The question occasionally comes up, “When are you coming out with a new book?” The answer is not soon. In fact, though I have a few concepts I’ve batted around, I am not working on a new book, nor do I have much interest in doing so.
The marketing book landscape is much like the blog and social landscape. There’s a whole lot of noise and very little signal. I’d rather not contribute to that any more than I already do.
Case in point: I have three marketing books on my desk at the moment, sent to me by the authors or their publicity people hoping I would review and recommend the books. I’m a mere gnat on the grand aerial landscape of influencers, but I suppose a nod can drive a few clicks and maybe a purchase or two, so I score a review copy now and then.
I’ve skimmed all three books and am halfway through a deep dive into one of them. As of this moment, only one of them stands out as something noticeably different than every other marketing book out there. And the differentiation is that it dives more into psychology and is well researched. It doesn’t actually bring to life a substantially different revelation or key to unlocking marketing success.
The brass tacks of it all (sorry Amber) is the honest truth about marketing is this: The key to success is not neatly bound in 300 pages with chapter and section breakdowns and to-do lists. Marketing success is hard work, sloppy, experimentation and failure, finding a pulse of signal and dousing gasoline on that fire, learning the fire burned out, then doing it all over again.
That book would be confusing and instill fear in its audience. No publisher would print it. No reader would like it.
The marketing books you see today – and I’m not saying they’re not worth reading – are saying the same thing in different ways. One, which many of my friends have promoted publicly as a “game-changer” is not only not, but even contradicts itself by saying early on that the key to content success isn’t in listicles and infographics, then in a later chapter recommends you use listicles and infographics.
Me coming out and saying this, identifying the author and the book, makes me look like an asshole. (A title, I’m sometimes proud to own. Other times not so much.) It’s one thing to be the No B.S. guy, it’s different to just be the negative Nancy, shitting on other people’s hard work, no matter how cautionary you think you’re being.
(Yes, Dan Zarrella. I thought of you when I wrote that. I’m sorry to have been so aggressive over the years.)
Jay Baer, a dear friend and fantastic writer, is working on a new book called Hug Your Haters. I’m excited to see what he has to say and the stories he tells to illustrate his thoughts on the topic. But haven’t we been given this advice in bite-sized pieces a few dozen times already? Every blog post on dealing with trolls since 2007 or so has advised to embrace them, acknowledge them, etc., and they’ll more likely turn into fans of yours.
Granted, Jay is going to research and organize and aggregate information about the theme in his own way, which means it will be good, a worthwhile and entertaining read and probably an improvement on anything that has been said about the topic in a while.
Mark Schaefer’s The Content Code is the same kind of resource for content marketers. He isn’t inherently stumbling across some great revelation that is earth-shattering. But he did a nice job of pulling together the smart approach to doing more than just pumping out content. It’s a great resource for everyone from the beginner to the experienced content marketer.
Ben Parr’s new book Captivology: The Science of Getting People’s Attention dives a little deeper into what makes things sharable or viral than we’ve seen in a while. His manuscript is more of a journalist’s dive into the topic with interviews and research. He talks about the seven triggers of attention and gives examples of each. It’s very useful. So much so you can get around the self-importance of his first-person stories and melon on the cover.
Never trust an author who puts their own face on the cover of his book. Heh.
Not only do I not think there’s much out there with some fantastic new revelation about marketing, I look back and think No Bullshit Social Media is still incredibly relevant. Sure, some things have changed and the book could use a revised edition (though that’s the publisher’s decision, not really mine), but regardless of what business you are in or what your level of social marketing maturity is, you still need to approach social strategically. That’s what No Bullshit Social Media helps you do.
And the fact that Erik Deckers and I still sell a few dozen copies a month and get called on to speak about the topic four years after it was published is validation that is true.
So, I’m sorry. I am not working on a new book. I’m happy that Jay, Mark, Ben and others are. They’re smart and do a great job of bringing new perspectives to subject matter that is mostly played out. I hope one or more of them stumble on something brand new and awesome, but if we expect that out of every marketing book we read, we’re going to be really disappointed.
Go buy The Content Code, Capitovology: The Science of Getting People’s Attention and sign up for updates on Jay’s soon to be Hug Your Haters. You won’t be sorry you read them. But remember, the silver bullet is an ugly mess of hard work and trial and error, not a tidy list you can glean from any book, even mine.
Note: The three books I mentioned in the first part of this post are not necessarily connected to the three books I mention. Jay’s isn’t even published yet, so hopefully, you made that connection.