Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Bluffer's Media Limited


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was   speedy keep. WP:HEY (non-admin closure) Primefac (talk) 11:33, 6 March 2015 (UTC)

Bluffer's Media Limited

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No indication of notability, sources are almost entirely primary sources (interviews with writers) or book reviews (some of which are 90% copied from the books themselves). Primefac (talk) 20:40, 2 March 2015 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Business-related deletion discussions. N ORTH A MERICA 1000 01:20, 3 March 2015 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of United Kingdom-related deletion discussions. N ORTH A MERICA 1000 01:20, 3 March 2015 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Literature-related deletion discussions. N ORTH A MERICA 1000 01:20, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

Keep and rename to Bluffer's Guides per the significant coverage in multiple independent reliable sources.  The article notes: "Face it: In this world of fast-expanding knowledge and increasing specialization, it's tough to be well-rounded. As one comedian said, it's even tough to be semicircular. Not to worry. You no longer have to be just a respectfully nodding head as you listen to authoritative types at cocktail parties, business meetings and power lunches. ``The Bluffer's Guides, all 25 of them, are here. These little paperbacks -- no more than 80 pages and $3.95 each -- are from Centennial Press. They're the same folks who brought you the yellow-and-black-striped Cliffs Notes in college. The bluff guides have been described as Cliffs Notes to life, about 60 percent humor and 40 percent truth, on topics ranging from golf to office politics to home maintenance.  As one book's introduction notes: ``A little learning is a marvelous thing, and since that is all most of us are ever going to have anyway, we might as well get to know how to spread it thinly but effectively, like the last smidgen of peanut butter on the heel of the loaf. With that in mind, it'll be a relief to you nonsports buffs to know that ``Bluff Your Way in Football is now available -- just as those Monday-morning quarterback sessions are gearing up." O'Connell, Loraine. (1991-09-11). "Thin Slices Of Expertise: 'Bluffer's Guides' Offer Just Enough Tongue-in-cheek Information For You To Get By On Without Ever Actually Knowing Anything About He Subject." (pages 1 and 2). Orlando Sentinel''. Archived from the original (pages 1 and 2) on 2015-03-04. Retrieved 2015-03-04. The article notes: "And they do it with an irreverence and wit that characterize all the Bluffer's Guides, which quietly started appearing in bookstores and gift stores in 1989. Michele Spence, one of the Centennial Press editors responsible for the guides, said she selects authors based on their knowledge of the subject - and their ability to stand back from that subject matter and laugh at it. Poking fun while sprinkling nuggets of actual information throughout the text has been the format of the guides since their inception in Britain in the 1960s. Bluffer's Guides were originally a small series of books published in England between 1965 and 1975, said Doug Lincoln, vice president of Cliff Notes. About 16 titles were produced, and they sold over 4 million copies just in England."  The article notes: "They helped you bluff your way through college; now they want to help you fake it through real life. The Nebraska-based publishing company responsible for Cliffs Notes, those slim volumes of McLiterature sandwiched between yellow-and-black striped covers, has issued a post-graduate reading list called Bluffer's Guides. The books are designed to teach readers how to wing it through situations or conversations they know little about - like sex, marketing or the great outdoors. For $3.95 and no more than 80 pages, the authors skim information off the top of a total of 25 subjects and present it in irreverent, easy-to-read language. The Bluffer's Guides are 'written by people who know what they're talking about, but who know how to have fun with a topic,' says Centennial Press editor Michele Spence. In Bluff Your Way in Office Politics, for example, author Joseph T. Straub suggests furnishing your office with a desk 'slightly smaller than the flight deck of an aircraft carrier,' then filling all available nooks and crannies with a truly weird assortment of geegaws: '1936 Oldsmobile door handle, railroad spike, rust-encrusted cannonball, antique inkwell, brick from the original corporate headquarters.'"  The article notes: "'Since that's all most of us are ever going to have anyway, we might as well spread it thin, but effectively, like the last smidgen of peanut butter on the heel of a loaf,' she said in a telephone interview from her home in Hickory, N.C. A former Latin and English teacher, Ms. Snodgrass is author of several Bluffer's Guides, a series dedicated to the proposition that you can fool most people some of the time. The guides are funny and informative. They're published by a division of Cliffs Notes, Inc., the same folks who helped generations of high school students pass English literature by offering concise, readable translations of such classics as Beowulf, Great Expectations, Silas Marner, The Magic Mountain, etc. 'Bluffer's Guides are written tongue-in-cheek. They appeal to people who have a special interest, such as music or gourmet cooking or British theater, but don't want to spend a lifetime in pursuit of that interest. 'The true aim of respectable bluffing is to hold your own on slippery ground, particularly in the presence of a real authority, such as your boss, a blind date, or anyone who tries to make you look foolish,' she said. There are 25 guides, beginning with the basic Bluffer's Guide to Bluffing, and ranging from bluffing your way in the great outdoors, the occult, psychology, football and golf, to Hollywood and sex. The editors suggest selecting one art, one sport, one social subject and one leisure activity in which to become an accomplished bluffer." There is sufficient coverage in reliable sources to allow Bluffer's Guides to pass Notability, which requires "significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject". Cunard (talk) 00:41, 4 March 2015 (UTC) </li></ul>
 * Delete Tiny non-notable publishing house.  Curiously the series of books are (I imagine) notable: A better outcome would be to redirect to an article on the series. If there was one, which there isn't.TheLongTone (talk) 16:12, 3 March 2015 (UTC) Changing to Keep in view of changed title of article.TheLongTone (talk) 11:24, 6 March 2015 (UTC)
 * Article rewritten to reframe to discuss the series rather the company. Cunard (talk) 01:09, 4 March 2015 (UTC)
 * Keep per WP:HEY, thanks to Cunard for locating sources. I added two more news cites, one of which verifies the company's multi-million sales figures. <b style="color:#7F007F">Ritchie333</b> <sup style="color:#7F007F">(talk) <sup style="color:#7F007F">(cont)  10:24, 4 March 2015 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.