Global Neighbourhoods

Blogging between the books

I received an email from Beth Campbell, an acquisition editor for Informa Healthcare a publisher of surgical and physician books. As I understand it, this is an imprint of Charter Publishing an old and global text publisher.

Beth wrote: "">I wonder how we can use blogging to replace/supplement current medical texts? I've been in this position for almost  20 years, and other than the fact that chapters and illustrations are now submitted electronically, NOTHING has changed in the way we deliver content, even though EVERYTHING seems to be changing about the way people read, learn and communicate."

Good question, Beth, and one that I thought might generate some thinking from you readers, so I got Beth's permission to write my response here, rather than in email. As an author, who is between books, her question hits several of my personal nerves. Among them:

• Portions of Naked Conversations were current, when we completed Naked Conversations in August 2005, but out-of-date, when the book went into distribution in January 2006. Five months is a huge chunk of time in blogging and medical practices, but is pretty fast in publishing.
• New information worthy of comment comes up all the time in a great many fields. Publishers cannot possibly keep up with the Future Shock pace of change.  Revised editions simply are not fast enough.
• The best--and most challenging questions--only come up from readers after you have published and you cannot respond to them for years, and for medical practitioners, that may be way too late.

My solution, of course, is to use social media to keep the conversation current between books.  These may be in the form of a blog or a wiki. A blog can allow an author or the publisher, to keep information  current, and to respond to questions that come up post publication of a book.

A wiki could be used by medical practitioners to collaborate with others in the same profession, examining new research on a subject.  Likewise, audio or video broadcasts can also add to the shareing f new information.

It seems to me that all sorts of old media, newspapers, magazine and books can keep conversations current by braiding a book with blogs and other social media. Social media can become a living appendix, which may be a bad metaphor when one is discussing surgeon's journals.

Beth, I hope this helps.  Does anyone else have an idea?

More on Humanity in Corporate Blogs

I'm glad my recent post on new corporate blogging tips was so well received. I wanted to add something about the balance of personal and business content in a corporate blog.  t seems to me that this is an area where people get fairly confused.

The purpose of a business blog is primarily to talk about what you do at work.  Your audience is probably comprised of customers, prospects, co-workers, competitors and a few family members. What they want most from you is information and insight into your job.

But, by adding some personal information, it helps me as one of those customers, prospects, co-workers, etc. see a real human inside that labyrinth of organization where you work. I really have no desire to swim in a pool of your puppy pictures and lawn fertilizing Saturdays.

One the other hand, I want enough of that stuff to see you are a real person. Corny as they are, pictures of a newborn make most of us smile. If you had a problem with a surly waiter who ruined a special night, if you sailed at sunset in the Carri bean, I may want a glimpse of that.  I may want to know enough of your personal life to understand that you are a human.

What's in it for the corporation that employees you?  A good deal.  As we wrote in naked Conversations, "We live in an age when most people don't trust large organizations." But blogging lets us break down the large organizations into real human units of energy and it makes a great deal of difference in how the overall company is perceived.

This happens all the time in business.  You sit down for a business meal, where you and your dining partner are about to discuss some monumental deal.  How does it start? "So how was your weekend," one asks the other. Then they discuss spouses and children, golf and snow shoveling. Somehow the business part finds its way in, hopefully getting to the next steps part, with the after-dinner beverage

NC is Now in Eight Versions

[From left, Korean, Indian, American and Japanese versions of Naked Conversations. Photo by Shel]

Robert and I really love the international reach that our book has found. So far, our publisher has sent us the four version shown above. The Korean version comes bundled under shrink wrap with a small handful of post cards.  I don't know why.  The Japanese version has unquestionably the raciest cover.

Wiley also informs us that versions have been printed also in Turkish, Russian, Korean and for India. We don't currently know how sales are going.  Nor do we know much about Turkish blogging. We are also told that deals have been cut for both French and Italian versions, which would bring the total to 10.

If you happen to come across one of these editions, please send us a photo of it.

We'd love to see it.

Call me on the Orchard's blogtalkradio show tomorrow night

I am Scott Baradell's guest at 6 pm Pacific tomorrow night on Media Orchard's BlogTalkRadio. This is a neat podcast-like approach that does two things I like.  First, it's live and second, listeners can call in.  This is about as close to talk radio as we've been able to get and much more interactive than the usual podcast format.

Give us a call at 646 915 8556. Details for tuning in can be found here.   An operator will be sitting by.

BTW, I am in Miami, consulting with my old client Scrapblog again.  They are getting close to going live.  They called me in because it's hard getting decent help these days. The first thing I'm going to do is get CEO Carlos Garcia to post more often.

Call me tomorrow night.  Your questions can liven up an otherwise drab case study in shameless self promotion.


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NC on India Bookstore Shelves

My friend Pete Dawson, just back from a few weeks in India and the Middle East, sent me this photo of Naked Conversations on the shelf of a Bangalore Crossroads. Crossroads is India's only national bookseller chain.

Two things are particularly interesting to me here.  First the book is in the Communications section, while in the US it is usually in the business section.  But second, and more significant is that this show an apparent soft cover edition of the book that I have never seen before. I was not aware that we had a localized Indian version of the book out and it is interesting to note.

Thanks, Pete.  I appreciate the photo and the timing could not have been better.

Happy Birthday Naked Conversations

[Israel & Scoble with 1st copy of Naked Conversations--Photo By Buzz Bruggeman]

On Jan. 4, 2006, Scoble and I addressed a group of retail booksellers at CES.  The evnt, sponsored by our publisher John Wiley & Sons would be our first of well over 50 talks and media interviews the two of us did together over the last year.

I got to the event earlier than anyone else.  When one of the Wiley folk opened the first crate of our books--drop shipped the night before from the printer, I was handed the first book.

It was a far bigger thrill than I had anticipated. Only two groups of people can relate--other authors and new parents. It is really quite overwhelming. I wandered around the downstairs at New York, New York Hotel and just walked into Scoble. I didn't say a word.  I just handed him the book.  He stared at it for a long moment with a great deal of reverence.  He looked at our names on the cover, at our pictures on the back flap.  He thumbed through the pages, randomly reading a graph here and there.  He sort of hugged it, then handed it back to me.

It was one of the best moments of a great many best moments over the last year. Later, our pal Buzz Bruggeman, who played a key role in bringing Scoble and I together caught up with us and took this photo. It remains one of my favorites, although it doesn't quite caych the joy that was in our hearts.

 

 

Naked Conversations Named to Soundview Best of Year List

In a Businesswire announcement this morning, Soundview, the executive book summary organization has named Naked Conversations to its list of 30 best books of 2007. We were selected, the release says, from 1200 business books.

 Soundview offers newsletter summaries of books to busy executives.

They also provided professional studio time for Robert and me to read excerpts from our book for a CD that they are also marketing. I was impressed at how adept Robert is as a voice narrator. If the video podcasting thing doesn't work out, maybe he can get a job as studio talent.

This is our second citation.  Earlier, Amazon named us #6 on its list of best 2006 books in its technology and internet category.


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Naked Presentations

I've been reading Presentation Zen, lately, Garr Reynolds blog on presentation and the language and look of it. He is a veteran of the world of corpspseak. He sees the elegance I see in  simple presentation and articulation. It's a good read.  Give him a glance, when you get the chance.


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Michael Hyatt to post his publishing book in a blog

Michael Hyatt, president and CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, the world leader in Christian publishing s writing a book called "The Thomas Nelson Way." He has announced that he will write it chiefly in a blog and that Scoble and I inspired him to do this through the Naked Conversations experience.

This reiterates what Robert and I already knew. Michael Hyatt is a real gentleman. He personally got involved in Thomas Nelson's bidding to become our publisher.  He almost did.  Nelson and Wiley competed for rights to our book and in the end Wiley made the higher bid in terms of an advance.

I'll be watching his project closely, even as I continue along with my second book being written his way. If you are an author, understanding publishers is really vital.  You may start with a dream and a need to tell your story. But, this authoring stuff is indeed a business, and what Michael is doing is generous and valuable to anyone even contemplating authoring a book.
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Gartner says blogging to peak in 2007. I bet they're wrong.

According to the BBC, crystal ballers at Gartner Group predict blogging will reach its apex in 2007 at 100 million, because just about everyone who wants to blog will have tried it.  The respected research group also estimates that some 200 million blogs have been abandoned.

My guess is that they are wrong, but I can see why they are saying it. I think there will be tens of millions of blogs and that many people who wish to blog do not yet have computers or if they do--internet access. I think their are millions of people living in countries where it is dangerous to blog, whose children will be able to do so.  I think there are thousands upon thousands of company employees whose bosses will not allow them to blog.  Those bosses, over time will be replaced by a new generation of executives who will encourage employees to blog because it will have evolved into a more efficient way to communicate with customers and prospects.

In education, i think in 2007, we will see increased numbers of teachers using social media, including blogs, to teach and communicate with students. In politics, I believe 2007 will see a fire hose of elective aspirants chasing voters through blogs. Nonprofits, likewise, are just now stepping into the blogosphere because they are learning they can interact with far more people than through the physical rigors of grassroots campaigns.


What I do think will happen next year is that blogging will normalize, that a blog will be just another tool that employees are entrusted to use in the course of their job, and counting who blogs will be about as relevant as counting who uses email or the telephone.

Of course, if I am right and Gartner is wrong, they'll just pubish and market a new thick expensive report on how unpredictable this social media market really is.

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