This is pretty much exactly what I'm launching.
photo credit: uabnews.blogspot.com
I want to introduce two ideas I
came across in the research I did while trying to promote this book. Seth Godin is one of the absolute Titans (one
might go so far as to call him the Prometheus) of the marketing world, and I
have been reading his book, Ideavirus
(which I highly recommend to anyone interested in, or not interested in,
selling things). The book is full of
interesting concepts, but on this the eve of my book launch I want to talk
about just two: hives and sneezers.
The world
we live in sometimes seems to be mostly noise.
There are so many people talking that a lot of the time it is difficult
to understand what anybody is saying.
Nevertheless, when you listen closely you realize that the social realm
is not an undifferentiated cacophony of sound waves, but rather is highly
segmented into local colonies of like-minded people talking to each other about
things they enjoy. Seth Godin calls
these communities of common-interest hives. There are an uncountable number of hives in the world. Take, for example, the hive of
baseball fans. This seemingly unitary
hive is subdivided into 32 different mini-hives frequented by fans of
individual teams, each of which is again subdivided into hives for fans of different
persuasions (the casual fan occupies a hive which only tangentially interacts
with fans interested in sabermetrics). Once
you start to think about minor league affiliates, college programs, high school
teams, and local little leagues, you realize that the number of hives falling
under the main heading ‘baseball’ is vast indeed.
I am trying to reach out to a
number of different hives with this book.
At the most specific, I am interested in communicating with the hive of
humans who have lived or currently live in Japan. I think we have a lot of things in common,
and I hope my book serves to link us together in relatable experience. I also want to reach the somewhat larger hive
of those who are merely interested in Japan, but have never lived there. The denizens of that hive could be high school students, college
students, young professionals, old professionals, or perhaps retired folks who bought
Nintendos for their children thirty years ago and found themselves curious about
the land those ugly gray bricks came from.
I also hope to reach a hive still
further removed, the theoretical community of people interested in travel, new
experiences, personal growth, and adventure.
This is me at perhaps my most ambitious.
It is certainly the largest hive I could imagine accessing. If my book finds its way into the honeycomb
interior of that hive, my life gets a little bit more interesting (and
complicated) than it already is.
In order to get into a hive,
though, an idea needs a bee (or a swarm of them). It needs what Seth Godin calls ‘sneezers’. Sneezers are people who spread ideas that
they find interesting. He identifies two
types of sneezer: the Powerful and the Promiscuous.
Promiscuous Sneezers are those who personally profit from spreading an
idea. Oftentimes they are paid per
sneeze. There may be a time, place, and market for sneezers, but I am not interested
in entering it. That leaves the Powerful
Sneezers. These sneezers are powerful in
part because of the influence they have on various hives (think Oprah), but
more importantly (for me), they are powerful because they can’t be bought. When they recommend something it is because
it really means something to them.
I want to say thank you to everyone
who has supported me in this effort, and I want to ask for another favor. After you read the book, I’m hoping you’ll
sneeze about it. Amazon ratings matter. Amazon reviews matter. Word of mouth is (still) the most powerful influence
there is. I’m wondering if you’d
be willing to sneeze my work on somebody.
Preferably without putting your hand over your mouth.
That said, I only want you to do so
if you think my book is worth sneezing.
If you don’t think it’s very good, I don’t want you to tell anybody
about it (unless you just want to tell them how much you thought it sucked, in
which case fire away). If you think it’s
boring, or off-base, or inept, or ungrammatical, or otherwise a waste of time,
I hope you’ll forgive me, and then go about forgetting that you ever read
it. I want only that which I
deserve. If you think I deserve support,
then I will be forever grateful for your support. If, however, you think I deserve derision,
then I hope you will give me that, too (actually in all honesty I would prefer
more or less respectful silence, but the choice is up to you (I reserve the right
to ignore derision)).
The day of reckoning (insofar as
such a thing exists) is here, and I’m interested in hearing what you
think. Thank you, and enjoy the book!
No comments:
Post a Comment