Book 'Em

Image may not be everything, but it's hardly insignificant. How best to put your business face forward in this era of endless spin?

For a historical perspective, check out Stuart Ewen's PR! A Social History of Spin (Basic Books, $16). Intensely researched, PR! places the art of public relations in a cultural context that's interesting (but not for the scholastically faint of heart).

Both heartfelt and thorough, Signs and Wonders: The Spectacular Marketing of America (Currency/Doubleday, $27.95) delves into the world of signage in all its colorful, creative glory. Authors Tama Starr and Edward Hayman pay particular attention to that Mecca of visual marketing: Times Square.

Shel Holtz's Public Relations on the Net (Amacom Books, $24.95) is an excellent primer on technology's role in company image-keeping. "The Internet is so new," observes Holtz, "that businesses, unsure of what to do with it, are applying old uses to it." Don't let your business be one of them.

This article was originally published in the February 1999 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: Book 'Em.