Book Publishing and Management - Still working out the kinks

Hugh at gapingvoid made mention of the publishing industry here with a link to some, well, as he put it, eye rolling.

Then Seth reminds people “not to buy his book” making good on his promise of a free e-book download.

Seth’s been doing the e-book thing for a long time as have others, using the free book at a tool to get good ideas out, cause other actions (business or otherwise) to happen and generally, just be smart about ‘being out there.”

I’m on a particular mailing list with some great people. I’m not sure what the protocol is regarding blogging, repeating, etc, stuff that is moved around in the mailing list world. I suspect it’s considered ‘off-line’ or whatever, so erring on the side of PC, I point this out, less links, etc.

A new book comes out and the author wants to spread the word, generate some buzz, etc. With the permission of the mailing list owner, blasts out an offer:

“… I'd like to offer all […] a complimentary e-book copy of the book. If you have an established blog with1,000 or more inbound links on Google (search for "link:www.YourSite.com") and are willing to post a review, we can get you a paperback copy.”

Yikes!  The first thing I think of is a new business. You find pithy things like this, flip em to Hugh and see if he immediately draws up an amazing cartoon. Total stream of consciousness thing. I’ve seen em do it. When Doc Searls was giving a talk, for example, Hugh was bouncing around doing drawings on cards as brilliant things came from Doc. I also saw the opposite. When something was nonsense, he’d roll his eyes and do some snarky (and hilarious) cartoon.  I’d then sell limited edition, Hugh @Gapingvoid, Stooopid Art.

Sorry, I’m a VC, always looking for the angle,  I digress.

I tried to respond with a strong yet civil response to this if ‘you are good enough’ nonsense.

Some excerpts:

“Offering the complimentary e-book is a nice/smart/buzz generating thing to do. Then coughing up an old school furball blows it. Link Love? Top bloggers? Lists? Puhleezz..”

“Given that 50%+ of the people who are reading blogs do just that, read them, and don't link to anything, rather forward 'check this out' type emails, etc, this just smacks of old school type thinking.”

“Putting out an e-book sets an interesting bar in terms of people who will read it on the computer plus tell people about it. That's understood.  But telling the"newbies" on this list, people I met [] who are just getting started, that,<sniff, sniff> you can have a 'real' copy when you get some link love is, well, fill in your own here. I'm not sure they would be inclined to buy the book, reference it or think much of the Author's, call it, way of thinking.”

It seems we need to get more link love out there for Seth, Hugh, the Cluetrain, etc, as there are still way too many people who don’t quite get it. Yet.

Comments

[hugh macleod]

"Oh cool! You mean if you're famous and say nice things about my work on your large-audience website, I'll let you have some of it for free?"

As I'm fond of saying, "Have a nice death, Dinosaur."

More thoughts here:

http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/001859.html

I dunno, I was having a similar conversation with somebody the other day, to wit: where Old Media/Old School gets it wrong is when they assume they can impose their own, selfish, calcified values on the Blogosphere.

Whereas what actually works, what REALLY works is when you align your behavior to fit the blogosphere's values. Which means genuinely embracing them. Not easy if you're deep into "post-MBA marketing dork" mode, but hey, that's not my problem

Anyway, it's something I'm often ranting about. Then again, it's something I'm worrying less about. The companies that get it will thrive. The ones that don't... who cares?

Anyway, thanks for the kind words.

[Nicole Simon]

*rotfl* thousand links? easy. Do I get the free copy now? But then again, I would have to read it, make a review for it ... all of this is so much time consuming. Forget it.

I like Seth's approach (in fact, I printed it out and have it here for reading) and love the subtle hints where I could get more. But slowly, they are getting there, they are getting there. We just need to educate them more. :)

[Matt]

I don't know what the list is about. I don't know what the post is about. I don't know what the book is about.

But I'll say this...even if I'd been 100% committed to _buying_ a printed copy of the book before I'd read that, I would definitely rule it out afterward. I'd even give some serious reconsideration to whatever ideas of the author's I already agreed with.

Yeah...tell your audience "you all don't matter, unless you meet these requirements:"...terrific marketing strategy there, dude.