Books Are Losing Relevancy
Google and Amazon are both pushing to sell ebooks directly aggressively. embed book pasages directly in web pages
The big problem is that the web is quickly becoming more interactive and diverse and useful, making books irrelevant for all but true enthusiasts, desperate people seeking a manifesto for life change, or those who read as an escape. The larger a book becomes, the less likely it is to be relevant to any individual, and the less value each word has. People who may disagree with some concepts in your book may agree with pieces that they would be willing to cite if they could only find it. But they will never cite your information unless they can find it. No matter what people believe, in almost every case someone has already shared the same belief. Format it in small sharable chunks with good findability and people will cite it. A while ago I wrote interviewed Cory Doctorow about how to build blog readership, and that 6 minute interview is far more useful than my article was. See for yourself:Personal Relevancy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4S9wjuJPk8
Attention Deficit Disorder
Most people with significant social and/or economic influence have (an equivalent of) attention deficit disorder, caused by too much content and too little time
People may want to consume relevant bits. people justifiably complain about my writing blog posts in spurts, and using links that are not descriptive enough to merit a click-through.Leveraging the Web
how to create a useful information product is not enough to maximize profits. A big flaw with my ebook is that it has soooo much information in it, but it is hard to show the value of it because it is a single item. You can't tell how much stuff was waded through to write it, that it is mentally and emotionally draining to revise, and it doesn't help that most Internet marketing ebooks are lead generation devices or affiliate marketing tools. Someone could sell much less and look like they were selling more, just by the US DoJ recently whored itself out to telecom companies. Many people in positions of power abuse copyright and are afraid of open markets. From artists need to become publishers:
You “artists” out there generating content will have to learn to publish if you want to participate in the Internet economy. Maybe that’s why Google spends so much trying to help the Internet advance… because it helps Google disintermediate the middlemen. When will Google bring us fast quantities of ISP-free, wireless bandwidth?
One day there will be no more middlemen. And then, Google will squeeze you for more profits. After all, growth needs to come from somewhere, right? When all the middlemen are gone, what’s left? You are. For every producer there are hundreds of consumers hungry for more. Will Google offer rewards for you to procreate? Of course it will. It has to. It’s Google’s destiny to manage the shot short videos of a thousand year old marketplace, showing locals in India trying to sell him a donkey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5J7dWWPsLV4Contrary to popular belief, selling is not about tricking people into buying what they don't want. Yes, there are liars and thieves but that is not selling. That is lying and stealing.
Selling is about getting people to trust you enough to tell you their needs or desires and you satisfying those needs or desires. It is not always easy but it’s certainly not complicated.
The Key is to Not Look Like You are Selling
If markets keep getting more competitive and artists become publishers then I think publishers need to start becoming artists. Almost anything you want to consume has free samples available online. Some are copyright violations, others are free marketing, and some are both.
Here is Dane Cook on why it is so hard to win an argument against a woman:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z468B8vV6XU free research on how personalization and universal search change how we interact with search results? If people are giving away that kind of value for free how do you compete?Becoming an Artist
I think publishers have to stop being publishers and start becoming artists, freely available in real time and virtually everything is a commodity people buy
- the buying experience and sense of connection the buyer has with the artist, including any recommendations from friends or other trusted sources
- The WSJ wrote about how Disney kept a low-fi feel to promoting hyped up information pollution as a form of marketing. But the reality of it is that everyone is short on time. And few deeply understand the publishing dynamics of search, so when people get screwed by finding bad information on the web or make bad decisions because of ideas they discovered over the web they will likely blame themselves for it.
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