I have announced my new book, Mediate Yourself - Stand Out From The Crowd, over in Syntagma and on Twitter — a sign of the times.

The title is targeted for pre-Christmas publication. The publisher is still not set in stone. Announcement soon.

The book’s title more or less explains what the book is about, but not why it has now taken primary place above two others I’ve been working on for a while.

Superdemocray - A New Art Of Corporate Governance was always a long-term project and is slowly falling into place.

Cosmosity - The Natural History of Nirvana was almost finished when an Indian author nicked the main title, and someone else “borrowed” the principal theme. Writing an online running commentary on a work-in-progress is not always a good idea. This book has been put on the shelf pending a complete rewrite.

However, Mediate Yourself has been quietly writing itself for some months and exists in multifarious pieces widely distributed on many sites and blogs. It would be impossible for any literary pickpocket to find them and piece them together into a coherent whole.

In fact, so much progress has been made beneath the radar that I’m able to announce it now without fear of exact plagiarism.

The domains, mediateyourself.com and .org were also available, which is always a good sign. The site will go up within shouting distance of publication.

The only decision still to make is whether the subtitle should be “stand out from the cloud”, instead of “crowd”. The first is more colourful and unexpected, while the second has more precision.

So many people are confusing Dial Publishing with other imprints going by the name of Dial that we have decided to rename the publishing house, Syntagma Publishing.

All print titles published by us will now use the main branding of the business, Syntagma Media.

Owing to a lot going on at our digital publishing arm, Syntagma Media, the opening list at Dial Publishing has had to be postponed until 2008. However, we intend to set the ball rolling with an early series of chapbooks on a variety of topics. More later.

Recap : Dial Publishing began life in 1999 as the heir to Hermitage Press, our educational publishing arm which concentrated on distance-learning courses and textbooks.

It was specifically aimed at a British Government scheme which subsidized 80 percent of the buyer’s cost of approved courses. It was abruptly withdrawn overnight when Ministers found that Animal rights activists and others were defrauding the system.

Now we are relaunching Dial as a general non-fiction publisher, with two titles, one for our edgewise imprint and another for Hermitage.

With Syntagma Media’s redesign currently underway by Thord Hedengen, it seems the right moment to declare our new business structure.

Syntagma Media will now have two operating divisions. The first, Syntagma Digital, will contain all our online properties — some 53 websites — including, three network magazines and the (currently) top secret plans codenamed, iSyntagma.

The second new division of Syntagma Media is Dial Publishing and will handle all print and other offline publishing and consulting work. This side of the business is set to swing into action in Q3 and Q4 of this year.

These changes will be progressively implemented and the present site developed accordingly.

We can now announce that the first title to be published by Dial Publishing in 2007 will be, The Syntagma Story — How a Cashstrapper Became a Serial Magazine Publisher by John M Evans.

Since Dial’s previous existence as an educational and textbook publisher, I’ve toyed with a number of scenarios for relaunching the business in the book trade. However, as Syntagma Media’s print publishing arm, it seems logical to start with the story of its creation, especially as Syntagma was started as an experiment in bootstrapping an internet business with the aim of writing a book about it.

Nowadays, with the plummeting cost of hardware, software and bandwidth, it is possible to build a substantial internet company using careful cash-flow techniques and funded by expertise and hard work rather than VC money. A credit card is vital in the beginning, but if you’re good at what you do and you have a sustainable vision, even that source of funding will fall away.

The book will delve into the secrets of internet success, both financial and technical. But it will mainly look at the flaws in the concept of “blog networks” and how the author converted the idea into a series of network magazines.

Dial Publishing is a project for next year, 2007, when it will become the print arm of Syntagma Media, currently an online publisher.

This site will keep those interested fully informed of progress on the project.

The reason for the delay is that our online Network Magazine, Syntagma, with its 45 websites, is taking up so much time. New partners in the business should open the way for our expansion into the print market in the new year.

Stay tuned for further information.

With Humdrumming’s republication of the works of Denys Val Baker, beginning with The Sea’s in the Kitchen, we’re having a Denys Val Baker Week here on Dial Publishing, so stay tuned for lots of information about the man, the writer, and the works.

Denys is rarely heard of nowadays, but if you ever come across one of his books, acquire, read and enjoy (see the sidebar). They are rib-ticklingly funny and an immensely good read.

Denys Val Baker (1917 - 1984), owner and editor of The Cornish Review, was the author of twenty hilarious autobiographies. Titles of these included, The Sea’s in the Kitchen and The Petrified Mariner, which give you a flavour of them. He wrote in the 1950s through the 70s, and was a full-time professional author, by which I mean he was always broke.

Nevertheless, he managed to buy an enormous old tramp steamer, MVS Sanu, and, with no sailing experience whatever, took his large brood of wild children and long-suffering wife, Jess, on incredibly dangerous voyages. He was on the rocks more times than Jack Daniels.

Denys lived in Penzance, Land’s End and St. Ives in Cornwall, and was usually seeking some means of financing his next outrageous project. He was an adventurer in the grand English tradition, though always amusingly shambolic.

You once could find his books on the shelves of most libraries, where they were among the most popular titles for borrowing. These days they’re not so easy to come by, although Amazon has a good listing of second-hand copies, mostly at premium prices. Denys would have been amazed.

His character never allowed a moment to pass without doing something absolutely beyond the pale. A catalogue of his adventures would take 20 books to compile, which is probably why he wrote 20 autobiographies.

When I lived in Penzance we occupied a house across the road from his, though he had been dead for a decade. I noticed there was no blue plaque on his house, which is a pity, though everyone remembered him in the library, where he did most of his research. His son, Martin, still runs a print business in the town, and his wildest daughter, Demelza, lives there too.

Denys was one of the old school of writers. He spent a lot of time in London, mostly in the literary pubs around Soho where he hung out with the likes of Dylan Thomas and other luminaries of the scribbling fraternity.

But his heart was in Cornwall, as was most of his written output. He will be best remembered for his twenty or so “funny books”. Gerald Durrell is probably the nearest comparison.

Let’s hope he will not be totally forgotten, especially in the county that inspired his best work.

Syntagma Media has just launched a great new blog by Steve Newman, Commissioning Director at Humdrumming, a new publishing house based in Stratford Upon Avon — Shakespeare and RSC country.

Steve starts off by telling us about the signing of bestselling American author, Allan Weisbecker, whose memoirs, Can’t You Get Along With Anyone? will be published by Humdrumming, probably next year.

He also heralds the long-awaited republication of Denys Val Baker’s joyous autobiography series, beginning with The Sea’s in the Kitchen this week. Be first to buy the book here.

There’s also an incipient deal underway with a very big-name British author. I had a hand in this at the early stages, but I’m not at liberty to name the name until a final deal has been struck.

All very exciting stuff. Stay tuned for more information.

They said it couldn’t be done. A new novel that would challenge Dan Brown’s ultimate bestseller. A book of such startling plausibility that it must surely be true.

The Syntagma Code.

The publishing world is abuzz with rumour and counter-claim. Does The Syntagma Code throw real light on the greatest danger facing mankind today: the Algorithm?

Only time will tell.

There’s a lot of good writing being done on the network by Syntagma Media writers, so I’m starting to assemble some of the best into what I call our SynBin.

When we have enough posts I’m going to string them into a book called SynBin: The Best Writing from around Syntagma Media, and publish it under our Dial Publishing imprint.

We have some very good writers and writing here at the Towers. Just take a look at Adelle’s Fifty-Something Women, which has a New Yorkish edge and humor. And there’s a lot more too.

I’m trying not to include myself in this book, but I may have to make up some numbers at the end.