January 21st, 2012
What is the real price of free?
The reality of publishing is extremely strange to me.
Sometimes I’ll walk into a bookstore and consider whether I’ll want to buy something. I’ll sit there, and consider it for a while.
What do the blurbs say?
Does it look like it’s an easy read?
Is it a bestseller?
All these questions enter your head.
Here, in Chicago O’Hare airport where I write this from, a book retails for about 25$. It also weighs a few pounds. So even if I’m interested in a few books, and I’m ready to spend $50 bucks, at most I’ll be buying one book.
As I’ve discussed before, ebooks turn this all around.
Last month, I put out a short ebook through Seth Godin’s Domino Project. The price was zero, and it was promoted by pretty much every blogger out there.
I’m told a book is a national bestseller when it sells around 15,000 copies. This is considered a phenomenon, causing at minimum a blip on the national radar, versus most books, which don’t blip at all.
So what happens when you put a promotion machine in place, and give people no resistance to buying whatsoever? Well, the results are dramatic.
In the past month and a half, more copies of The Flinch were sent out than copies of Trust Agents, our previous book, over a whole two years. In the first day alone, Amazon showed over 15,000 copies were released, and it’s now sitting around 75,000.
Today we’re going to try that again.
Colin Wright and Joshua Millburn, two friends of mine, are trying the experiment. Alongside the Flinch, their books will be free for the next three days only (click on their names to get them). Already, only a few hours in, Joshua’s book has hit #1 in the short story category. Who knows how far it’ll go?
So back to the question at hand. What is the real price of free? Well, it isn’t a dollar sign.
It’s an opportunity cost.
What would you give for the opportunity to be in front of fifteen, seventy-five, or even a hundred thousand people?
Think carefully. We’re actually in a very unique time. Soon, the market will be flooded. You won’t have this chance for long.
Filed by Julien at 5:18 pm under experiments, the book
25 Comments
November 3rd, 2009
Trust Agents in Amazon's 10 Best Business Books of 2009
It’s so interesting.
I try to discount the many reviews of the book Chris and I wrote (both positive and negative) because I think hype can really mess up your head. It’s always better not to read your own press; I do read it, I just try not to believe it.
But this was an Editor’s Pick. So it’s kind of different and it feels special. I looked up the ones that were picked in the last few years in the same categories– here’s some of what they’d chosen in the past:
Purple Cow – So classic that Hugh McLeod did a print of it.
Blue Ocean Strategy – Amazing book, displays so clearly how to differentiate yourself. I can’t recommend this enough.
The Long Tail – Speaks for itself.
Made To Stick – I brought this book to Boston with me while we were writing ours, took heavy inspiration from its methods and model. It’s incredible.
Anyway, pretty great list, right?
It makes me kind of feel like I did something really good, that I can really be proud of. I was always happy to have completed the book obviously, but having it sit there adds a certain je ne sais quoi and makes me feel like it’ll have some staying power, which is really important. :)
October 9th, 2009
Bring Trust Agents and Six Pix to You
Chris, Mitch and I have been thinking about how we can bring our books to more audiences.
We considered doing a tour– New York, Chicago, San Francisco, etc, but those were cities we visited all the time anyway.
We also remembered that a lot of you had asked if we could come see you locally, all over the States and Canada, so we wondered how to make that work, too. We considered a lot of options.
But now, we think we’ve hit upon something that might be really great for everyone involved. We think we’ve found a way to travel anywhere you’d like to have us.
From Mitch’s blog:
The three of us want to bring the concepts in the two business books to you, but we are looking for leaders. All three of us command substantial public speaking and consulting fees, but we have decided to wave both the honorariums and travel expenses (within the United States and Canada) for those who can bring 200 people together in a room.
Click here to find out more.
Filed by Julien at 12:09 pm under political, the book, travel 1 Comment
September 4th, 2009
The Big Secret
So I have this problem with a few people in my life. (You don’t know them, and anyway, that’s beside the point.) I wrote about it in the book but I’ll reiterate it here, because it’s worth it.
Reliability: It’s the big secret.
I’ve made the joke before that, before looking for people to work with, I check their Twitter account. If they tweet a lot, there’s no chance I’m working with them (Chris doesn’t sleep, so he’s obviously the exception).
Seriously though, there seems to be a direct correlation between amount of time spent on social media and ability to get work done. Think about it.
But I digress.
Reliability, the ability to answer email quickly, to answer questions, comments, or criticism in a timely way, to deliver projects on time, is a huge factor for how seriously people will treat you.
Imagine you have a person you’re working with, that you’re paying, but who won’t return your messages. In fact, you probably don’t have to imagine– it’s likely you really do have someone like this.
Maybe they’re creative, so you tolerate it. Or maybe you can’t find anyone else, or you’re lazy. Come on, you can admit it. :)
For this reason, because everyone in social media seems to be WAY too forgetful, reliability is the one separator. And it’s the easiest thing to fix– if you get a system. So either do that, or learn to apologize– preferably, do both.
Which do you need to work on?
Filed by Julien at 1:32 pm under random, the book 9 Comments
August 28th, 2009
How To Get a Book Deal
I was asked to do a last minute speech for my local Toastmasters group this week since there was a slot open. What I decided to tell them about in 5-7 minutes, was how to get a book deal.
Here are the steps I outlined. They’re vague, but I think they nail it pretty well.
1. Get a platform.
Book publishers loooove to talk about platforms, because platforms help you sell books by having a built-in audience and way to sell to them. If you’re on CNN or you have a popular blog, you have a platform. That’s why all the newspeople who write books, or those that have their own TV shows, always get on bestseller lists.
If you have a platform, they’re like a half-convinced audience that you alone have access to. That sells books. And that’s powerful.
2. Build a network.
Why is knowing a lot of people important? If you have a wide network, you have a huge leverage point to get things done really effectively. You probably know someone in publishing, and if not, you at least “know someone who knows someone,” as they say.
A wide network is important because you then have the ability to get in contact with all sorts of people– agents, publishers, other authors, etc. All of these will give you a piece of the puzzle, which will help you get closer to your goal.
3. Change the game.
We talk a lot about changing the game in Trust Agents, and that’s because I consider it a huge part of differentiating yourself, which is important for all sorts of reasons.
One reason it’s important to change the game is because books have been written about pretty much anything you can think of. No matter what your specialty is, it’s likely a book has already been written about it. But putting a different angle on it can change that dramatically and help you become the leader in your space.
When we saw that people were able to start using the web to develop influence and trust really effectively, we didn’t just write a book about it– we named it. We called those people trust agents. We made it a new idea, a phenomenon that was unique to this moment in time. This made it memorable. As Chris says, it gave the idea handles.
Anyway, don’t get me wrong, I don’t really think it’s that easy. In fact, each of these steps is in fact really challenging and will take you a long time to do right. But once you’ve gotten them, I’m pretty sure you’ll be able to get a book deal.
Do we have any publishers in the audience? If so, I’d love to hear your take.
Filed by Julien at 1:41 pm under strategy, the book 5 Comments
August 17th, 2009
The Big Push
So today is when it all begins.
I’m sitting in the same breakfast place I sat in for the past year, writing the book, practically every day. Now, it’s finally available. It’s by far the longest single project we’ve worked on.
To me, this is not a social media book. It’s a book about success, both ours and others’ we know, and the strategies you use to get there using today’s tools. We put everything we knew into it.
The reason I did this personally is because I care about the people that I know, like you, reading this. I want you to get more out of what you’re doing, I want you to be successful.
I think the book will help you do that.
The amazing thing is that the book’s performance displays exactly what we’re talking about in the book– how social capital and networks can deliver real business value to you.
Because our methods are working, this is probably not the first time you’ve heard about the book today.
In fact, it’s #53 #45 on Amazon.com right now (#28 on Amazon.ca) because what we do works. It’ll work for you.
Filed by Julien at 1:00 pm under the book 2 Comments
June 10th, 2009
5 Books To Read Before Trust Agents
So I was over at my family’s house yesterday, and decided to pass along the book we wrote to my dad. He was thinking about building a site and wanted my advice, so I figured we’d start there and see how it went.
Over supper we started discussing a bunch of stuff and I started peppering the conversation with jargon (social capital, social proof, etc.) without realizing and I saw that, in some cases, some additional reading might be required to really get him on the same level.
That’s why I wrote this list.
You don’t need to read any of these to understand the book we wrote, of course. But if you like to read the way I do, you love getting those Aha! moments in which you really grasp a concept fully. Reading the books on this list will help you do that. Plus they’re all good are worthy of a read anyway, just on their own.
1. Influence by Robert Cialdini.
Let’s start simple: Understanding human behaviour is at the core of everything we do online. Cialdini is the social psychologist who will help you do this. From social proof to unconscious herd behaviour, this book will guide you through different ways in which persuasion works, and why. Also check out 50 Scientifically-Proven Ways to be Persuasive, a summary his most recent one of the same name. They’re both full of great info. (Thanks to Kottke for reminding me about this one.)
2. The Little Teal Book of Trust by Jeffrey Gitomer.
There are a lot of books on trust I don’t recommend. The Speed of Trust is one of those; I feel like it just went on and on. Gitomer’s book is the opposite. It’s different from ours because it talks primarily about trust in a sales environment, but I have to say that I was really surprised at how great it was. Gitomer is amazing at distilling complex principles into phrases that are catchy and memorable.
3. The Whuffie Factor by Tara Hunt.
You already know what I’m about to tell you, but I’ll say it anyway: Social capital is something to pay attention to. We talk about it in our book, and ways to gain it, but for a comprehensive, web-savvy assessment Tara’s book does the job. I had done a TON of research on social capital when we were writing the book, but Tara has done more and it shows. Read it.
4. Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely.
I was introduced to Ariely by Mitch Joel, and spoke to him on the phone a bit as we were writing the book. Honestly, his book is so great I should have made it number one. I read it at the same time I was reading Influence, and I was starting to become overwhelmed with how much people don’t understand their own behaviour, and why they make the decisions they do, both individually and in groups. This one should not be missed.
5. Ignore Everybody by Hugh MacLeod
You know what’s in this, and so do I. But Ignore Everybody, which comes out tomorrow, is as classic a book as Twyla Tharp‘s Creative Habit — it will teach you to step out of your usual habits and create what you need for your own life. In the end, that’s what we wrote is really about: trying something new that can make something great happen for you.
You know what, there are probably more of these– give me some suggestions, I’d love to know what you think. Hey, and once you’re done those, go grab ours! :)
Filed by Julien at 3:17 pm under the book 13 Comments
June 1st, 2009
Holding Something Real
Chris, Hugh and I were at Book Expo America over the weekend. While we were there, we saw the first copies of our book in actual real life. It was pretty awesome.
There’s something incredible about working really hard for a really long time on a project, with little or no reward, and then finally seeing something real show up, that was made and that you can hold. Of course, we had a nice turnout, so all that lasted only a short time before it was time to sign them all away.
That’s something that’s amazing about what we do, all of us, here on the web. We try to work hard, we have faith that it will have an impact, but we largely never hold something real in our hands. So it’s incredible to see something that people will not only see in bookstores, but hold in their bags and keep on their bookshelves.
I remember one rainy morning a while ago I was giving a girlfriend a few presents for her birthday. I woke up early and painted little cartoons on the wrapping paper. She liked the presents, sure, but somehow the wrapping paper made a huge difference.
It really is about the details, about things you will remember later because they’re real. Simple emotional stuff blurs over time, but actual objects, they can really bring you back.
Filed by Julien at 3:44 pm under the book 11 Comments
September 9th, 2008
More on Trust Agents
So, Trust Agents.
Since Chris came out earlier today to write about what our book would be called, I figured I would add some of my comments. I won’t speak for Chris here, since he’ll probably go into detail on his own, but here’s what the phrase means to me.
1. Trust agents deal in social capital, which I see as a vague, undefined– but nonetheless very real– currency. I talked about this a while ago on my blog, and then promptly forgot about it. I revisited the audio this morning, and it seems like I had the seeds of this idea all the way back in February of 2007. Here it is in case you’re interested.
2. If social capital is the currency of the web, trust agents are people that understand how it works through their understanding of how people work on the web (how they join together, how they come to trust others, etc). They do this, at all times, with *people* in mind, not profit.
3. Trust agents know how trust and influence work, but they *do not* take advantage of people– not only because it’s against their nature, but because it doesn’t work. They know that there are no secrets on the web, and everything is uncovered eventually, so taking advantage of people doesn’t make sense, and they don’t do it.
4. Trust agents develop trust and influence for some purpose; some do it for other companies (ie, Scoble did it with Microsoft), and some do it for themselves. It’s the use of the methods that define what a trust agent is, not where the trust is eventually going.
5. I dunno… other stuff. :)
We’re getting a ton of comments from people on Chris’ blog right now about the title, and how it’s not something people will understand– I see that, and we’re still working on it. But the concept is there, and the people that do this are real. The rest is details. :)
Filed by Julien at 1:07 pm under the book 7 Comments
August 13th, 2008
Funnels and Mr Brogan
One of the interesting things about co-writing a book is that you look into someone else’s experiences, as well as your own. So I’ve been thinking about Chris Brogan a lot. (It’s weird, I know.)
Anyway, remember the funnel?
A long time ago, Seth Godin figured out that turning strangers into friends, then into customers, and then into salespeople– this was a method that worked.
Anyway, I think Chris exemplifies this formula. Except he changed it a bit.
Chris turned strangers into friends, that’s for sure. He knows everyone at conferences and they all want to buy him lunch. And they all feel like they know him personally, and that he knows them. That’s pretty rare for someone who’s read by 7,500 people.
But what’s interesting is that he skipped the friends > customers part. Chris just turned friends into salespeople. People talk him up all the time, but they’ve never bought anything from him… neither has he really tried to sell them anything.
Is there any way to turn strangers into friends, into salespeople, and then into customers? What do you think? Can it be done?
Filed by Julien at 11:36 am under random, the book 4 Comments