Notes on the marketing of books from my monthly trip to Barnes and Noble last night.
Books that one (aka my purchase):
Campus CEO, Jeffery Gitomer's Little Gold Book, and Men's Health 2007 Training Guide.
Men's Health won since it's by far my favorite magazine, and I wanted a workout log book. No real marketing strategy there (although, for anyone interested in fitness books, the key for me was the interaction between pictures and copy. Men's Health does it right, others do too much of one or the other).
Campus CEO also was an easy choice for me, a book dedicated to college students running a business
seemed like a must have.
The Little Gold Book (as it's somewhat embarrassing to call it by it's full name, Little Gold Book of Yes! Attitude) was a strange purpose as it beat out two easy front runners. Seth Godin's All Marketers are Liars, one of the few books of his I haven't read, was the earlier business book purchase front runner. It was narrowly edged out by Punk Marketing, which at the last minute was traded for Gitomer's book.
Interestingly enough, Godin's book lost because of his blog, and Punk Marketing lost because they don't. I've read so much of Seth's stuff, and I'll undoubtedly read All Marketers Are Liars eventually, that I feel I know the premise of the book (and it's a great one), and at this point needed some different business theory to test. I noticed Punk Marketing last month, but to buy the 27$ book I needed more justification of their ideas. If they updated their blog often, I would have read it and gotten said justification. Alas, they don't and I haven't bought their book yet. Maybe next month.
Gitomer won 'cause it's an easy read that I can do in unrelated chunks, just like Small is the New Big, which is helpful in the time crunch that is college.
Other books of note. Coolhunting seems worth checking out, though I was surprised by the apparent age of the authors. Definitely fits in with my the premise of this blog. Chocolate's On the Pillow Aren't Enough: Reinventing the Customer Experience. A case where the title makes you notice the book. Added to the list (which I may publish at some point just so I don't forget it)
These posts are as much for my own memory as the are a discussion of marketing of books. Moral of course, is have a good title and cover, and somehow get yourself off of the shelves of Barnes and Noble and onto the 'concourse tables' where featured books in each section are shown.
runs...today's winner was the 4 hour workweek. 
