George Silverman's Word-of-Mouth Marketing Blog

What would books be like if they were invented now?

What would books look like if we were to invent them today?

“Modern” books, in the form we know them, are relics of the 15th Century. It doesn’t make sense to publish static, paper, typeset documents that are revised, at best, every few years — any more than it made sense to publish hand-scribed or wood-cut books once Gutenberg invented the printing press around 1450.

After thinking about improvisation (see previous post) and the risks of putting things out in the world that are spontaneous and unfinished, I’ve decided that I want to do more of it. So, I’m going to try something new:

Instead of writing books one chapter at a time, sequentially, I’m going to try writing the whole thing first as a summary, then an article, then, guided by reader reaction, I’ll expand those that people find most valuable, gradually providing more detail for those who are interested in a more comprehensive version.

I’ll publish those that reach the size of a “book” and charge for them in e-book or other electronic form,,while continuing to make the shorter article available as a sample.

This is the tried and true software model: a beta test version, followed by a free Lite version followed by a Pro version, each with updates as warranted.

This wasn’t possible a few years ago. But now the tools for continual, live documents are emerging. The old book model is dead, even the old e-book model, as we know it. To get an idea of where things are going, take a look at Google Wave:

Google Wave: What Might Email Look Like If It Were Invented Today? - O'Reilly Radar - an excellent third-party article.

Google Wave Preview - Extraordinary presentation from the developers. They are unpolished presenters, but their enthusiasm and knowledge more than trumps any lack of presentation skills. They are the real deal, totally charming in their enthusiasm and completely trustworthy.

Google says, "We set out to answer the question: What would email look like if we set out to invent it today?"

I’m asking, “What would books look like if were to invent them today?”

I think they would be some sort of live documents, continually revised and automatically updated, with almost real time input from readers: questions, reader examples, experiences from implementing the ideas in the document. In other word — as Google say — a cross between a conversation and a document.

With or without Google’s Wave, I have long thought that the time has come for living documents. I certainly plan to implement them in some form starting right now, even if they are a crude improvisation of their eventual evolution.

What I’m looking for now is a publishing platform to host “live” documents, plus a way to indicate in a very simple, convenient way, the changes that have been made since the last revision. “Tracking Changes” of the sort in word processor documents doesn’t even begin to do it.

There is an explosion of group collaboration software, but nothing that I’ve seen fills the bill. I think it could be the NEXT BIG THING.

I hope that Google Wave will soon provide that platform. Does anyone know an interim solution?

Stay tuned.

Musings

I'm back

I have some good news for you

The publisher of my book “The Secrets of Word-of-Mouth Marketing” wants a second edition. But that's not the good news for you. This time, they have agreed to let me use word-of-mouth marketing techniques to create and sell the book.

What this means to you is that I will be writing substantive revisions of the book as essays on this blog. I promise you that they will go way beyond what has been written on the subject so far.

In addition, I will be writing my new book, currently untitled, also on the blog. The premise of the book is that there is only one thing that marketers have to do to be successful, only one thing that organizes and forces you to do all of the other right things: help customers make the right decisions faster.

I will be doing all of this is a series of blog posts. That's one of the great things about blogging. I can write things as they occur to me, the way I usually do, and you can get the benefit without my having to worry about all of them hanging together, until the book is published.

You can also participate by making comments. We can refine and tune the ideas together, making for a much better book. You can use the ideas now, rather than waiting a year or two until official publication.

That's what's so wonderful about the New Marketing. Its participatory nature drives up the quality, while letting people get the benefits during the development process, or at least ensure that the eventual product is more suited to their needs.

This is like beta testing a new piece of software. I've recently been a beta tester for OmniFocus,  a spectacular new piece of software designed to keep track of projects and activities using the GTD system. I was struck by the extreme degree of cooperation between the developers and the beta testers. I'm experiencing another even greater example of that by beta testing another piece of software that has turned me around from what would have been an extreme skeptic, spreading negative word of the word of mouth, into a wild evangelist about the greatest piece of computer software ever developed. It's going to provide a spectacular example, once I can talk about it, hopefully in a week or two.

From time to time, I will organize the blog posts into essays and e-books or papers.

Before the book is published, I have permission to distribute it as a free e-book. We'll probably keep distributing it as a free, or very low cost e-book, even after publication.

It has been intensely frustrating to have to use conventional marketing and be precluded by contract from using my own principles.

In fact, it became so unbearable that when my publisher asked me to come up with a second addition I immediately came to the conclusion that I would do it on my own terms: either the publisher would have to agree to what conventional publishers just don't agree to, or I would write a completely new book and publish it myself. My agent said that there was no way a publisher would agree to publishing a book on the blog as it was being written, and giving it away as an e-book, other examples like Seth Godin and Bob Garfield notwithstanding.

About 10 minutes into the conversation, the publisher (I'm leaving out the details here until I get permission to use his name) agreed. Turns out, he was totally informed about what is going on in publishing today, and was eager to try this new approach. He just couldn't get an author who wanted to give away his own books. My agent and I practically had to be picked up off the floor. In fact, I actually said to the publisher, “I can't believe you're not giving me more of a fight here, how come?” He basically said that he knows where things are going and wants to try the new marketing, and why not with one of the leaders of the new marketing?

Anyway, it's going to be a blast.

Pass the word.

Technorati Tags: Marketing, WOMM, Word-of-mouth marketing

The secrets to Apple's success

Steve Chazin, a former Apple marketing and sales exec, has identified 5 of the things that make Apple such successful marketers.

This little  8 page eBook is absolutely brilliant.

He calls it MarketingApple: 5 Secrets of the World's Best Marketing Machine.

I believe that there is one, underlying thing that Apple is doing, and I wonder if Steve Jobs has realized it:

All of the great, wildly successful products, services, companies, institutions of the last decade or two have all done one thing at the root. They have helped the customer make Better Decisions Faster: not only faster in buying, using, recommending the product itself, but also helping the customer use that product to make better decisions faster in their lives.

For instance, Apple makes it faster to get on the Internet; operate a computer; organize, find, store, carry & access their music, photos, etc.

Amazon has done the same for books, eBay for collecting, Google for searching & reaching the customer at the exact point of interest, Yahoo for accessing certain types of content, Prius for making a certain social statement, Toyota in general for making it easy to buy a more reliable car, etc.

An the root of all successful marketing these days, is helping the customer make Better Decisions Faster. I have always been able to find several major ways to make it faster for your customers to decide on your product, if your product is the better decision.

When you enable customers to make better decisions faster, you accumulate customers faster, your customers get to be better users faster, they feel better about the whole experience, so they spread the word faster.

In the Age of Overload, time is more than money.

Technorati Tags: Apple, Customer Decision Experience, Marketing, Word-of-mouth marketing

A great example of product promotion

How’s this for a great product sample? It’s hilarious, but the reason I’m posting it is that it’s a great marketing example of giving out a sample in the hope it goes viral, I’m sure. As you probably know, I’m not a fan of gratuitous virality attempts, but I’m happy to participate in this one because the thing to be passed on is an actual part of the product instead of some video stunt that’s only tangentially associated with the product, just contributing buzz – otherwise known as noise – in non-word-of-mouth marketing circles.

Click on the link below, then click on the catalog (if you’re blocking Flash on websites, enable it for this site). Click on the lower right hand part of the cover of the catalog, and the pages turn, where you can sample pages from the parody catalog. A perfect way to sample, just waiting to go viral.

SkyMaul: The Catalog Parody by Kasper Hauser

George Silverman
Word-of-Mouth Marketing Speaker and Consultant
Author, The Secrets of Word-of-Mouth Marketing
main website: www.mnav.com    blog: wordofmouth.typepad.com

Technorati Tags: Marketing