Jonathan Kranz in MarketingProfs DailyFix on the real way to attract a publisher's attention

Yesterday I was chatting with my friend Jonathan Kranz, author of Writing Copy for Dummies (love his tagline by the way—"smart clients turn to this dummy"). Since we have four books between us, as usual we got on the subject of books and publishers and agents. As I started talking about my new book, Jonathan stopped me. "I've just got to blog about this on my blog and on MarketingProfs DailyFix," he said.

Yes the Internet has certainly turned the book pitching and publishing and writing model around as Jonathan said so well. How different the old school approach is from my experience. I wrote a (free) ebook which allowed me to sign with an agent and get a book deal. And now I am blogging draft parts of my book (for free) to get (free) feedback from my readers (many of whom will be featured or mentioned in the book – free PR for them). All the interaction will eventually make the book better when if comes out. Only then will it be a "product" and finally for sale.

The book model has changed because of the Web.

Now that you can easily reach buyers directly, Marketing and PR has changed because of the Web.

Has your approach changed along with it? Or are you still doing things the old way?

The Web has changed the rules. On the Web, you are what you publish.

Thanks again Jonathan.

Comments

[Mike Sigers]

David,

I'm almost finished with an ebook that I was writing to give away, as per your model.

Do you think I'd be better off to blog it and see if my readers can contribute to it, giving them credit where they do just that ?

Or should I just give this one away, hopefully getting even more readers and let them help me write the next one ?

[David Meerman Scott]

Hey Mike, I think either model that you propose can work well. If you look at the post just after this one (The Gobbledygook Manifesto one) that was a draft chapter for my new book. Based on some feedback and suggestions, I will modify before I send in to the publisher. So for me, getting comments works.

However, if you already know what you want to say and you don't have any questions in your own mind about the content of the ebook, I would just publish it. One reason for this is that if there is blogger interest in the draft, people will link a lot to it. But when "the real thing" comes out, some of those bloggers may not link a second time. If there is no change in the text, then people are promoting an unfinished work and it can be confusing.

Please send me the ebook when it is done.

David

[Mike]

Thanks for the advice David.

You'll get the first copy, my blog friend.