Newsjacking via a real time Kindle book

Here's a new book you can get on your Kindle: Linsanity: The Improbable Rise of Jeremy Lin

What?! Jeremy Lin has been the hottest sports story for less than two weeks and there's already books about him?

Welcome to the new world of Newsjacking via Kindle.

This book is by Alan Goldsher and according to a Fast Company author interview with him, it took 72 hours to write a 15,000-plus-word manuscript, 36 hours using Vook technology to build the e-book, and then another 24 hours to arrange distribution.

And now we're not only talking about Lin the basketball player, we’re also talking about Lin the book and about author Alan Goldsher.

Newsjacking

Whenever there is a hot story in the news, there is an opportunity to create and publish original content that the media will find and will get you coverage.

Newsjacking can be by writing a blog post, doing a YouTube video, creating an infographic, or even publishing a book on Kindle.

Business-to-Business and Nonprofits too

In B2B markets, I'm imagining a scenario where a new regulation hits an industry and some smart person does a speedy analysis of what it means for the industry and publishes that as a Kindle book.

Or in the nonprofit world, a natural disaster strikes and people are looking for how to help the victims and how to protect themselves in the future.

Write the book quickly and get it out fast. Then blog it, tweet it, and send a media alert about it.

The Newsjacking aspect comes in because the media, looking for background on a story, may read and then cite the book in their stories on the new regulation.

Newsjacking is cool. It's fun. And it gets you ink!

A hat tip to Tony Faustino who alerted me to this story. Hey Tony, you newsjacked the story of the Kindle newsjack of Jeremy Lin. Nice work!

Comments

[Tony Faustino]

David, I sincerely appreciate the generous hat tip and inbound link! You've been a generous mentor through the teachings in your books / blog and your comments (to me and so many others).

When I read the Fast Company piece, Alan Goldsher's real-time, newsjacking speed hit like like a sledgehammer. Alan's efforts and opportunistic creativity demonstrate what you and your good friend, Seth Godin, state as personal opportunities in an Internet connected world:

1) Pick Yourself
2) You Are Media, You are a Publisher
3) Speed Wins
4) Iterate / Experiment
5) Go Back to 1)

Thanks again David -- It means a lot to me.

[David Meerman Scott]

Tony, You're right. THis is a terrific example. Many thanks for bringing it to our attention!

[Jim Kukral]

Yeah, this is super smart. The guys over at Bookbrewer.com are partnering up with HuffingtonPost to do some similar stuff. I agree this is a smart way to publish. If I was a journalist I'd pick huge topics and write micro books or manifestos just like this and publish them via Amazon and split the rev with my media partner and make a ton of money!

[Stephen Eugene Adams]

David, Thanks for turning me on to Vook. This is getting crazy. The ability to publish a book in a weeks time is going to revolutionize the publishing industry. I know that is not the theme of your post but it is the message I got out of it. Thanks.

[Taylor Titus]

David,

As a PR student, I am trying to keep up with the latest trends happening in public relations. I believe newsjacking is something that is going to become very common, very soon. News travels fast in today's world thanks to technology. When something is popular, like Linsanity, people want to know all they can about it. Newsjacking is important for PR professionals because it gives them an opportunity to create media to give to journalists trying to get the story. Thanks for the information!

[David Meerman Scott]

Taylor - While Newsjacking is definitely a great technique, I do not think it will become very common as a PR technique. The problem is the vast majority of PR people are still living in campaign mode. They plan far into the future.