Like many books about franchising, Jan Norman's new title ("What No One Ever Tells You About Franchising," Kaplan Publishing, 2006) starts off with a litany of mostly positive statements about franchising.

"Franchising has become one of the most recognizable business formats in the world," she writes in the preface. "It's an interdependent relationship that, at its best, makes both sides rich," she intones.

But what makes Norman's book different from some that have been written about franchising lately is that she never presents a fact, statement or point of view without also including any relevant qualifying information or the opposing point of view.

Norman sets the tone right from the start. After her statement about franchising at its best making both parties to the relationship rich, she adds, in the very same sentence, that franchising "at its worst destroys businesses and reputations."

Norman is a well-known figure in the franchise world. "It's Your Business," her Orange County Register weekly column that explores the challenges business owners face in launching and running their companies, is syndicated internationally by Knight Ridder/Tribune Media Services.

She is considered an authoritative voice on entrepreneurship, and many of the more than 900 columns she has written over the years have dealt with franchisors, franchisees and the concept of franchising itself.

So does Norman risk biting the hand that feeds her with the balanced, even-handed approach she takes toward franchising in her new book? Some franchisors might feel that way, but prospective franchisees please take note: You do not-repeat, do NOT-want to get involved with any that do.

Norman draws on the real-life experiences of more than 100 people involved in franchising-franchisees and franchisors both-to give readers the straight dope on what franchising is all about.

The truth of the matter is, good franchisors want their franchisees and prospective franchisees to have this information. Franchisors that don't want you to have it probably have something to hide.

At least 2,300 U.S. companies in 75 industries sell franchises. There are more than 767,000 franchised businesses employing almost 10 million people and generating some $625 billion in annual revenues. Obviously, nothing gets to be that formidable an economic force without a lot going for it on the positive side, and Norman acknowledges that throughout her book.

At the same time, she sugarcoats nothing. As she so aptly notes, impressive numbers aside, successful franchising is carried out on the micro level. "Don't let the dazzling statistics blind you to the fact that individual franchisors and franchisees fail," she writes. "Their relationships can be acrimonious and even wind up in lawsuits, although probably no more so than in any other business endeavor created by human beings."

That's not something a prospective franchisee is likely to hear over cocktails with a franchise salesperson. To be fair, that's probably not the kind of thing most prospective franchisees even want to hear. But it's important that they do hear it. Not only hear it, but really listen to it, because if they are going to make a truly informed decision about what can be a life-changing event, they should do so only armed with all the facts.

Since successful franchising involves a symbiotic relationship between franchisor and franchisee, it makes sense that each should want the other to know everything they need to know. "The franchisors and franchisees who seem to be the happiest and most successful are dedicated to fairness and to the success of the other party as much as their own," is how Norman puts it.

"What No One Ever Tells You About Franchising" is organized into three parts. Part 1 talks about franchisors and the issues that are, or should be, most important to them. Part 2 covers franchisees, delving into critical topics such as purchasing issues, financing, management, marketing, growth and overcoming trouble.

The final section is devoted to the viewpoints of an impressive array of franchise experts, including Steven Toporoff, who in his role as Franchise Rule coordinator for the Federal Trade Commission ranks as the government's top franchise regulator; Robert Purvin, chairman of the American Association of Franchisees and Dealers; and W. Michael Garner, a partner with Michael Dady in Dady & Garner, P.A., one of the best-known pro-franchisee law firms in the U.S.

To be sure, there is plenty to learn from all three sections, but many readers-especially those currently considering or involved in a franchise search of their own-will find Part 2 most useful.

Norman's style is no-nonsense and occasionally hard-nosed, but never lecturing. She mostly tells it like it is, as she does at the outset of the section on franchisees. "If you don't learn anything else from this book, learn this: Franchising is not a guaranteed success," she commands. "You must be an informed franchise buyer."

That is exactly the message we have been trying to deliver to readers of The Franchise Handbook for the 20 years that I have been associated with this publication, and it's one I've repeated many times in my regular column, "From the Editor's Desk." For some reason, though, it sounds a lot more compelling the way Norman puts it.

In this section of the book, the author gets down to brass tacks for potential franchisees, offering good, solid advice and illustrating it with real-life stories of franchisees who have been there and done that.

She starts each short, easy-to-read chapter with a specific suggestion and a short explanation. Chapter 48, for example, is titled "Identify Your Passion." The explanatory sentence immediately following the title reads, "Before buying a franchise, examine your own interests, skills and experiences to identify the type of business that is right for you."

Norman then relates the tale of Ellen Radigan, whose whole life, it seems in retrospect, was spent in preparation for her purchase of an eBay consignment service franchise.

Radigan's father owned a moving and storage company. Sometimes when customers didn't pay their bills, their stored items were sold at auction to recoup costs. Early on, she was exposed to a lot of different objects ranging from junk to veritable treasures, and she developed an eye for discerning value. As an absentee-owner of an antique store during her corporate career, she got involved in collecting and selling on eBay.

All those factors boded well for her prospects as an eBay consignment service franchisee, but it wasn't until she sat down and evaluated her life, asked herself what she really wanted and answered honestly that she could make the decision to take the plunge.

It;s worth noting that Norman's last chapter on franchisees is called, "Franchising Isn't for Every Individual." True to form, she backs it up with an illustration drawn from interviews with a franchisee who signed a mutual release with his franchisor terminating the contract just two years after he had signed it. The franchisee talks candidly about what went wrong and the substantial consequences he bore as a result.

But this is by no means a doom-and-gloom book about franchising. Quite the contrary, the overriding impression one gets from Norman's writing is that she believes franchising is a good thing-at least when it's engaged in properly.

"This book aims to give readers a sense of what franchising looks like in real life by illustrating common situations in real franchise companies," she writes in the preface. "The purpose is not to glamorize or tear down franchising, but to show how to make franchising work to the benefit of the business owners and their customers."

By and large, I'd say she does just that.