Blogging my newest book - The New Rules of Marketing and PR - and you are invited

I have started writing a new book tentatively titled "The New Rules of Marketing and PR" and I need your help!

I'll be blogging the book as I go through the research, writing, editing, and marketing process and I invite you to follow along, to contribute to the process, to offer suggestions, and to argue with me when I get off track. The book will take about 4 months to write. Please join me.

I'm writing The New Rules of Marketing and PR to show how smart organizations reach buyers through blogs, news releases, podcasting, viral marketing, and online media. The old rules of marketing as one-way broadcast TV-style advertising does not work on the web. The old rules of relying exclusively on mainstream media to tell your story isn't the only way to get ink on the web.

In a sense, my new book started on this blog nearly a year ago and many of you have already contributed. I didn't realize it at the time, but when I wrote and used this blog to release my e-book The New Rules of PR: How to use press releases to reach buyers directly, it was the starting point of this new book. With nearly 100,000 downloads (and counting) and thousands of comments on this blog and hundreds of others, the ideas around using news releases to reach buyers directly that I covered in the e-book sparked fascinating debate.

Many great ideas came from that debate. For example, when using releases to reach buyers directly I now say "news releases" instead of "press releases." That's because there was so much feedback on the term "press release" from people who equated press releases with reaching the media but news releases with reaching buyers. Another thing that came out is that it's not just PR that has new rules, it is also marketing. On the web PR doesn't exist in a vacuum: marketing and PR are one and the same in that they are both ways to reach buyers with a message. Thank you for enlightening me!

But the greatest idea that came from the online conversation is that there is more to be said on the new rules. Much more. And not just by me. So this blog and the resulting book is a starting point for many more conversations on how to use the web to reach buyers directly.

The web has also changed the business book model and my case is an interesting example. On the strength of the e-book and the interest in the New Rules from thousands of people, I hired a terrific literary agent in Bill Gladstone at Waterside Productions. We showed interested publishers how the e-book tested the market, gauged interest and that there is demand for more detailed information on how to reach buyers directly. Here's a case of online content leading to a print book deal.

I couldn’t be happier that Wiley will be publishing the book with a late 2007 target release. Wiley is an awesome publisher and the professionals there get the new publishing model as well as the new rules of marketing and PR. Other publishers would freak out if an author wanted to put bits of the book out for comment and solicit ideas online. Wiley encouraged it.

Some of my favorite books evolved on blogs. Two that come to mind are Naked Conversations by Robert Scoble and Shel Isreal (also a Wiley book!) and The Long Tail by Chris Anderson. Great company indeed. Thanks for showing the way, guys.

Some helpful people who totally get the new book model are Seth Godin, who recently posted wonderful Advice for Authors and Joe Wikert who writes the terrific Media 2020 blog. Great advice here if you’re thinking of doing a book yourself.

Thanks for the help on New Rules so far and I look forward to hearing more from you in the months to come.

Comments

[John Blossom]

Congratulations, David, I think that it will be great to see someone who's really on the leading edge of thinking about publishing to develop a book from the "blog up."

[shel israel]

Congrats, David. You have a great topic, a great publisher in Wiley, and doing it on a blog has enormous benefits. First, the blogosphere will help you write a better book and second, the same bloggers who help you write it will then help you sell lots of copies as your word of mouth champions.

[Robert J. Ricci]

Yes, congratulations David! I'm looking forward to following along!

[Joe Wikert]

Hi David. Congrats on the new project. I'm looking forward to seeing the book evolve on your blog.

[Jordan]

I'm excited to watch it all unfold, David.

I like the way John says it, above; developing the book from the "blog up."

Your updates on the process as well as your nuggets of wisdom will be anxiously anticipated on my end.

[Mike Sigers]

Looking forward to all the info you'll be sharing as you go.

Thanks for including us.

[Kikiy]

Congratulations!

You've done it again...trendsetting, that is. It makes perfect sense: Since blogging is so user-focused, why not have the users participate in the writing/publishing process?

I can't wait to add my two cents!

[Stephanie H.]

Hi David - just came across your site and your idea to blog your book. Unique visitors to our three-year-old blogging community has grown by more than 300% - have you ever considered linking to www.ittoolbox.com? It seems like there's some synergy.

[edward bernardi]

I WANT TO MARKET A NEW NOVEL...JUST OFF THE PRESS.

WHAT DO YOU RECOMMEND?

HOW DO I GO ABOUT IT?

BERNARDI

[david Meerman Scott]

Edward

Novels are more difficult to market. But I think fiction or non-fiction, writing a blog and commenting on other people's blogs helps. Also, you might try reviewing similar books to yours on Amazon and signing the reviews with your name and the title of your book.

Good luck,
David

[Javier Mesa]

The book is helping me to understand this new (parallel) world and I hope it will help to improve my artist friend’s income.

[Jane Dripin]

Hello, I just came away from the Borders Book store in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and read your book, well parts of it that is relevant and most important to me. This book comes at the right time for me as I come to understand the evolution of PR in this 21st century. I've been wondering and thinking that PR has to be more than the PR I know from the just past century and having read your book, I've found the answer.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge in your book. It is very useful to me.