HIRE ME TO SPEAK
HIRE ME TO SPEAK

Book publisher goes real-time with Truman Fires MacArthur

I write about strategies to turn fans into customers and customers into fans. I also share ways to use real-time strategies to spread ideas, influence minds, and build business.

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When President Obama chose to replace General Stanley A. McChrystal following the fallout from the general's controversial comments in a recent Rolling Stone article, the media was in a frenzy. Because McChrystal was the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, over 13,000 mainstream media stories and blog posts were written in just a few days.

But what about books? It takes a more than a year to write and publish a book, right? So how can a book author jump into the fray?

A real-time ebook

Ebook_truman_fires_macarthur Just two days after the Obama fires McChrystal news broke, book publisher Simon & Schuster released an eBook called Truman Fires MacArthur on Amazon Kindle and other ebook services.

Wow - this is an amazing example of real-time product development.

When the entire world is focused on Obama firing McChrystal, a historian provides near-instant context by releasing information on how Truman fired MacArthur. I love it.

Truman The Truman Fires MacArthur ebook was developed in real-time as an excerpt from the 1992 book Truman by David McCullough.

Publisher Simon & Schuster took the related content from the full-length book, created the ebook, slapped on an ISBN and was selling it electronically within 48 hours of the news breaking.

I learned about this from my wife Yukari Watanabe Scott who blogged it too. She learned it from the LA Times book blog in a post Simon & Schuster releases smart eBook: 'Truman Fires MacArthur'

1) Everyone (including you) needs to develop a real-time mindset in order to see opportunities such as this.

2) Every business can profit by exploiting real-time advantages.

However, the window of opportunity closes very quickly.

Rtmpr_near_final Real-Time product development is just one technique I discuss in my forthcoming book Real-Time Marketing and PR. The book is a discussion on how to instantly engage your market, connect with customers, and create products that grow your business now. This book is in production now and will release in October 2010.