Books are still the one of the best ways to spread ideas. Books are portable, ubiquitous, easy to share and easy to talk about. You can recommend a book without worrying whether someone has the right technology to get it or to read it or to understand it.
Business books are generally read by a tiny subset of business people, but every once in a while, one breaks through and changes the way we do business. That's my goal... to make a cogent argument and coin enough neologisms that the idea spreads.
Well, one of the best ways to help your book spread is to work with Jack Covert, CEO of CEOREADs. He is honest, smart, and one of the most insightful people in book publishing. The model of the company? Sell books in bulk to organizations that hand them out to employees. It makes sense, once you think about it. Managers decide they'll benefit if all their employees know an idea, and the best way to spread that idea (cheap, too) is to give em a book.
Not coincidentally, this is one of the cheapest places to buy Free Prize Inside. If you buy a bunch, you might even get a better discount.
Thanks, Jack.
Posted by Seth Godin at May 6, 2004 07:02 AM | TrackBack
Thanks Seth. I keep wondering if a book is necessary and under what circumstances (speaking personally here, as I toss about plans for a book that beckons). Ultimately, it's the message content that's important for me; the delivery vehicle is of secondary importance. So I do try to think through if there are equally viable (maybe better) ways to spread a message (or ideavirus ;-))
I think it does depend on the particular message content or idea more than anything. Some ideas need time to develop and a quick blog post or article in Fast Company, for example, isn't going to provide the depth to lay out and build upon an idea. Other ideas may be better served by a visual medium, perhaps even a documentary film.