A Solution For Those Who Want to Read But Don’t Have Time

Whether you are a leader or anyone who loves to be educated through books, but you don’t have time to read all the books you desire to learn from, Leaders Book Summaries may be the ticket you’ve been looking for.

And best of all, it’s FREE for my readers for an entire month with no catches.

Dave Frederick, the creator of Leaders Book Summaries, tells you all about it . . .

Tell us what Leaders Book Summaries is exactly.

Dave Frederick: Leaders Book Summaries is a service designed to help pastors and other Christians who want to grow their leadership skills and understanding. We take the top books out there that are focused on leadership, management, personal growth, church growth, etc. (books that are good for leaders to read), and we condense them. We take all the key content and ideas and put it into a 12-15 page summary, so people can easily read and digest the material.

That allows people who are really busy the opportunity to invest in their own growth and development. And when they become better leaders, their church or organization will benefit.

What kinds of people will Leaders Book Summaries benefit and how exactly.

Dave Frederick: People who are interested in leadership, people who want their lives to have an impact, and people who want to grow. Probably half our readers are pastors; the other half are Christians who want to grow, as people and as leaders.

We have summarized books related to personal growth, developing your skills, and time/ life management, as well as books on developing vision, managing change, and church growth. If you are a person who wants to grow, you have to be reading and learning—there is no alternative. Unfortunately, most of us are so busy that we don’t have time to do all the reading we should do or would like to do.

Here’s an interesting tidbit: Carnegie Mellon University did a study a few years ago and found that people who read well-written summaries actually remembered more of what they read than those who read the whole book. That doesn’t matter much if you are reading fiction for pleasure (which I love to do), but if you are reading to grow and develop, you need to be able to remember what you read. Otherwise you can’t apply it, and it doesn’t help you much.

Will if a person’s isn’t a “leader,” but they read books, how will it benefit them?

Dave Frederick: A person may not have a leadership position, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t a leader. At the very least, we have to lead ourselves! A lot of the titles we have done relate to personal growth and development—learning how to become who God intends us to be. I think that applies to everyone.

Additionally, we all have to deal with leaders. Even if you aren’t in a leadership role, it can be tremendously helpful to have an understanding of good leadership principles and practices. You can be a much more productive team member and contributor, and increase your personal impact. Finally, many who aren’t leaders right now probably will be someday, at some level. It’s always good to prepare ahead of time, rather than try to play catch up when you are in the middle of a situation.

I’ve written much on the fact that every Christian is a leader. So this service is for every believer who reads. What if you don’t carry a book that someone wants a summary on. What then?

Dave Frederick: We get a lot of recommendations from our subscribers; it’s one of the things that we look at in picking the titles we summarize. But we can never promise we will do a particular title until we actually read the book and see if it is a good one for us to put out.

At this point we do 30 titles a year, both Christian and secular authors, new releases and old classics, and we have over 100 titles in our archives. If it is a good book in the areas we focus on, there is a good chance it has been done or will be. But we can’t guarantee any specific title ahead of time.

What has the response been so far to Leaders Book Summaries?

Dave Frederick: Amazing. We started about four years ago with the belief that this kind of service would be helpful to people. Right now we have several thousand subscribers and more joining all the time.

One of the things that we are seeing more and more of is pastors getting church subscriptions, where they can put as many people as they want on one subscription. They are adding staff, Board members, lay leaders, etc. There is no limit. Many are using the summaries for their leadership training. Typically the pastor subscribes himself for a year or two, and then shifts to add his people, just because he has found it so valuable.

What is the cost and how can people join?

Dave Frederick: We have two basic subscriptions. The Regular subscription is $6.95/month, and you get either two or three titles a month (30/year), delivered to your inbox directly. That continues as long as you want it to, and you can cancel at any time.

We also have a Premium subscription, which is $119/year. That pays for the year in advance, and also gives you full access to our archives—all of the titles we have done in previous years. That has become the more popular option since we added it.

Finally, we have church subscriptions, both Regular and Premium. The regular is $25/month, and the Premium is $429/year. The difference here is also access to the archives.

From now until the end of the month, we are giving readers of this blog their first month free. (If you do one of the Premium subscriptions we will prorate the fee). Use the Promo code “Viola” and you will be all set.

Just click here, go to the bottom and choose a subscription, and put in the Promo Code Viola.