Get Serious About the Business of Publishing
A book’s success is too important to entrust to somebody who doesn’t have a stake in it. Editors are already fierce enough advocates to have persuaded their bosses to let them acquire the books in the first place; why not let them keep on advocating? –Ron Hogan, “Hey Editors! Less Max Perkins, More Billy Mays“
Staying on Message: It’s all about Community
There’s a hand-painted sign that hangs over my desk at work, that my wife picked out years ago at a crafts fair in Virginia, that says: “I’m not bossy, I just have better ideas.” Anyone that’s worked with me, reads this blog, or follows me on Twitter, probably isn’t the least bit surprised by that.
Is Social Publishing simply Vanity Publishing 2.0?
“Yes, Sir, there are many happy people here. There are many people here who are watching hundreds, and who think hundreds are watching them.” Samuel Johnson, Quotes on Vanity “Digital publishing”, “ePublishing” and “social publishing” are the buzzwords du jour; Web 2.0 business models based on the idea that eBooks are the next big thing
Keep it Simple, Stupid
This fervid desire for the Web bespeaks a longing so intense that it can only be understood as spiritual. A longing indicates that something is missing in our lives. What is missing is the sound of the human voice. The spiritual lure of the Web is the promise of the return of voice. “The Longing”,
Platform 201 for Busy Writers: 1,000 True Fans
A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, videomaker, or author – in other words, anyone producing works of art – needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living. —Kevin Kelly, 1,000 True Fans The “1,000 True Fans” theory states, effectively, that 1,000 literal fanatics each spending $100/year
Review: GROUNDSWELL, by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff
Solid info and insights, coupled with clear (if sometimes incomplete) case studies make GROUNDSWELL: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies (Harvard Business School Press; 2008) ideal for the C-Suite skeptic and those trying to influence their embrace of socialization. Published last year, and working primarily from data collected in 2007, it holds up
Platform 101 For Busy Writers: 3 Simple Steps
“The best time to start promoting your book is three years before it comes out. Three years to build a reputation, build a permission asset, build a blog, build a following, build credibility and build the connections you’ll need later.” —Seth Godin In an era of immediate gratification and information overload, patience is something few
Free is wrong for writers; Freemium might not be
What [FREE author Chris Anderson] is proposing is down somewhere, on the scale of ethics, well beneath Wal-Mart’s policies of no longer hiring any full-time workers so as to avoid health and unemployment insurance. It is in fact some weird sort of neo-feudal, post-contract-worker society, in which he will create a dystopian and eager volunteer-slave system
The Limitations of FREE; Godin vs. Gladwell
For Anderson, YouTube illustrates the principle that Free removes the necessity of aesthetic judgment. (As he puts it, YouTube proves that “crap is in the eye of the beholder.”) But, in order to make money, YouTube has been obliged to pay for programs that aren’t crap. To recap: YouTube is a great example of Free,
Sorry, but Chris Brogan is no Warren Buffett
“the social media echo chamber is starting to crumble” —David Armano, Senior Partner, Dachis Corp Depending on whom you choose to interact with on Twitter, it can easily seem like an echo chamber, and the release of a “report” last week declaring “It’s Official: Fortune 100 CEOs are Social Media Slackers” did nothing to change that perception. The research found that