About the Author & AnyPO Awards

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Ron Watters has been involved in publishing and software businesses since 1987.  He and his wife, Kathy, own a small press and software development company based in Pocatello, Idaho  (Pocatello, by the way, is just a hop, skip and jump away from Yellowstone and Teton National Parks.  Come out and see us sometime!)  Prior to developing AnyPO, he programmed and developed AnyBook and AnyOrder.  AnyBook came out of a need for a software program that would work for their business.  Finding most of the software systems designed for publishing overpriced and poorly designed for small publishers, he started work on a new program.  From the beginning, he had two important goals in mind.  The first was that the software had to be simple and understandable.  And the second was that the program had to work in a natural way, compatible with the way the book business operates.

AnyBook was a remarkable success in publishing world.  From that foundation, Watters began working with men and women who owned small mail order businesses, and eventually developed AnyOrder.  Then finally, AnyPO was developed.  Ron and Kathy use all of the programs in the day to day operations of their publishing and software business.  If there are problems with the program, they are found quickly and corrected.  And Kathy makes sure that new enhancements to the program are useful and understandable.

Ron's programs been well received by the computer and business worlds. AnyBook, was awarded a four star rating by PC Magazine and won the Editor's Pick Award.  Simply the Best Software has chosen AnyOrder for its collection of distinctive shareware programs, and awarded it the "Select Software" Award.  Softbase, a software ranking and informational site, ranks AnyBook and AnyBook among the top 100 Business & Accounting Software programs.

Watters has programmed for both Apple and IBM computers.  He designed and marketed a program called RaceAid which was one the first software programs to calculate times and provide results of a variety of racing events such as marathons, triathlons, cross-country running races, bicycle races and others.  He is the developer of AnyCard, a program for authorizing credit cards, and he has designed two software packages which are distributed free to non-profit organizations including a mailing list program tailored for university recreational programs and a database system for small resource libraries.