Posted By paulmayson / 30th March 2009
An editor at John Wiley & Sons recently “retweeted” about a book his company published was available in audio form and soon available on the Kindle. I think it’s great to find out from the source what’s coming, why it’s cool, and how it was made. However (there’s always a ‘however’), there’s a fundamental problem.
Why is the Kindle version available weeks after the print book? Technically, it could be available months before the print book. I asked. I didn’t receive an answer.
We recommend taking care of the core business before spending time on Twitter glossing over shortcomings. Everyone points to the fact that Zappos CEO, Tony Hsieh, is on Twitter. If Zappos wouldn’t offer such killer customer service as a pillar of the business, would it matter? If the CEO of Mike’s Shoes (a shoe store like 99% of all shoe stores) started Twittering, would it raise eyebrows. No. The fictitious Mike’s shoe business is boring, unremarkable, and ordinary.
Twittering doesn’t make your business great. Make your products and services amazing, and tell us all it about it later.
Posted By paulmayson / 28th March 2009
I get this question a lot, and I’ve faced it myself when helping professionals “position” themselves. Should you bother? So, is it too late?
Yes, if:
- you plan on repeating what is already found on established sites.
- a condition of success is 150,000 subscribers by the end of the month.
- the topic is interesting to you on most days.
No, if:
- you’re the best at what you do.
- you’re obsessed with a topic and have a unique voice to put behind it.
- it doesn’t matter if you’re catering to 5 people or 500,000. Either way you’re going to want to cover your topic.
Posted By paulmayson / 24th March 2009
We’re happy to launch a new blog today for John Wiley & Sons! The idea of this site is to provide stories from today’s headlines and show how they apply to the lessons and concepts in the bestselling text, CONTEMPORARY BUSINESS.
What a fantastic way to build a relationship with the professors that are using the text in class – helping them prepare!
If we could smash a bottle of champange on the homepage, we would!
Posted By paulmayson / 23rd March 2009
Seth Godin had a post titled “Fitting in vs Standing Out” and I had a tough time getting it out of my head. Here’s my take at a visual of the article:
Posted By paulmayson / 20th March 2009
Here are a few things we found on the web this week that you might find useful/valuable:
- Keep Calm and Carry On – yeah, right. — 43folders brought this weak movement to my attention, with the awesome antidote by moleitau.
- How 2 Blog if U Suk at Writin’ – If you ever needed an alternative to writing paragraph after paragraph. Do what you’re good at – get some ideas over at CopyBlogger.
- Amazon’s MP3 Daily Deal – This has nothing to do with the usual topic here, but it’s a fantastic resource for buying some new music that you can play in the background as you build your online kingdom. Each day, Amazon releases an album or collection for $1.99 – high quality and no DRM. Today it’s Jackson Browne’s The Pretender. Amazon’s Daily Deal
– I keep it on my list of sites to check everyday.
Posted By paulmayson / 19th March 2009
I think it goes something like this…
Posted By paulmayson / 17th March 2009
The traditional time that it takes to publish a book is extraordinary compared to the general news cycle we all live with today. Plus, your book will probably live on a few years before a new edition is produced. This makes for a perfect opening for a professional blog/website.
When authors ask me, “what should I blog about,” I just tell them to stick to what they know best, or what they are learning about. What they’re obsessed with.
A well run site will help:
- Apply the content of your book to today’s headlines
- Share the advice in your print book to challenges in the news.
- Create new, relevant case studies pulled from the leading stories
- Breathe new life into your title and build the relationship with your readers
- Stay current and make your “backlist” title “frontlist” again
Posted By paulmayson / 16th March 2009
When I talk with publishing professionals (and I talk to A LOT of them) about starting their own website or blog, the first response is almost always along the lines of, “That sounds great, Paul, but I already have a full time job.”
In a nutshell, if your publishing job looks the same as it did 10 or 15 years ago, there’s a good chance you’re not going to have to worry about being burdened with that full time gig much longer.
Having your own site/blog/brand is as essential today as a publicist’s Rolodex or a marketer’s co-op budget was 5 (and 30) years ago. In the coming weeks we’ll look at the things you can stop doing to make room for a website (or things a website can do better) and help to evolve the industry.
Posted By paulmayson / 14th March 2009
I’m not sure if there’s a way to calculate the number of abandoned blogs/websites, but it must out number the maintained ones 5 to 1 (maybe 50 to 1?). Ever come across a site with more “coming soon” pages than pages with content? What’s really weird is when those pages are 3 years old.
Hey, who am I to say what “soon” is anyway?
Story time: A guy in sales told me that the big trick to growing his numbers was, “just show up”. Picking up the phone, returning calls, answering emails, seeing who needed help and where. That kind of thing. No race to accumulate 50,000 Twitter followers or an intricate network of anonymous names on LinkedIn. He did the things the majority of folks skipped over. He delivered, without fail, to his base. His reputation grew. So did his base. So did his sales numbers. He never stopped and he’s happy as hell.
Do you floor it when a new idea hits you and then slowly drift off and quit, or do you keep plowing through, growing your base everyday?
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