Unsolicited advice yours for the taking.

• Author: Taylor, Mike
• Position: Sales techniques - Editorial

"We do not accept general business articles (they specifically must target Colorado's business scene), general how-to columns, book reviews, commentaries, collect calls, syndicated work, articles written by PR people about their clients, humor columns and poetry. Read back issues to gauge what we do want.--Excerpt from ColoradoBiz magazine's freelance-writer's guidelines at www.cobizmag.com.

NOT THAT WE COMPLAIN WHEN THE guidelines go unheeded. No harm, no foul (but alas, no ink, either). The unsolicited submissions we get are usually too general, lack a Colorado angle or are too transparently self-interested for our purposes, but that's not to say they're not interesting, as I realized anew when one of our IT engineers told me I needed to empty my bulging e-mail in-basket, and I was forced to re-examine and weed out several hundred old items.

Items like this announcement of a new book: "Reading Faces to Succeed in Business and Relationships," by Naomi Tickle, a "world-renowned expert" in face reading (of course).

"Need to fill a leadership position? Look for someone with a wide face and Roman nose," the book's promotion goes. "They make natural leaders who excel at challenges. Looking for that magical multi-tasker? Choose a person with wide-set eyes. Want a person who is detail-oriented? Seek out someone with the Julia Roberts look, meaning someone who has close-set eyes. They're very good with details and dislike interruptions."

I don't know how this facial stereotyping would go over with the ACLU. How would a company explain passing on a vice-president applicant because his nose was too narrow and his face wasn't wide enough? Well, one of the many testimonials provided by the book's publicist shows not everyone is as skeptical as I am:

"We hired Naomi to give us some additional insights about a potential employee," a testimonial signed by "J. Moore" said. "She confirmed much of what we thought. It was well worth the investment."

An e-mail I received touting a new business book titled "The Integrity Advantage: How Taking the High Road Creates a Competitive Advantage," didn't excite me (although the idea of a businessperson who feels he needs to study up on integrity does scare me). But the headline for the book's promotional literature is worth sharing: "Find Your Inner Abe Lincoln In A Cold, Cold Ken Lay World," it said.

A cold world, indeed. But not as chilly for cold-callers as it would be without all the new books and...