I guess you’d say I’m a Seth Godin groupie. I buy his books and talk about them. I joined his private social network dedicated to his book Tribes. And I’ve read Tribes over and over again for motivation and inspiration as I’ve launched and grown this community.
I think every writer should read Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
Here, Seth answers my five questions about writing and publishing:
I know you’re a proponent of ebooks. In what circumstances would you recommend a writer bypass traditional publishing and publish his own work as an ebook?
Why write a book?
If your goal is to have a lot of readers, an ebook will get you at least ten times as many. If your goal is speed, an ebook is faster.
Bragging rights, on the other hand, and dreams of cash come with a ‘real’ publisher. Mostly bragging rights.
What’s your vision of what the new publishing era will look like from a writer’s perspective?
Writers organize tribes of followers. We are opinion leaders and connectors. So, that’s your job. The book is just a tool and a souvenir to sell to make money.
Who are the visionaries leading the way that writers should be paying close attention to?
MJ Rose, Hugh Macleod and the guys at 37 signals.
Does advertising help sell books? If not then what does?
Not as far as I can tell. If it did, people would run more ads. I think the only thing that helps is word of mouth. Either from booksellers, from Oprah or, best of all, from readers. That’s how Harry Potter did it.
What is the No. 1 thing a writer should be doing right now to establish a readership?
Be generous. Spread ideas. Give things away. Write, share and repeat.
If you’d like to read more about what Seth has to say to writers, check out two classic posts on his blog: Advice for Authors (2005) Advice for Authors (2006)
“The best time to start promoting your book is three years before it comes out.”-Seth Godin
-Maria Schneider
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
what great advice…i think these ideas have some merit. I’ve never heard of this author before, but now I am going to have to check out Tribes.
I loved the interview. I especially like the last of the 5 questions. Good advice from Seth. Now I just need to get Oprah to read my stuff! :o)
Ah, you should see what Oprah has to say about my stuff! Of course, that would be Oprah McNaultey in Apartment 4 C across the street, but still…
Seriously now, I am curious if Seth thinks this works equally well for fiction and nonfiction. I suspect it works best for nonfiction, but would like his take on that.
~jon
Hi Jon, Maybe I’ll get another chance to interview Seth to ask him.
You know a fiction writer who’s just genius at creating an online readership is Neil Gaiman. http://www.neilgaiman.com/p/Cool_Stuff
I recommend following him.
Wow – I’m flattered beyond belief. Thank you Seth!!! I’m a huge Seth groupie and think he is brilliant.
So much so that I hate to say this but there’s one point I will argue. We all know nothing sells books like word of mouth but in order to get word of mouth – which is readers talking about your book – you need to get those first readers.
Ads are the fastest and most effecient way to let people know a book is out and get a core group reading.
Publishers know it and they do buy ads for the big books. The problem is ads are expensive so publishers say they don’t work. Every time a publisher says that to me I look at their list and find all the bestsellers they take out ads for and ask them why if ads don’t work do they advertise the books they have the biggest investments in?
Over and over I get the same answer – we know they work but we can’t afford them for every book.
Random House spend more than a million dollars advertising The Da Vinci Code when they released it… first time they’d ever spent that much on a book… think it didn’t help?
What a great “catch.”
Writing for people instead of for oneself certainly will make it easier to find readers.
My humble 2.06 €ents
@johnfurst
I’m surprised by this, because the numbers I’ve seen just don’t bear this out. Pointing to the handful (maybe 5?) of authors who’ve garnered anything like a meaningful number of readers via an ebook doesn’t support that blanket statement. I’d be interested in hearing the evidence for that.
Great post. Since I first heard about Seth during a podcast 8 months ago, I’ve been intrigued. I’m always interested in reading about his opinions and ideas, as well as dissenting opinions like those from M.J. Rose (I have to agree with her about the ad issue). I heartily agree with Seth’s comments about being generous and spreading ideas. Thanks for sharing this interview.
Carolyn,
I think Seth might be referring to free (or very, very inexpensive) ebooks since I know that is a strategy he has used in the past to get viral marketing for a book.
@Carolyn and Maria:
Clickbank.com is the worlds largest marketplace for digital products including ebooks. Many of the “How to …” style ebooks not only sell very well but also at a higher price than traditional books. Probably not the usual style of writing as discussed on this blog and likely not exactly what you meant.
Free ebooks certainly have a good potential for being spread, but they still needs to be marketed to some extent. An area many writers and authors are not experts at.
Hope that helps.
Yours
John W.