'How to Lie with Charts' Seminar Released on DVD

LaPuerta Books and Media today launched a new series of DVD training videos aimed at business students and professionals. The first title is "How to Lie with Charts," a live interactive seminar based on the popular book by Gerald Everett Jones. According to LaPuerta marketing director David Drum, "Gerald's been doing seminars for corporate clients based on this book, which over the years has become a kind of chartmaking bible for b-school students. In advance of his visit, he invites the client to send him real-world examples of their report slides. Then by the end of the session, he gets a kick seeing the participants enthusiastically find the flaws their own work. We finally got one of these witty and insightful sessions on video, and we think it will be a lively discussion-starter in the classroom and in business peer-review meetings. Of course, we also expect it will continue to build interest in the book and in his seminars."

"We can't show the client's proprietary charts, of course," Jones admits. "But for purposes of the DVD, we do have a brief critique of one woeful slide that I made containing at least six egregious errors. It's fun to see the audience jump on these mistakes based on how they've learned to actually see differently during the session."

Jones's classic book about clarity and honesty in visual reporting was first published by Sybex in 1995, and it and has been a consistently strong seller ever since. It's been accepted as the definitive work on the topic, and it's been adopted as courseware by college-level academic institutions. Adoptions include courses in statistics, visualization of mathematics, and business management.

Several sample video clips from the DVD are available for free viewing on YouTube: "Part 1: 3D Bars and Perspective" (2:20 min.), "Part 2: Golfers Lie with Statistics" (6:10 min.), "Part 3: Cartesian Coordinates and Mercator Mistakes" (7:32 min.), and "Part 4: Six Dumb Mistakes" (3:10 min.).

How to Lie with Charts – Advice for Investors and Analysts – DVD Training Video is on sale through Amazon for $89.95 retail. The edited seminar session, which includes Jones's presentation as well as more than 100 example slides, runs 45 minutes. The DVD also contains a separate 3-minute bonus video that recaps his "Golden Rules" for the honest chartmaker. In addition, a downloadable streaming version of the seminar is scheduled for release, expected to be available through Amazon Video on Demand (VOD) around October 1, for rental or for purchase. The revised and updated Second Edition of the book sells separately as a LaPuerta trade paperback for $23.99.


LaPuerta Books and Media is an imprint of La Puerta Productions, Santa Monica, California. The LaPuerta name and its logo, an open door, symbolize unlimited access to knowledge, opportunity, innovation, fascination, and delight. The company specializes in developing and publishing on-demand digital media. LaPuerta publishes in trade paperback, plus a variety of ebook formats including Kindle, iPad/Nook EPUB, Adobe PDF, and Sony Reader. As noted in this release, this video seminar is LaPuerta's first DVD/VOD release.