When Dr. Leo Parvis first started teaching cultural diversity at Dunwoody College over 3 years ago, he had to quickly pick a textbook to teach to his classes. After a few weeks, he was dissatisfied with the text, so he created a supplemental packet of information in order to provide students with a more complete educational experience. Then he started searching for a new textbook. After reviewing many diversity textbooks, he still wasn’t finding what he was looking for—a textbook that was a good balance of theory and relevant examples students could understand and relate to.  So then he took on the long, arduous task of writing a text of his own.  Two years later, his text was ready to publish. His book is full of examples from today’s pop culture, including poems, quotes, song lyrics and examples from TV shows and movies, providing examples students can easily relate to and remember.

After meeting with the representatives from traditional textbook publishers, Dr. Parvis was not happy with the information he had gleaned: textbook publishers take on the average about two years to publish each textbook, due in large part to the review process they put each text through.  Well, he didn’t have another two years to wait, he teaches around 120 students every quarter who need a decent textbook. So Leo’s wife Julie started researching self-publishing options, and they decided to pursue a publish-on-demand (POD) option through a company called Lulu (www.lulu.com), the world’s fastest-growing provider of print-on-demand books.  “They have few start-up costs and everything including downloading the complete book is done online, “ Dr. Parvis said, “It only took one week to have a printed book in my hand.” Another advantage of going through a POD publisher is the ability to set your own price, which enabled Dr. Parvis to set a lower price that is more manageable for his students’ budgets.

Lulu provides each author with a storefront to promote and sell their books, including taking credit cards. “They handle the whole process for you, from printing to acquiring an ISBN to distribution,” added Julie Parvis, “They even submit your book to Amazon.com for you!”

Dr. Parvis also has his own author’s website (created by his wife as his birthday present) at www.drleoparvis.com, where people can get to know more about the man behind the book. “It’s a useful tool for helping to promote the book online,” said Dr. Parvis.

Although the original intent for the book was to serve as a text for students, his book has already been purchased by individuals who just want to learn more about diversity for themselves, and also by some corporate people who are reviewing it for use for their internal diversity training

Leo and Julie Parvis are partners in a small business, diversitypromotions.com, an online company promoting positive messages about diversity through their Embrace Diversity product line and educational opportunities such as presentations, seminars, articles, and special celebrations such as National Diversity Day and Chaska’s Multicultural Holiday Celebration.

“Now comes the hardest part,” said Dr. Parvis, “trying to promote the book online with the sea of websites out there. Lucky for me, my wife is a marketing professional, so that part is her job!”