Weekend Stuff: The-thing-formerly-called-a-book

We all know amazon and growing self-publishing have changed the book industry, and Apple with iPad is about to do even more. So, as the industry morphs in confusing ways, I am so thankful I have access to many authors who I turn to for advice on marketing my book. Or not – there is a school which says use the book just as a calling card (publishers make most of that revenue so let them spend on marketing it) and concentrate on marketing of speeches and seminars around the book.

I met Tom Davenport for coffee yesterday, I am talking to Seth Godin tomorrow. Two best selling authors with very different paths – Tom is a magnet for bulk sponsor purchases of his books, Seth just about invented the art of digital marketing of books. And some other great tactical advice I have picked up along the way:

• Timothy Chou: leave some copies in the First class United lounge at SFO
• Jeffrey Word : get the book into airport stores ( easier said than done - that turns out to the premium place for a book to aspire to. The space is so competitive that they have known to take books off within 4 hours if it only sold a few copies!)
• Phil Simon : Plant a book trailer video on amazon and other sites.

But my favorite so far (and he also gets credit for the title of this post) goes to my attorney and musician friend, Hank (“Memphis”) Jones:

“Get more interesting hair, to compete with Malcolm Gladwell”

I will ask Seth, who has no hair, about that tomorrow :)