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Posted Sept. 16, 2011 12:07 p.m. by dylan
In - 800 CEO Read Blog
➻ The Portfolio Javelin blog has recently pointed us to two additions to big conversations happening in our world—one in the publishing world and one in the world at large. First, Brooke Carey pointed us to Cory Doctorow's excellent article chronicling his understanding of the bookselling trade that attempts to help authors answer a vital question about marketing their book: Why Should Anyone Care? In the article, he writes about the difficulties he had in his first foray into self-publishing, and how much more work it required:
It doesn’t really matter how much time you spend hanging around bookstores or browsing online stores, until you’ve marketed a book, you don’t really know how to market a book.
I certainly didn’t.
Oh, when I launched my DIY short story collection With a Little Help, I figured I could deploy all the stuff I’d done when my other books had been published by mainstream publishers, the stuff that had given my books a little push to get them out of the midlist and into wider circles of attention and discussion. I knew I’d have to do some of the stuff my publisher had done, but like everyone doing something complicated for the first time, I dramatically underestimated how much work this would be. It’s not impossible, and it’s not horrible work—it’s challenging, exciting stuff, but it’s incredibly time consuming and it can be tough (and expensive—sending out hundreds of review copies ain’t cheap, but it was worth it, if only for the major feature in The Wall Street Journal this garnered me).
Doctorow is always experimenting in publishing, and is very generous in sharing his experience in and advice about it. If you're an author looking to enter the field*, you should definitely look into the many things he's written about those experiences. Even if you're just a lover of books, you'll want to check out this article just to read about his experience in and passion for books and bookstores.
*If you're looking for a reason to finally write that book, Stephanie Chandler has for 20 of them for you.
➻ Next up, Courtney Young pointed us to a provocative piece Douglas Rushkoff wrote for CNN.com that asks Are jobs obsolete? The choice quote from that piece:
The Industrial Age was largely about making ... jobs as menial and unskilled as possible. Technologies such as the assembly line were less important for making production faster than for making it cheaper, and laborers more replaceable. Now that we’re in the digital age, we’re using technology the same way: to increase efficiency, lay off more people, and increase corporate profits.
While this is certainly bad for workers and unions, I have to wonder just how truly bad is it for people. Isn’t this what all this technology was for in the first place? The question we have to begin to ask ourselves is not how do we employ all the people who are rendered obsolete by technology, but how can we organize a society around something other than employment? Might the spirit of enterprise we currently associate with “career” be shifted to something entirely more collaborative, purposeful, and even meaningful?
Rushkoff's also sat down with The Wall Street Journal's Dennis Berman recently to ask, Does America Really Need More Jobs? I agree with Ms. Young that "It’s a worthwhile question, and not just one for consideration in freshman Marxism seminars," but Rush Limbaugh just wants to know who this Douglas Rushkoff guy is.
➻ And speaking of that old bogeyman Marx, Umair Haque, author of The New Capitalist Manifesto, recently asked his readers Was Marx Right? After looking at some of Marx's critiques in detail, he writes:
Marx's critiques seem, today, more resonant than we might have guessed. Now, here's what I'm not suggesting: that Marx's prescriptions (you know the score: overthrow, communalize, high-five, live happily ever after) for what to do about the maladies above were desirable, good, or just. History, I'd argue, suggests they were anything but. Yet nothing's black or white — and while Marx's prescriptions were poor, perhaps, if we're prepared to think subtly, it's worthwhile separating his diagnoses from them.
Because the truth might just be that the global economy is in historic, generational trouble, plagued by problems the orthodoxy didn't expect, didn't see coming, and doesn't quite know what to do with. Hence, it might just be that if we're going to turn this crisis upside down, we're going to have to think outside the big-box store, the McMansion, the dead-end McJob, the bailout, the super-bonus, and the share price.
This makes sense to me, and I think we should be able to look at the entire breadth of economic critique without the rancor of our current partisan lenses—we should be able to see Smith and Marx simultaneously, read Keynes and Hayek together, consider both Paul Krugman and the Wall Street Journal editorial page with and open mind. What we're looking for are solutions and a new way forward, and everyone has something to contribute. As Seth Godin wrote in Linchpin:
(Karl Marx and Adam Smith Agreed)
Both great social economists said the same thing: There are two teams, management and labor. Management owns the machines, labor follows the rules.
Management wins when it can get the most work for the least pay, and the more controlled the output, the better. Smith thought this was a good thing. Marx saw this as a lousy deal for labor and insisted that the entire structure be forcibly abandoned.
What if there were no longer only two sides? Not just capital versus labor, but a third team, one that straddles the elements of both? I think there's a huge opportunity for a third kind of participant, a linchpin, and now there is an opportunity to change all the rules that we've lived with all our lives. There is a shortage of this third kind of worker, and that shortage means that the market needs you desperately. The con game is ending, at least for people passionate enough to do something about it.
Okay, I'm done. Sorry for the link tangent.
➻ Getting back to the debate as it's being played out in our current politics, The Economist looks at the debate between libertarian and neo-classical economists about Social welfare and economic irrationality.
Mike Konczal writes:
One of the more curious behavioral responses is that people hate unemployment. They hate not being part of their productive community, they hate not contributing, they hate the loss of identity that one gets as someone who works. To an economist that’s b-a-n-a-n-a-s. Unemployment should be a pleasant vacation! But, last time I checked, it wasn’t (is that consistent with the latest frontiers in happiness research?).
Mr Konczal is contributing to a discussion that's kicked up recently over a paper written by libertarian economists Bryan Caplan and Scott Beaulier, arguing that behavioural economics provides a basis for critiquing government welfare policies. Karl Smith highlighted Mr Caplan's paper as a serious challenge to his neo-classical economic belief structure; other commentors replied that the paper had no data and no mathematical models; Mr Smith responded that often simple, data-free models can be extremely helpful in posing problems and presenting complex ideas intuitively, and cited the example of Paul Krugman's famous essay on the babysitting co-op with its crystal-clear workaday picture of how a Keynesian liquidity trap works; Mr Krugman jumped in with his favourite simple, low-on-data papers, including David Hume's thought experiment "Of the Balance of Trade" and Evsey Domar's paper grounding slavery and serfdom in land surpluses and labour shortages.
Head on over to the original article, and you'll find a wealth of additional links in the paragraph I cited above.
➻ It's all a bit like chasing Winter Ghosts.
Links for a Monday Afternoon
Posted June 6, 2011 10:57 a.m. by dylan
In - 800 CEO Read Blog
➻ Cory Doctorow has laid out an interesting chronology of intellectual property rights since the first part of the 20th century for The Guardian's Comment Is Free interview series. Arguing that Every pirate wants to be an admiral, he tells a story that begins with sheet music composers and ends with the Internet about how elements of every innovation are seen as piracy until they become the mainstream, at which time they begin accusing the next generation of innovators of piracy. Stating at the beginning of the video that "The way to increase the health of the cultural realm is to allow more people to participate in it in more ways," he ends with anxiety that, for the first time in history, lawmakers may end up on the wrong side of the debate between the so-called "pirates" and supposed "admirals."
If you're interested in real piracy, The Guardian also covered that recently, with Jay Bahadur (the author of Deadly Waters: Inside the Hidden World of Somalia's Pirates—not yet available in the U.S.) writing about his Interview With a Pirate for the paper.
➻ Palgrave Macmillan has a new Family Business Publication series. Mark T. Green wrote recently for the Powell's Books blog about his release in that series, Inside the Multi-Generational Family Business: Nine Symptoms of Generational Stack-Up and How to Cure Them. Speaking of Family Business Light and Dark, he wrote:
Death of a Salesman. Buddenbrooks. The Godfather. The Count of Monte Cristo.
These great works of literature have larger-than-life characters and sweeping themes of love and loss. They also share something else: They're about family businesses. Sometimes the fictional business is like a living, breathing character itself (Buddenbrooks, The Godfather). Sometimes the business is more for setting and context (The Count of Monte Cristo). As a family-business researcher and consultant for over 10 years, I'm not surprised that so many authors, playwrights, filmmakers, and TV-show creators look to a family livelihood for inspiration. The real-life intersection of family and work, arguably the two richest sources of self-worth (and pain), is rife with the most archetypal themes and conflicts, the lightest and darkest sides of the human psyche and human interaction.
I'm sure those of you out there with family businesses can relate. And, if so, Palgrave's Family Business Bookstore can probably help you avoid the dark side. They're the Jedi of the family business book universe.
➻ And for all you social entrepreneurs out there, The Echoing Green SPARK*BLOG posted a list of books for social entrepreneurs that were recommended by their readers. It's about a month old now, but it's new to me so maybe it will be new to you. The original post broke the answers up to show which suggestions came from Americorps Alumni and which came from the Echoing Green Community, but I'm going to list them all together:
- Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future by Robert B. Reich
- Big Citizenship: How Pragmatic Idealism Can Bring Out the Best in America by Alan Khazei
- Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
- Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? by Seth Godin
- What’s Mine is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption by Rachel Botsman and Roo Rogers
- KaBoom! How One Man Built A Movement to Save Play by Darell Hammond
- Gandhi an Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments With Truth by Mahatma Gandhi
- The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World by Jacqueline Novogratz
- How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas by David Bornstein
- A Billion Bootstraps: Microcredit, Barefoot Banking, and The Business Solution for Ending Poverty by Philip Smith
- Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Social Movement in History Is Restoring Grace, Justice, and Beauty to the World by Paul Hawken
- Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach
- Thinking in Systems: A Primer by Donella Meadows
- Credibility: How Leaders Gain and Lose it, Why People Demand It by James Kouzes and Barry Posnerr
- Ill Fares the Land by Tony Judt
- Tactics of Hope: How Social Entrepreneurs Are Changing Our World by Wilford Welch
- Just Another Emperor? The Myths and Realities of Philanthrocapitalism by Michael Edwards
- Be the Solution: How Entrepreneurs and Conscious Capitalists Can Solve All the Worlds Problems by Michael Strong
- Solving Tough Problems: An Open Way of Talking, Listening, and Creating New Realities by Adam Kahane and Peter Senge
- Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations by Clay Shirky
- Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela
- The Answer to How is Yes: Acting on What Matters by Peter Block
- The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Hopefully Lisa Galinsky's Work on Purpose will show up on that list soon (Ms. Galisnky is the Senior Vice President of Echoing Green). To get even more book recommendations, check out their previous post on Books Every Social Entrepreneur Should Read, which links to lists from Change.org, Acumen Fund, and Social Edge.
➻ Jon and Aaron have been out of town attending Chris Guillebeau's World Domination Summit, which gives me a great reason to link to Chris's recent post about The Need for Change:
When the time comes where you’re willing to make a big break, you may find yourself facing down fear and trying to see through to the other side. Just remember: once you start going down the road of change, you don’t always know where you’re going to end up. This very reason is why many people remain stuck in discontent but unable to find their way out.Will it be easy? Probably not, at least not if it’s worth doing. Will everything be OK? Maybe, maybe not. That’s why it’s scary.
That's also why it's worth it.
➻ Speaking of change, we now turn to music (a passion everyone in our office shares) and an article Jack shared with me to this morning—The New York Times Magazine's great profile of Who, What and Where is Bon Iver? It turns out that all of those questions can in be answered in one way or another with "Eau Claire, Wisconsin."
➻ Skinny Love.
Bon Iver - Skinny Love - Une Soiree de Poche from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.
The Bestsellers of 2010
Posted Dec. 30, 2010 8:57 a.m. by dylan
In - 800 CEO Read Blog
This year saw a big development in our monthly bestseller lists, as Inc. magazine decided to partner with us to spread the word about what books businesspeople are purchasing for themselves and their teams. Thus was born the Inc./800-CEO-READ Business Book Bestseller List.
We've recently compiled the numbers for the entire year, giving weight to both total sales numbers and how long each book stayed on the list (and at what number), and we are now pleased to present
the bestsellers of 2010.
- Strengths Finder 2.0 by Tom Rath; Gallup Press
- The Go-Giver: A Little Story about a Powerful Business Idea by Bob Burg, John David Mann ; Portfolio
- Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard By Chip Heath, Dan Heath, Broadway
- Love Leadership: The New Way to Lead in a Fear-Based World by John Hope Bryant; Jossey-Bass
- Return of the Gold: The Journey of Jerry Colangelo and the Redeem Team by Dan Bickley; Morgan James Publishing
- Doing Both: How Cisco Captures Today's Profit and Drives Tomorrow's Growth By Inder Sidhu , FT Press
- Rich Dad's Conspiracy of the Rich: The 8 New Rules of Money by Robert T Kiyosaki; Business Plus
- Accelerating Out of the Great Recession: How to Win in a Slow-Growth Economy by David Rhodes, Daniel Stelter; McGraw-Hill
- Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? by Seth Godin; Portfolio
- What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful by Marshall Goldsmith, Mark Reiter; Hyperion
- How Companies Win: Profiting from Demand-Driven Business Models No Matter What Business You're In by Rick Kash, David Calhoun ; HarperBusiness
- Keep Swinging: An Entrepreneur's Story of Overcoming Adversity & Achieving Small Business Success by Jay Myers, Darren Dahl; Morgan James Publishing
- Six Pixels of Separation: Everyone Is Connected. Connect Your Business to Everyone by Mitch Joel, Business Plus
- Rich Dad's Prophecy: Why the Biggest Stock Market Crash in History Is Still Coming... and How You Can Prepare Yourself and Profit from It! by Robert T Kiyosaki, Sharon L Lechter; Business Plus
- Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back If You Lose It by Marshall Goldsmith; Hyperion
- The M-Factor: How the Millennial Generation Is Rocking the Workplace by Lynn Lancaster, David Stillman; HarperBusiness
- Employees First, Customers Second: Turning Conventional Management Upside Down by Vineet Nayar, Harvard Business Press
- The Medici Effect: Breakthrough Insights at the Intersection of Ideas, Concepts, and Cultures by Frans Johansson; Harvard Business Press
- Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd by Youngme Moon; Crown
- Empowered: Unleash Your Employees, Energize Your Customers, and Transform Your Business by Josh Bernoff, Ted Schadler; Harvard Business Press
- The End of the Free Market: Who Wins the War Between States and Corporations? by Ian Bremmer; Portfolio
- Spend Shift: How the Post-Crisis Values Revolution Is Changing the Way We Buy, Sell, and Live By John Gerzema, Michael D'Antonio; Jossey-Bass
- Crush It!: Why Now Is the Time to Cash in on Your Passion by Gary Vaynerchuck; Harper Studio
- The Mirror Test: Is Your Business Really Breathing? by Jeffrey W Hayzlett, Jim Eber; Business Plus
- Inside Every Woman: Using the 10 Strengths You Didn't Know You Had to Get the Career and Life You Want Now by Vickie Milazzo; John Wiley & Sons
To follow what books the business world is digesting every month, subscribe to the RSS feed for The Business Book Bestseller List.
Todd Sattersten's Top 10 Business Books of 2010
Posted Dec. 28, 2010 10:21 a.m. by sally-haldorson
In - 800 CEO Read Blog
Business book expert (and former president of 800-CEO-READ) Todd Sattersten has picked his top 10 business books of the year. We agree heartily with his list--a mix of big idea books and practical methodology--and think that you can't go wrong choosing any of these fine books as a blueprint for your business goals in 2011.
Todd's Top 10:
Drive by Dan Pink
Switch by Chip and Dan Heath
Linchpin by Seth Godin
Rafi Mohammed's The 1% Windfall
William Poundstone's Priceless
Youngme Moon: Different
Lisa Gansky: The Mesh
The Big Short by Michael Lewis
Steven Johnson: Where Good Ideas Come From
Gamestorming: by Dave Gray, Sunni Brown, and James Macanufo
Click over to Todd's blog to read more about each of his picks.
Amazon's Best of 2010
Posted Nov. 4, 2010 9:28 a.m. by dylan
In - 800 CEO Read Blog
As they've done in previous years, Amazon has broken the books into separate categories and listed their editors' picks next to the customer favorites. I always enjoy seeing the differences between what editors choose and customers vote for with their pocket books. And I would enjoy it more if I were Michael Lewis, who topped both lists in the Business and Investing category.
The customer favorites were:
- The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis, W.W. Norton
- Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose by Tony Hsieh
- Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Chip Heath & Dan Heath, Broadway Business
- Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink, Riverhead
- Rework by Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson, Crown Business
- Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? by Seth Godin, Portfolio
- The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness by Dave Ramsey, Thomas Nelson Publishers
- On the Brink: Inside the Race to Stop the Collapse of the Global Financial System by Henry M. Paulson, Business Plus
- Doing Both: How Cisco Captures Today's Profit and Drives Tomorrow's Growth by Inder Sidhu, FT Press
- 13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown by Simon Johnson & James Kwak, Pantheon Books
The editors' picks were:
- The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis, W.W. Norton
- Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Chip Heath, Broadway Business
- The Art of Choosing by Sheena Iyengar
- The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires by Tim Wu, Knopf Publishing Group
- Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation by Steven Johnson, Riverhead
- Fault Lines: How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten the World Economy by Raghuram Rajan, Princeton University Press
- No One Would Listen: A True Financial Thriller by Harry Markopolos, John Wiley & Sons
- The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home by Dan Ariely, Harper
- When I Stop Talking, You'll Know I'm Dead: Useful Stories from a Persuasive Man by Jerry Weintraub, Twelve
- Appetite for America: How Visionary Businessman Fred Harvey Built a Railroad Hospitality Empire That Civilized the Wild West by Stephen Fried, Bantam
If you're interested in what's been listed in the past, I've linked to our post from previous years below.
Best of 2009 | Best of 2008 | Best of 2007 | Best of 2006 | Best of 2005 | Best of 2004
