Making A Small Fortune: Surviving publishing, parenting, and porphyria

Written by Matthew Spaur

Narrated by Matthew Spaur

"This memoir's reward is insights shared by a man honest with himself and his strengths and limitations in a way that is compelling, actually quietly fascinating." -- Jay Levin, Founder of LA Weekly newspaper

Having it all can leave you with nothing.

At the height of the Dot-com Boom on Wall St., Matthew Spaur used his earnings from the tech industry to remarry, become a stepparent to three boys, and start a weekly newspaper--all at the same time. Overnight, he became a self-employed working parent with a new business in a cutthroat market. He did this despite having never owned a business, worked on a newspaper, taken a journalism class, sold advertising, or been a parent.

Soon, the tech stock bubble burst, the 9/11 attacks exploded, and the country slid into recession and then war. Media outlets started receiving envelopes of anthrax in their mail. The internet revolution began to obliterate the newspaper industry. At home, his new wife and two of his step-sons developed life-threatening illnesses.

What do you do when your fortune goes from bad to worse?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Good Voice Studios
• Release date: Oct 24, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822601420

Matthew Spaur

Matthew Spaur is a marketing and strategic communications professional with more than 20 years' experience spanning many industries including education, HR, IT, energy, consulting, and publishing. He was the publisher of The Local Planet Weekly, an award-winning weekly newspaper. His writing has appeared in South Dakota Review, Owen Wister Review, Wisconsin Review, Willow Springs, Into the Ruins, and Heliotrope, and in the anthologies Microsoft in the Mirror and Secrets. As a ghost writer for executives, his work has appeared in FORTUNE and numerous nerdy trade publications. Spaur and his teams have won awards and nominations from the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Society for Technical Communications, and the Associated Writing Programs. He earned an MFA in Writing from Eastern Washington University and an MBA from the University of Nevada, Reno.