Todd Sattersten, CEO of 800CEORead, talks with me on BlogTalk Radio

Todd Sattersten, CEO of 800CEORead, shared 90 minutes with me  about...his book, 100 BEST Business Books of ALL Time: What They Say, Why They Matter and How They Can Help You and authors and the publishing world.

Here's some of his thoughts on why you should be an author, the 7 Sales required with each book and 3 tips for authors.  In reverse order:

3 Tips for Authors:

* Better be ready to deliver.
* Make sure you're far enough along to make it successful. Make sure your platform is big enough. [Platform = your megaphone. How will your message reach enough people to inspire 10,000 people at a minimum to buy your book.]
* It's a multisell process.

7 Sales Required for the Purchase of One Book. (Or the 7 people who have to buy your book before your readers can pay.)

* Your Agent, a Publisher's Agent...who sells your idea to the
* Editor at the Publisher... who sells it to their...
* Editorial Board where the Editor presents their ideas. They in turn sell it to...
* Marketing People who are told ...here's a great idea. They in turn sell it to...
* Sales People. Marketing People sell it to the Sales People who...sell it to
* Distributors, store chains.

KEY: Build Word-of-Mouth into this process.

Why Be an Author

It's the most unparalleled means to build expertise. The process itself hones your ideas, forces you think about them hard, in preparation for writing the  proposal, the book itself, the webinars, the presentations, the panels, the speaking engagements.

People love authors.

You can listen here:

Another 300,000 Reasons to Blog

Funny story in the NY Times this morning. Why blog? Reason No. 92: Book Deal written by Allen Salkin.

This is how it happens.

A guy starts a clever blog in January and calls it Stuff White People Like. The site contains a list of cultural totems, including gifted children, marathons and writers’ workshops, that a certain type of moneyed and liberal American might be expected to like.

Then the guy, the guy that's writing the blog, gets a book deal.

And it's a deal for $300,000 according to someone who's familiar with the terms of the deal but not authorized to disclose them... but generously shared their time in discussing with a reporter from the NY Times what they weren't authorized to discuss...Perhaps it was someone from the publisher who wasn't authorized to discuss it ON the record ... but who maybe was authorized to discuss it OFF the record so as to maximize the tittilation, aka stealth buzz factor...

Maybe. Back to the story.

One person was amazed the author was able to get such a deal when the same thing, a goof of us white people's persuasions, was made into a movie in 1985. ( It was good, not epic, like this book will be.)

Ah yes. 1985. Pre-internet. Pre-blogs, Pre-netflix, pre-youtube and social media, pre-rss and podcasts. It's all changed now. Not really. Different media, same persuasion.

Those who saw the movie will likely not buy this book and vice versa. Hence, a $300,000 book deal, maybe. ( We're not authorized to discuss this except with reporters for the NY Times...it's very hush-hush, see.)

Now if we haven't had enough fun with this...consider this thought:

The outcry over Mr. Lander’s book deal suggests the trend that has been building for a half decade may have finally reached apogee.

Not hardly. Look at Facebook. No content of its own (other than the means to monitor its members activity....), just a place for people to meet. No revenue of its own, just what its advertisers share with it. Or vice versa. And presto, bingo, a multi-billion dollar company.

Maybe this blogger's book deal, whatever the amount, is a sign that trickle-down economics really works. And if someone from FaceBook wants to trickle down a mere smattering over here, I'm ok with being a copycat blogger author. $300,000 is 300,000 reasons to keep blogging. And I'm sure every other blogger feels the same way.

Andy Sernovitz Has a New Book

Andy Sernovitz is CEO of WOMMA. That's Word-of-Mouth Marketing Association.  I don't want to get all gooey here but Andy's done an amazing, awesome, yeoman's job as CEO of WOMMA. He's built this organization from scratch, working...10-12 hours a day, 7 days a week...into a powerhouse on the marketing and advertising scene and bringing coherence, accountability, integrity and consistency to all things WOM-related. 

And somewhere in his free time...he's written a book. CommunityGuy  alerts us to the release of Andy's book Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking. And as he's got an advanced copy of Andy's book, he'll be sharing some commentary.