(2005-07-21) Godin Author Advice

Seth Godin gives advice to (Non-Fiction?) authors (Writing A Book, Business Models For Information). The return on equity and return on time for authors and for publishers is horrendous. If you're doing it for the money, you're going to be disappointed. On the other hand, a book gives you leverage to spread an idea and a brand far and wide. There's a worldview that's quite common that says that people who write books know what they are talking about and that a book confers some sort of authority... The cost of a book introduces friction to your idea. It makes the idea spread much much more slowly than an online meme because in order for it to spread, someone has to buy it. Add to that the growing (and sad) fact that people hate to read... Build an asset. Large numbers of influential people who read your blog or read your emails or watch your TV show or love your restaurant or or or... Then, put your idea into a format where it will spread fast. That could be an EBook (a free one) or a pamphlet (a cheap one--the Joy Of Jello sold millions and millions of copies at a dollar or less). Then, if your idea catches on, you can sell the souvenir edition. The book. The thing people keep on their Book Shelf or lend out or get from the library.

Update: The first lesson is that free EBook-s spread 40 times faster than ebooks that cost money. That should give you pause if your goal is to spread your ideas (Viral). It seems to me that it's really difficult to imagine that the $9 or $12 you can charge for an ebook is more effective than reaching forty times as many as people for free. The TV model, in other words, (free content for the masses) appears to be defeating the Book Store model. (Business Models For Information)