immediately implement Stephen’s process and enter the marketplace. I’m sure there will be great days and bumpy moments ahead; however, I now have gaps filled in several areas left from my previous research and understand the things I need to continue to learn. One Simple Idea offers many ideas I will use today, this month, and all year to license and manufacture my products. In our roles as employee, parent, friend and family members, time we spend on developing a process to market needs to offer a significant return. One Simple Idea helped me to determine whether manufacturing or licensing are my best option, how I can realistically approach the provisional patent process, what analysis I should take toward pricing, when to pitch to a licensee -- and many other practical product development nuances that will greatly benefit my approach. Reading One Simple Idea is one day well spent! MEET THE AUTHOR Kelly Cooper is currently bringing six cooking-related products to market as well as the cookbook Cookies for Grown-Ups (Red Rock Press). Her day jobs include coding for Zen Entertainment and teaching Web Development at West Valley College. She enjoys reading and writing on ideas, technology, philosophy, sociology, and business. Kelly's contact info: http://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly2ds EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK Description: You decide to have a sandwich. The last of the mustard won’t come out of the squeeze bottle. The “deli-fresh” plastic box of lunch meat will not open without scissors or a sharp knife. The resealable cheese doesn’t reseal without a surgeon-like focus on lining up the grooved plastic. The wire twist tie keeping the bread fresh is tangled somehow and untwisting clockwise or counterclockwise produces the same result, you’re no closer to grabbing the bread, much less to eating a sandwich! Stephen Key sees opportunity in products ready for updating and the possibility in licensing your solutions from the every day simple hiccups such as making a sandwich to the complex or significant such as his own award-winning Spinformation labels. One Simple Idea traverses idea creation, assessment, protection, pitch, and advises on submitting your ideas to potential licensees as well as bringing your products to market. The book is fun to read and offers significant paths and processes to your product development career. Buy a copy to keep reading!