What's wrong with Business Books?

Allan Jenkins over at Desirable Roasted Coffee ponders why we speed read through most business books.  His answer: because they are written on the 7th grade level. I think he's right, but I think writing at too low a level is one of many mistakes business writers can make as they dream of reaching the broadest of all possible audiences.

Allan hit a real nerve for me, because to be honest, I rarely read tech industry or business books unless they are written by people I know, and awkward attempts to broaden readership by over-simplification seems to me to be neither useful nor compelling to the reader.

Robert and I talk about the things we do and the traps we hope to avoid.  Here are some of our thoughts to date:

• Don't pontificate.We may know more about blogging than our readers, but that doesn't mean we know more. We will speak to our readers as intelligent colleagues. If they only went to the 7th grade, then we will assume they were very smart seventh graders.
• The Red Couch will use the style of "a simple story, well told," a technique mastered by Tom Peters and Malcolm Gladwell, two of our favorite business auhors.
• We will keep focused. This will be the hardest point to adhere to. Robert and I have lives filled with anecdotes. We will stick to the subject of why businesses should blog.  There is a great deal more to be said about either blogging or business, but we will leave the rest for future books or other authors. 

This is a short list.  What should we add to it?

BTW, thanks to everyone whose been sugesting cases.  We've picked up a few great ones we hadn't previously heard about.  Please keep them coming in.

Comments

[Elisa Camahort]

The biggest problem with business books is that they only really have a half of a book's worth of content, and then they engage in repetitive banging you over the head with a club writing. I read most business books halfwaythrough than skim the rest. I'm not missing much as far as I can tell.

I too like Gladwell's books, and also thought that "Good to Great" was an excellent example. Great organized chapters, each with its own theme and point to make, and only a handful of chapters at the end to pull it all together and give you the takeaway clearly.

[Alex Geana]

Thanks you, Thank You for saying this, it is my biggest frustration. Don't Dumb down. writing is an art and it should reflect ideas.

[Steven Streight aka Vaspers the Grate]

What business writers do more than just re-hash what Tom Peters, W. Edwards Deming, Peter Drucker, Seth Godin, and Harvey MacKay have already said, and said well?

We speed read business books because we seek to find new, relevant, practical information.

Stick to what you know. You guys have anecdotes and gossip up to your eyeballs and that's the niche your book will fill.

There's room for lots of blog books, and many of them will make the mistake of "preaching to the choir'.

I very humbly suggest to you, my betters, that you consider NOT explaining why businesses should blog.

If any business or CEO is that out of the loop by the time your book comes out, his enterprize deserves to crash and burn. Good Riddance, I say.

Mediocrity, out of touchedness, incompetence must be destroyed. "Torch the Ivory Towers" is my motto.

Go straight to the heart of the matter, the one thing that makes your book Big, New, Different, a Must Read.

Forget all the theoretical junk and coaxing corporate big cheeses to gingerly wade into the deep waters of excellance.

I guess it's that "don't worry be crappy" syndrome rearing its ugly idiotic misanthropic false advertising anti-consumer head again. Sheeeeesh.

Mr. Business Man or Ms. Business Woman, Blog or Be Laughed At. Period.

Don't do their MBA homework for them.

Grate-fully yours,

VTG

[Carmi]

Lost in the discussion here is the fact that some editors and publishers often pressure writers into writing at that mythical 7th grade level. It has little to do with editorial excellence and everything to do with basic marketing.

You have a few quick seconds to make that first (and indeed last and only) impression on the prospective shipper in the aisle of the Barnes & Noble store. While the more erudite and literate among us won't have any trouble quick-reading a book written in a more sophisticated style (say, college-level, for argument's sake), the fear of leaving the less-enlightened in the dust must grate on every publisher's mind.

Thus, like movies, they end up pandering. And writers, ever mindful of the need to put food on the table, follow. They seem to have little choice in many cases.

Carmi
http://writteninc.blogspot.com

[Steven Streight aka Vaspers the Grate]

Good one Carmi. I forgot about how some editors at some publishing houses may insist on "dumbing down" of a smart author's work.

Don't dumb down. Dumb business people who can't understand anything more literate than a sports page deserve to fail. Adios dumb amigos.

Hey evrybody:

check out the Economist article on Robert, with nice photo, at:

http://www.economist.com/people/displaystory.cfm?story_id=3644293

[Joe Wikert]

As Elisa noted earlier, almost every business book simply tries to stretch a handful of good ideas or insights into 300-400 pages of material. Most of the great information in any given book could be presented on a single page. Nobody's going to pay $30 for one page of wisdom though, or are they?...

I would gladly pay that much for a book which takes advantage of technology to present the key elements in this manner. It would probably have to be an e-book rather than a printed one though. I'd like to see the key insights on that single page/screen, then have the ability to drill down deeper into any/all of those insights through the use of simple links.

Most e-books aren't constructed this way today. I'd be willing to pay a premium for this because (a) I'm likely to learn more and (b) it would save me time.

[shel israel]

Joe, thanks for the comment. Coming from you, I consider it particularly valuable.

[Rick Blaiklock]

As someone who has helped write a business book (no my name isn't on the cover, but I did get a nice mention in the acknowledgement) I learned the value of telling a story. I was once told that one of the few business books that was actually read cover to cover was "The Goal" by Eliyahu Goldratt. When you read it you'll understand why.

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