Using New Media, New Marketing, and New Thinking to Create Bestselling Books

by Steffan Antonas on October 6, 2009

This lecture from Seth Godin is around 2 years old, but the ideas still resonate strongly, especially in the wake of recent discussions about Chris Anderson’s new book Free and the concepts of Freemium and Freeconomics. If you’re currently writing a book, or thinking of writing a book one day, you should get a lot out of this. The core concepts to keep in mind as you’re going through this are:

  • Books are souvenirs (give ideas away and people buy)
  • Permission is your only asset (relationships matter)
  • Conversations are (the best) marketing
  • Make words for readers, not readers for words (ideas that spread sell, so get the order right)
  • Blogs work (and continue to pay off over time), and
  • It’s not about selling books (it’s about spreading ideas)

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  • The last item is key for me...if a writer (in any medium) is bringing forth new ideas or looking at issues in a new light, that's something I value and will pay for...and tell my friends about!
  • Always good to see you in the comments, Mark. So when can we expect to see
    the book?? From our talks offline it definitely seems that you've done just
    that. Can't wait to read it! ;-)
  • seth is a genius, i love his idea about how a writer's enemy isn't piracy it's obscurity, ideas are meaningless without action and results
  • So true, isn't it. Seth walks the walk. He's shown that if you have great ideas, and you can create the condition where they spread, profits come afterward.
  • great video, thanks for posting it.
    I like the term idea merchant as a way of describing what is going on in the non fiction world. In the music and movie industry this would be “experience merchants”, in consulting and academia “knowledge merchants”. A great way of getting the focus away from the products that used to be the income generator

    Maybe the merchant could be taken even further, into a direct analogy ?
  • Good point, Peter. I'm not sure if you need to take it any further than that. I think the reason all of those terms work is that they acknowledge that the seller knows what they are actually selling (ideas not just books, experiences not just films etc).
  • dreamdesignbuilders
    So many great lessons to learn from Seth Godin. Thanks for reminding us to listen to him! Really excellent points in the very beginning about who makes change in organizations...the people/employees. Seth always brings up this point and it comes up strong again in Tribes. You have quite the fabulous blog here Steffan. Thanks for providing such terrific content! We'll look to you for leadership advice!
  • Thanks for the kind words. I agree, Seth's message is strong in Tribes.
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