Web Ink Now

Does a new literacy call for a new book model?

When I wrote The New Rules of Marketing & PR, I added the URLs of Web sites, blogs, podcasts, YouTube videos and other links at the bottom of the each page in case readers wanted to go to the sites I was discussing in the book. Many people commented that it was helpful, so I repeated in my new book World Wide Rave.

But now I wonder. Could I have done more?

Zak Nelson asks: "Why aren't books more like websites? Or even magazines, for that matter? Or hell, like comic books?" Zak sent me a diagram of what he's thinking (click the image for an enlarged version).

Zak wrote to me while he was reading New Rules… at a cafe in Queen Anne in Seattle.

"Sitting next to a guy pecking away at some code for a web 2.0 site he's working on," Zak wrote. "On my other side two women rue the economy. Across from me a fellow reads the Post-Intelligencer, which will soon go extinct. Classic scene."

Zak says there is a new literacy taking hold, and traditional book publishers aren't keeping up:

"I'm a comics geek," he says. "I love the explosion of new indie comics and high caliber graphic novels appearing on the scene, and selling well. People in general are becoming more literate in comics: with more exposure we are learning how to better read them, and authors/artists are stretching the boundaries of each page and panel. Moreover, comics are typically sold in an affordable, cheap-to-produce format, and are only bound and sold as graphic novels after a series has had its run, and then only if it sold well enough to warrant the cost of creating a book.

Similarly, people are becoming more literate in reading websites, and that neural reconfiguration may well be affecting how traditional books are read and sold (or, unsold as the case may be).

So what if a book read more like a website? What if it looked more like those Choose Your Own Adventure books, with links to other chapters, pages, and even other resources in the marginalia? What if there were paid advertising on the page, but not traditional ads but rather something more akin to Google AdWords, where the placement is determined online in a bidding process coupled with consumer-driven inputs? What if on the printed page, instead of single photos or illustrations with captions, books adapted the concept of the embedded YouTube video, and used a storyboard format--i.e., a comics format--to depict a scene, when sequential visuals are required?"

What do you think? Is Zak on to something here?

Zak Nelson is a marketing and PR professional with five years in the book publishing industry. He is now looking for a new opportunity. He started a Job Club site in early 2009 to bring job seekers in the Seattle area together to share resources, encouragement, and accountability in job searches.

How Lisa Genova used social media to turn a self-published book into a NY Times bestseller

Lisa Genova created one of the coolest World Wide Raves I've seen. She is the author of Still Alice, a novel about a young woman's descent into dementia due to early-onset Alzheimer's Disease. I met Lisa at Grub Street Writers in Boston where we both lamented the traditional conventions of book marketing and strategized on how we can market our books ourselves using social media.

After she wrote Still Alice and was ready to get it into the market, Lisa spent a year trying to get literary agents and editors at publishing houses to speak with her. The editors all treated her as yet another aspiring writer not worth their time, and the few literary agents she managed to reach thought her novel wouldn’t sell.

Don't take no as your final answer!

Instead of letting "rejection" mean no book, she created a web site with valuable information about Alzheimer's Disease and started a blog. In addition, she worked with the Alzheimer's Association to establish a blog on the association site. Still Alice, although fictional, was still a truthful and respectful depiction of life with the disease and her free Web content resonated with tens of thousands of people who talked about her ideas.

She then decided to self-publish her novel and received a stamp of approval from the Alzheimer's Association. As a result of the valuable information in her blogs and the partnership with the Alzheimer's Association, Lisa developed a huge platform and the book sold briskly.

"I received lots of email from people who thanked me for writing the book," she says. "For someone with Alzheimer's or a caregiver of a loved one with this, to tell me that I got it right, that it’s uncanny how true it all was, that they saw themselves all over the book, well that's the highest compliment I can get."

As a result of Lisa's World Wide Rave plus the measurable sales success on Amazon.com and other online booksellers, Lisa generated buzz in the book world too. "An agent contacted me and I signed with her," she says. "Still Alice sold at auction in June 2008 for just over half a million dollars to Simon & Schuster." The first print run of the new edition of the book was 250,000 copies and translation rights have sold to ten foreign countries so far, with more in the works. In addition, Still Alice won the 2008 Bronte Prize.

The new edition of the book was released in January 2009 and in both of the first two weeks of availability made the New York Times Bestseller list.

Remember, this was a book that the "experts" said wouldn’t sell.

What an amazing success story!

One person with a self-published book who had been ignored by the entire book trade shared her enthusiasm, generating a World Wide Rave within a specific group (people who care about Alzheimer's), and the result is the fulfillment of a dream—the chance to share her passion for the subject with people who care—not to mention a huge book deal from a major publisher.

"Do I think that my Web site, reviews at Amazon, my blog, interviews on podcasts, profiles at MySpace [and sites for book lovers], and reviews of Still Alice at other blogs, links at my Web site to traditional press on the book, all contributed to the bidding publishing houses' ability to see the market potential for Still Alice?" Lisa asks. "I absolutely do!"

Lisa offers this advice:

"It feels like I'm been trying to storm the castle of traditional publishing for more than two years. I'm bloody and sweaty. But they finally let me in, and now they are welcoming me. I know so many aspiring writers who are sitting in a holding pattern, with a work completed, waiting to find a literary agent. They're stuck, unable to give themselves permission to write the next book because they’re waiting to find out if their work is 'good enough'—waiting to find out if they're a 'real writer.' This state of waiting, of not writing and self-doubt, is the worst state any writer can be in. My advice is this: If you don't find a literary agent falling into your lap quickly enough, if you feel like your work is done and is ready to be shared with the world, self-publish. Give your work to the world. Let it go.

You absolutely have to have a Web site. Get a profile up on Facebook and MySpace right away. When you get press, people will immediately want to go to your site. And link to the amazing reviews and news that comes out. Your site is your business card; it is how you show the world what you’re doing. A site facilitates everything you’re trying to do, and you don't need to spend thousands of dollars. You can do it yourself."

Thank you Lisa for this inspiring story. A longer version of the story of Still Alice is in my new book World Wide Rave along with stories from over 30 other successful people.

When lawyers get in the way of PR

I received a press release via email a few days ago from a well-meaning PR person.

Guess what? I can't write about it because at the bottom of the release is this:

NOTICE: This electronic mail transmission contains confidential information intended only for the person(s) named. Any use, distribution, copying or disclosure by any other person is strictly prohibited. If you received this transmission in error, please notify the sender by reply e-mail and then destroy the message. Opinions, conclusions, and other information in this message that do not relate to the official business of AGENCY X shall be understood to be neither given nor endorsed by AGENCY X. Before opening any attachments please check them for viruses and defects. When addressed to AGENCY X clients, any information contained in this e-mail is subject to the terms and conditions in the governing client contract.

Yikes! The notice at the bottom of the press release says I cannot distribute the press release. This is what happens when lawyers get in the way of PR.

Or consider this typical press release from Shell that I found on one of the press release wires. Now, I'm not picking on Shell here, I'm making a general point. I could have chosen any one of a thousand releases for this example.

New Shell $aver Card(SM) Available at Shell-Branded Stations Nationwide

HOUSTON, Jan. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Shell Oil Products US launched the Shell Saver Card today, becoming the first gasoline retailer to make an electronic check payment method available to consumers nationally. This latest Shell payment option provides consumers with a convenient way to pay for purchases with a direct link to a checking account and savings on each gallon of fuel pumped at Shell stations.

The body of the press release has several other paragraphs and contains 361 words. It is a well-written new product release. But then the lawyers get involved and add a 519 word "Disclaimer statement" (sometimes called safe harbor). The legal crap is much more lengthy than the news and includes minute definitions of things that aren’t even in the release such as these two sentences:

Forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements concerning the potential exposure of Royal Dutch Shell to market risks and statements expressing management's expectations, beliefs, estimates, forecasts, projections and assumptions. These forward-looking statements are identified by their use of terms and phrases such as "anticipate", "believe", "could", "estimate", "expect", "intend", "may", "plan", "objectives", "outlook", "probably", "project", "will", "seek", "target", "risks", "goals", "should" and similar terms and phrases.

Yikes! By including these statements, the press release says don’t believe a word we’re saying. This is what happens when lawyers get in the way of PR.

Over the holiday break I read a great book by David Henderson called The Media Savvy Leader. David talks a lot about what he calls "bad habits" around these sorts of disclosures. David says that the legal people include this sort of language so the company can't be accused of lying. That's a terrible strategy if you want journalists to believe you! David suggests: "Always tell the truth and you won’t need to hide behind an attorney or safe harbor."

Question to PR people: Have you ever had a lawyer ask you to review a contract in order to remove the jargon and legal gobbledygook? I never have. So why does it happen the other way?

I was fortunate when I was VP of corporate communications for several NASDAQ publicly traded companies (before I escaped the corporate world in 2002). I had an understanding with the lawyers and we only put the safe harbor in the quarterly financial releases, but not the others. I'd recommend that you come to an understanding with your legal department and do the same.

For more on this subject, check out David's book The Media Savvy Leader. It is a terrific book because David has been a success both as a journalist and as a media-relations practitioner. He is an Emmy Award-winning former CBS network news correspondent so he knows what it is like to be a working journalist. And as a media-relations advisor and strategist, he has been responsible for such stunning successes as generating massive national media attention on little Branson, MO. And Henderson knows the online world. He writes a terrific blog and knows how online communications fits into the mix.

World-class, cutting-edge gobbledygook

Yesterday I sent out a tweet "Gobbledygook alert!!" pointing to the web site of Ossk Interactive, which has this gem on the homepage.

"We’re dedicated to providing results oriented, cost efficient solutions for customer outreach by employing existing and proprietary technologies that maximize exposure and obtain a leadership position in your market through the use of E-Ossk, our interactive digital outreach system."

I asked my Twitter followers "What does this company do?" And I was surprised at the number of responses. Some clever, some cynical, and some helpful. (Some even tried to guess what the company does.)

In the helpful category, Elge Premeau points us to another homepage, this one from Blackwater.

"Blackwater Worldwide efficiently and effectively integrates a wide range of resources and core competencies to provide unique and timely solutions that exceed our customers' stated needs and expectations.

We are guided by integrity, innovation, and a desire for a safer world. Blackwater Worldwide professionals leverage state-of-the-art training facilities, professional program management teams, and innovative manufacturing and production capabilities to deliver world-class, customer-driven solutions.

Our corporate leadership and dedicated family of exceptional employees adhere to essential core values- chief among these are integrity, innovation,excellence, respect, accountability, and teamwork."

Now, I'm not saying that the language used by Blackwater and Ossk Interactive is incorrect. The rule is that you should write using the language that your buyer personas use. So it might very well be that these sites are well written. Since I'm not the buyer persona, I wouldn't know. Possibly their potential customers react positively to the writing. Does it really matter that I do not understand?

Amanda helpfully points us to a post from Hall Web Services 9 Out of 10 Small Businesses Do Not Say What They Actually Do

Got any examples of world-class, cutting-edge, gobbledygook to share?

For a longer discussion about writing and language, please take a look at my free ebook The Gobbledygook Manifesto

Some great additional analysis from Bill Hunt in his post Public Relations, Nonsense and Gobbldygook. Real best-of-breed stuff here!

Weasel words, gobbledygook, jargon, buzzwords, babble, blather, and baloney

I've written about the plague of gobbledygook in business writing for several years now. I first articulated this problem in my Gobbledygook Manifesto, which provided an analysis of gobbledygook in over 388,000 press releases sent in 2006. With the help of Dow Jones we used the Dow Jones Insight product to measure the over-use of phrases like Cutting Edge, Mission Critical, Best-of-Breed, and Next Generation.

People in many organizations are aware of the problem and now actively eliminate gobbledygook. Good for you! However, sadly, ever more industry jargon is being tossed around these days.

In just ten minutes yesterday, I noticed these opening paragraphs from press releases on the wires.

HARTFORD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 15, 2008 - Aetna (NYSE:AET) has been awarded the prestigious "Recognizing Innovation in Multicultural Health Care Award" by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) for its prospective randomized study to determine if a telephonic culturally competent disease management program can improve the health of African American members with hypertension. Members in the study who received culturally competent disease management outreach and educational materials achieved a higher percentage of clinically acceptable blood pressure levels, increased their frequency of self blood pressure monitoring, and greater medication compliance when compared to a control group of members who received a light support program.

AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Campus Advantage, a world-class student housing management and development company, today announced its partnerships with the Student Association for Voter Empowerment (SAVE) and HeadCount, a non-partisan organization dedicated to facilitating voter registration and participation through the power of music, to educate students and their advisors about available voting resources.

DALLAS and DUBLIN, Ireland, Sept. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Trintech
Group Plc (Nasdaq: TTPA), a leading global provider of integrated financial governance, transaction risk management, and compliance solutions, today attended the 2008 Sibos Conference in Vienna to promote its innovative LCM Payments solution developed using Microsoft technology.

Its not just press releases of course. Buzzwords, blather, babble and baloney are everywhere: on government forms, company Web sites, owner manuals, marketing materials and so much more.

Consider these examples, which I randomly gathered in just a few minutes:

University of Virginia Darden School of Business mission statement

U.S. Food and Drug Administration Center for Veterinary Medicine Vision Statement

Verizon Commitment to Service

Gartner Says Users Are Becoming Increasingly Confused About the Issues and Solutions Surrounding Gre

The Blizzrd Group home page

I'll admit that I've fallen victim to using nonsense words myself, particularly in my former life when I was VP marketing at several public technology companies. In my case, the problem emerged because I was so focused on company insiders. Like me (at that time of my career), many people never get off their butt and get out into the marketplace to learn how people really talk so they end up using the language of their own R&D labs, CEOs, and the jargon used in conference rooms and internal meetings.

I've discovered two helpful books for those who want to eliminate the corporate-generated blather in their companies.

Death Sentences: How Clichés, Weasel Words, and Management-Speak are Strangling Public Language by Don Watson. This is a terrific overview on the problem. Watson served as the Australian prime minister's speechwriter for four years and his take on language is both hysterical and sad. He comes at the issue as someone who knows how to write, but focuses on many things he sees as an ordinary consumer of information in daily life. The book was a bestseller in Australia and is worth a read.

Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing by Mignon Fogarty. Grammar Girl is known for her popular weekly podcast that helps smart people tackle some of the most common communication mistakes. The book, like the podcast, is about making the process fun. I'm horrible when it comes to things like "who" vs. "whom." I never know if I'm supposed to write "ten" or write "10"? Hell, I have no clue. But Grammar Girl does. Her clear explanations help me to remember some of the rules. However, like plumbing, car repair, landscaping, and many other things in life, I just want to know enough to not make the big mistakes. I still call in the pros when it really matters. My editors and proofreaders are essential for making my books and magazine articles work.

These two books are very different, but get at the same issue. You can't communicate if people don't understand you.

If you're looking for a paradigm shift in your KPIs and need to benchmark your organization against best practice in generating marketing messaging statements these books are NOT for you.

However, if you want to communicate intelligently, these books are worth the investment.

Conflict. To make your marketing much more interesting, add conflict

I was fortunate to have taken a bunch of fiction writing classes and spent a lot of time writing fiction prior to starting this blog and writing books about marketing.

Something you learn very early in creative writing classes are the various elements of the craft like plot, dialog, characters, setting, and the like. But what I always recall as being a particularly important element in fiction is conflict.

According to Wikipedia, conflict is "a state of discord caused by the actual or perceived opposition of needs, values and interests. A conflict can be internal (within oneself) or external (between two or more individuals). Conflict as a concept can help explain many aspects of social life such as social disagreement, conflicts of interests, and fights between individuals, groups, or organizations."

My first book, Eyeball Wars, was a thriller. There was conflict on virtually every page.

Think about it. At a fundamental level all film and all fiction is really just about conflict. Usually it is one character in conflict with others (Batman against the bad guys). Sometimes it is a character in conflict with himself (I really shouldn't go into this bar, but…).

One writing teacher told me "writing without conflict is propaganda."

Here is a classic conflict driven plot line of countless books and movies:
Boy meets girl.
They fall in love.
Boy loses girl.
Boy (and sometimes girl) are miserable for most of the action.
They finally get back together
They get married.

The conflict involved was how and why they broke up and then what they did to get back together.

But how interesting would a book or movie be that had this plot:
Boy meets girl.
They fall in love.
They get married.

Yuk. How boring! This is propaganda.

This sort of propaganda is how most marketing is organized. I see tons of this stuff: "Here’s our product. It is great. Here are customers who say it is great. Now buy some of our product." Sadly, this classic propaganda-driven marketing crap is everywhere.

Think about your own marketing, How can you introduce some conflict into your work? How can you make it interesting?

Have you seen the Budweiser Clydesdale spot that originally ran during the Super Bowl (I don’t remember what year)? It’s the one with Hank the Clydesdale. I've seen it running on NBC during the Olympics this week. This ad is great because it introduces conflict. Hank doesn’t make the team. He's dejected. He works to become stronger. And then he's successful the next season.

How interesting would the same spot be with all the existing elements of cuteness and location in place, but with one change? What if Hank made the team the first try? (I think it would be dreadfully boring!)

In my most recent ebook The New Rules of Viral Marketing: How word-of-mouse spreads your ideas for free I introduced conflict in the opening paragraphs. Perhaps that's why this ebook has been shared by so many people, resulting in a quarter of a million downloads. This is how I open:

"Imagine you're the head of marketing at a theme park, and you're charged with announcing a major new attraction. What would you do?

Well, the old rules of marketing suggest that you pull out your wallet. You'd probably spend millions to buy your way into people’s minds, interrupting them with TV spots, billboards by the side of the highway, and other "creative" Madison Avenue advertising techniques. You'd also hire a big PR agency, who would beg the media to write about your attraction. The traditional PR approach requires a self-congratulatory press release replete with company muckety-mucks claiming that the new attraction will bring about world peace by bringing families closer together.

That's not what Cindy Gordon, vice president of new media and marketing partnerships at Universal Orlando Resort, did when she launched The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Other large entertainment companies would have spent millions of dollars to interrupt everyone in the country with old-rules approaches: Super Bowl TV ads, blimps, direct mail, and magazine ads. Instead, Gordon told just seven people about the new attraction."

By using conflict, I introduce what Cindy Gordon could have done. I show what was expected, and then in a twist she does something completely unexpected. (Read the ebook for the rest of the story.) It was the element of conflict that made this story in the ebook great.

Conflict. It's an important, yet overlooked aspect of all good marketing.

How can you add conflict to your marketing? Got any good examples you want to share?

The Scalper's Got my Baby

For an interesting use of video check out those produced by Max Deale, author of the self-published book Sold Out, So What! The Secrets that High-Priced Ticket Brokers and Scalpers DON'T want you to Know!

This excellent little book (you can read it in an hour) is for fans of concerts and sporting events and teaches the art of scoring tickets to sold out events and always sitting in the best seats in the house. I've been going to concerts since I was 15 and had accidentally discovered and used some of Deale's techniques. However, this funny and well-written little book gave me some new ways to score tickets.

Deale, known to his friends as the "Ticket Jedi" spent 20 years perfecting his technique of acquiring "sold out" tickets at or below face value. (One of his themes as that there is no such thing as "sold out.")

He calls his video series "ridiculously idiotic spoof commercials," and says, "I'll keep pumping them out until I get it right." My personal favorite is called The Scalper's Got My Baby. It's amazing what you can produce with a little time and a healthy dose of creativity. As a result of his excellent Web site for the book and the videos, Deale was recently interviewed for an article in Rolling Stone and Sold Out, So What! is selling briskly.

My best ticket story? I scored front row center to the opening night of The Rolling Stones most recent world tour, paying face value for a ticket that the brokers wanted over ten thousand dollars for. I took this photo at Fenway Park in Boston on August 23, 2005. Can't get much better than this, don’t you think?

55,000 free hotdogs and a dozen free videos

There's been some debate recently about totally free content vs. gate content. On one side are people like me who say put your stuff out for free (my ebook The New Rules of Viral Marketing that has been downloaded around a quarter of a million times in 2008). On the other side are people like Bob Bly who believe that gated content (such as white papers that require an email address to download) is the way to go. Many people suggest a combination.

Last week I was in New York spending time with my publisher at Wiley. After work, we went to see Canadian indie band Wolf Parade. But in order to get into the proper mood for the show, we first hightailed it up to Rudy's Bar & Grill in Hell’s Kitchen, New York City.

Rudy's serves free hotdogs. A lot of free hotdogs. In fact last year they gave away 55,000 free hotdogs. They also sell a hell of a lot of (cheap) beer. The place was packed when we were there.

I was wondering as I ate my second dog and drained my third pint if we’d have been there without the free hotdogs? And I wondered if I’d be seeing Wolf Parade without checking out their music for free on MySpace first?

Here's an Editorial Review for Rudy's Bar and Grill – by Rose Martelli

The Scene
Rudy's is one of the last bars in Manhattan where suits, slackers and lifetime ne'er-do-wells commingle in a laid-back, beer-laden haze. It's always loud and crowded, even when the backyard "garden" is open. And when you're ready to date out of your comfy little social circle, slap on your sluttiest lipstick or your spiffiest blue jeans and head here. Chances are you'll cozy up in one of Rudy's little red banquettes with someone new before long.

The Draw
Heated on one of those fast-food rotisseries and served with a plain white bun and a little mustard, the full-sized hot dogs are always free and always available--so long as "the hot dog guy" is behind the bar. The blackboard lists about 12 brews on tap, from Bud to Checker Cab Blonde Ale; Rudy's Red, the house brew, is dirt cheap but rather weak.

Wolf Parade at Terminal 5 on July 31, 2008

Gobbledygook banned by English and Welsh local authorities

Valerie Conyngham points us to a fascinating story.

The Local Government Association (LGA), an association of English and Welsh local authorities representing over 50 million people, has told local government officials to ditch meaningless jargon.

According to an article in The Telegraph, the LGA has sent a list to Town Halls of 100 words and phrases that should be avoided. The list includes "empowerment," "synergies," "revenue stream," "sustainable communities," and "stakeholders."

Sir Simon Milton, the LGA's chairman, said: "The public sector can not, must not and should not hide behind impenetrable jargon and phrases. Why do we have to have 'coterminous, stakeholder engagement' when we could just 'talk to people' instead?"

Go Sir Simon!

There's more…

"Councils have a duty, not only to provide value for money to local people, but also to tell people what they get for the tax they pay. Without explaining what a council does in proper English then local people will fail to understand its relevance to them or why they should bother to turn out and vote. Unless information is given to people to explain why their council matters then local democracy will be threatened with extinction."

Right on! This is great. And true for all companies, nonprofits, and government agencies.

Eliminate gobbledygook (like the LGA) and your organization will reach more buyers and be more successful.

New Rules of Marketing & PR and the global market

I'm often asked if the "new rules" I write and talk about apply in other countries, cultures, and languages.

YES!

Based on hundreds of emails I've received from people around the world who tell me that they've implemented the ideas, I can say that the new rules are certainly global. It doesn't matter where you live or what language you're most comfortable with – people find answers to their problems on the web and often turn to a search engine first.

Another piece of evidence for the new rules being applicable globally are the 15 publishers around the world who have acquired the rights to my book The New Rules of Marketing & PR. Doing a book translation is expensive, so these publishers obviously see a significant market for the new rules.

Over the next year or so, the book will be coming out in these languages (with more likely to come): Bulgarian, Portuguese (Brazil and Portugal markets), Chinese (simplified and orthodox), Lithuanian, Russian, Polish, Czech, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Serbian, Turkish, and Italian.

It usually takes more than a year for a book to come out in a new language. It needs to be translated, edited, covers designed, the books printed, and then moved through the distribution channel.

The first out of the gate is Portuguese, published by Porto Editora, Lda., the country's largest publisher. The book's title is As novas regras de Marketing e Relacoes Publicas.

Rui Couceiro and the team at Porto Editora have obviously read the book carefully because they created a great blog to promote the book and even re-worked several of my videos and posted them on the blog. Thanks!

I often get pushback from people who say things like: "This is just a North American thing, the new rules won't work in _____________" (fill in a country name). I don't think so. From what I see, we're witnessing a global phenomenon.

Several weeks ago I received an email from a senior diplomat who is part of the United Nations delegation of an important country. He told me that The New Rules of Marketing & PR has been a great help to him and he requested a signed copy for the President of his country, which he wanted to personally hand deliver to him. How cool is that?