Archive for the 'Aspirations' Category

The Life of a Career Employee … or not?

Published
by
Ehren
on June 5, 2008
in Aspirations, Mentions, marketing and work
. 1 Comment

How do you approach your work at the workplace? Many people point out that it is wrong to give too much of yourself to the employer, but I disagree — it’s not that simple. True you don’t want to have your employer take advantage of you but at the same time, it is important to invest yourself in whatever you want to do and to do what you feel may be right for yourself and/or the people you work with.

Milo Sindell and Thuy Sindell, authors of The Career Bill of Rights, suggests that this is a definition of a career employee, particularly because the employee’s relationship with their job has become blurred:

A career employee is an individual who spends their career working as part of a company, as opposed to working for their own company.

Classic examples from Dilbert:

Obviously Dilbert is a little too involved with his work but I’m pretty sure that a lot of people are, myself included. The thing I recognize the most about engaged employees are that they are objective oriented and that they look for meaning in the work that they do. That said, is it worth it to do whatever it takes? That’s up to you. I can honestly say that the many different stints in various industries has taught me that there are three ground rules to work with:

1. Never forget where you worked and never forget how you felt, and what you did when you started working.

2. If you’re going to do something … don’t do it the way you think should be right — do it right for yourself, your colleagues, and for the people you serve (i.e. customers or citizens). (…or at least the best you can)

3. Make sure you fail over and over again until you manage to not fail. If you don’t fail, what’s the point?

That is how I generally operate. But what the Sindells are suggesting is quite interesting. They are proposing that career employees (aka. engaged employees) should formulate and embrace their own bill of rights. Here’s the gist of it:

Enter the Career Bill of Rights
1. You have the right to take advantage of your employer.

2. You have the right to only give as much as you can.

3. You have the right to roam.

4. You have the right to the truth.

5. You have the right to enjoy your work.

6. You have the right to more. [Look out for more of this!]

7. You have the right to leave an inspiring legacy.

8. You have the right to fire your employer.

As the Sindells’ state, “they are the rights you have as a person who chooses to work for another individual.” Whether you decide to exercise those rights is up to you. I don’t necessarily know if a bill of rights will make life easier for the engaged employee but it is something that I have pointed out to people before.

We have the freedom to decide where/when we want to go and where/when we want to stop. Just like we market our products, the act of hiring a particular employee is a form of marketing as well — except the fact that employees are the customer. We either buy into the work we do — or we lose interest and become disengaged. The funny thing about this is that it demonstrates the simple importance of a company’s ability to market their own product and policies to their own employees — if it doesn’t work for your own employees, why would it work for your customers?

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Going Beyond The Product

Published
by
Ehren
on June 2, 2008
in Aspirations, Mentions, Ponderings, marketing, technology and work
. 0 Comments

Funky Monday.

Today I ran across and shared two recent articles from the Globe and Mail at work. One being that the Globe and Mail was opening up its business model, and the other being that the Metallica was endorsing a new way of doing business on the web (but really it’s not that new).

I was asked … what does this mean?

It’s just what I’ve been stating over and over again. Book publishers are no longer able to be purely book publishers. Technology has provided a way for different forms of media to converge — take a look at the iPod (and other new mp3 players) or even newer ultra portable laptops like the Asus EEE. This means that your product must be flexible and adaptable (mostly figuratively speaking, although literally would be nice too). This doesn’t mean you can’t have a printed book, but rather that any static product is pretty much obsolete.

Sadly enough, publishers actually have a choice to focus on their core business or diversify. Their core business is typically the reader that literally consumes books at an incredible rate. The funny thing about this market is that despite that consumption level, book publishers still pump out way too many books and overwhelm that market. We expect slower readers or occasional readers to pick up the slack but it just doesn’t happen. Why? I don’t think we really put enough thought into the value of the product — what the customer wants or desires. A customer doesn’t necessarily know what they want but customers are smart. They have and will find more ways to ensure they are getting the best value and experience for their money. If a book uses cheap paper, they know. If we don’t invest time into a book cover, they know.

Production values are interesting because they appear to me as very similar to school work (remember that?). When we don’t put in the time and thoughtfulness into a project, it really shows.

Movies and music are two types of products that have been forced to continually re-examine the way they sell their product. In the late 90s, movie cinemas began raising prices after creating bigger screens and sound systems in order to improve the customer experience. Did that bigger screen and bolder sound help the movie industry? Yes but not necessarily as good as it could have if it were introduced earlier because it coincided with the increase of movie rentals. But the cash kept flowing because people were still interested in seeing a movie on the bigger screen.

Fast forward to 2001 and the mass adoption of DVDs. The bigger screen is in decline. Why? Because the customer experience has changed. DVDs now provides greater value directly into the hands of the customer than a night at the cinema. That and the seven reasons that The Big Picture lists out in an old blog posting. Will the DVD sales decline? Potentially as legal and DRM-free digital downloads become prominent, while pirated DVDs continue to propagate. Toss into the mix far-reaching/long range cellular frequencies and an uncapped/unlimited wireless connection — the movie purchasing equation will be altered forever.

Despite the long and controversial existence of the mp3 file, the music industry has been very lucky in the sense that the mp3 itself and Apple’s iPod infused the customer with a sense of power and freedom that they had not felt before. Sure it caused chaos on the sales of CDs but what really has happened is the resurgence of interest in a wide-range of music regardless of time. Cut the waste (i.e. CDs and albums), focus on the music itself, give the customer the freedom to do what they please with the product sans the packaging, a lower price point for the work they do (i.e. pick and choose individual songs) and they will come back for more to do more. People want to be able to customize their own little jukebox full of music and they want to do it in their own way.

Now with books, add on the fact that Acrobat 9 is about to be released and as Mark puts it, it’s a game changer. The ability for rich media to be embedded within PDF files has arrived. Can’t figure out what that means?

What if you could be read a book and watch movie clips as part of the story? What if you could interact with the characters? What if we could draw our own animation — upload it to the book and share it with other readers? Or on a particular connection point over the internet where all other readers of a book could meet up? What if we could discuss an idea directly within a book with all other readers? Can you imagine what it will be like in the future? Take a look at the introduction of Disney’s Treasure Planet. These ideas aren’t taking away the essence of a book; they are enriching what’s within every book — far beyond the means of text on a page.

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Another Blog … Another Road Trip Plan

Published
by
Ehren
on May 27, 2008
in Aspirations, Interests, Ponderings and travel
. 0 Comments

This post came into mind because I had been speaking with a co-worker about my blog and we seemed to both come to the conclusion that everything that I talk about is connected to work. Sad. Sad. Sad. I know!

I could talk about other people and their lives, but honestly — that’s rather dull in my opinion. Can you already tell that I don’t read biographies? I like talking about ideas or actions. Ideas and actions that you, myself, and any other person can take on.

So let’s talk about road trips. I’m planning another road trip for this summer. The question is … where?

The funny thing about this trip is that it started off as a mere trip that would be about a week (okay, more like 10 days) but because it costs me just as much to rent a car for two weeks, I’m now re-thinking the road trip.

Road Trip in California by Ehren Cheung

Funny… I can’t remember taking this photo as I was entering San Francisco…

Last year, my friends and I went to New Hampshire hoping to hike across the White Mountains over a period of three days. Unfortunately stormy weather prevented us from getting to our destination for day 2 and we were forced to descend from the mountains. We however attempted an alternate trail — only to run into plenty of boulders and in my case — a hiking pole that snapped which resulted in me getting wedged between a tree and a rock. For your enjoyment, I’ve outlined our original plan (blue) and what really happened (red). Despite the setback, we went back the way we came and descended down the mountain. Of course, that was not before I decided to take another tumble down the rather steep hiking trail.


View Larger Map

So this year, I figure there are a couple of places in mind. I haven’t really discussed the ideas with friends that may want to come along yet, but perhaps someone out there may have a suggestion or two for me.

Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. A beautiful place — I haven’t been there since the late summer of 2000. Apparently the National Park Service even has a webcam of Old Faithful now. Spiffy. Ideally I’d like to visit the little town of Cody and along the way from Toronto, check out many other touristy and off-beat phenomenons as I refer to them.


View Larger Map

While I’ve visited a large number of different states, I have yet to visit the state of Colorado, home of the Quebec Nordiques, now the Colorado Avalanche (I know I will get flak for that…). Definitely would like to check out the US-550: the Million Dollar Highway and drop by the Royal Gorge.


View Larger Map

Ideally, I’d like to do some hiking in both states but I don’t mind just purely checking out a wide variety of must-see sites and some off-beat stuff that I stumble across.

IF not going down to travel around the United States, then I am pondering driving east to Newfoundland and Labrador, also referred to fondly as the “Rock” by many Newfoundlanders. It’s the only province in Canada I have yet to visit so I feel it’s somewhat of my duty as a Canadian to at least journey over there.

More details to come. In the meanwhile, feel free to fire suggestions my way in the comments. I’ll be one happy camper once I’m able to put together a list of recommendations from people who have been there, done that, and firmly believe that certain places are worth stopping for.

the curve by Ehren Cheung

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On the Open Road Trip

Published
by
Ehren
on May 17, 2008
in Aspirations, Mentions, Ponderings, marketing and travel
. 0 Comments

Thanks to Ellen Ewart who pointed out today’s article in the Toronto Star on road trips — I just wanted to make an official statement that was most likely very obvious:

I love road trips.

That was it. Of course … I have more to say.

Photography by Ehren Cheung

Almost everyone I know enjoys a road trip — but there are differences between those who merely enjoy the experience and those like myself who thrive. What type of road tripper are you? I’m the type who starts the engine, crank up the music (not to a deafening level), and I am one very content human being — then take my car on a road trip and I am bursting with energy, ready to seek out new and unexplored places — stuff unknown to me. Example: bouldering in New Hampshire (see short video from my trip last year)

I don’t necessarily care where I’m going — as long as I’m going in the right direction. What’s the right direction? Well I guess it can be anything! This can be a city that we really want to visit or a lemonade stand that we happen to stop off at along the way to the state of Oregon. Anything we consider as a positive influence or experience on ourselves.

Photograph by Ehren Cheung

Do you plan ahead or do you just like to hit the road with a goal in mind? The amusing thing is that I have a feeling that most people would love to just hit the road with a goal in mind and take in whatever hits them (figuratively speaking…) — only to be hindered by our own fears and limitations imposed by our own mind and lifestyle. When we travel with others, we add to that struggle with the fears and limitations imposed by those we decide to travel with. What do we do then? We impose a schedule, create an extraordinary itinerary, and make reservations at hotels and motels with the hope that this route or path will lead us to a higher level of satisfaction — or in other words, happiness!

But how do we become more satisfied? When we plan and plan and plan for all of our destinations and stop offs, do we really get the best experience? Is this making the best use of the tiny bit of time we can get from our vacation time? From my own journeys, I’ve enjoyed a tremendous amount of satisfaction by noting the goals (i.e. must-see points) but mainly enjoying the road as it is — stopping whenever I or someone I travel with wants to stop to check something out. It can be anything from a long-deserted drive-in theatre, dilapidated barn or rustic-looking shed to the flowers growing along the road, and in some cases some random billboard that has a brilliant message.

Photograph by Ehren Cheung

Sometimes you find yourself in the middle of nowhere. And sometimes, in the middle of nowhere, you find yourself.

So what am I really trying to say? The point is NOT that we need to go out there and find ourselves. I think the way we travel is a reflection on how we treat ourselves or take in new experiences. We can choose to place the utmost importance on the destination or we can choose to balance the importance of the destination or goal with what’s between point A and B. We could also even forget the destination and just merely keep a goal in mind and just go from there. Let’s flip this over to businesses, particularly those that are trying to increase their presence on the internet — the travel industry is a good one to keep an eye on as there are so many puzzle pieces to the big picture, small and large.

Similar to the travel, people are on the road and on the web, taking their own paths and weaving their own experiences in a manner of speaking. Along the way, people stop and take photos of anything they find really interesting which they then share — similarly people on the web share links to content and video that they find interesting. So let me pose a question — what are you doing for your business or website that makes it worth sharing? I’m not talking just about your product that needs to be what I refer to as share worthy — I am pointing to everything about you and your website/business.

So when I’m travelling down the road enjoying my experience towards my destination; between point A and B; or just wandering — what’s going to make me stop? Will it be you? Will it be someone you’re travelling with? Or will it be this magnificent tree?

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Time to Reduce Consumption

Published
by
Ehren
on May 6, 2008
in Aspirations, Ponderings, Uncategorized, Unthinkables, fun and marketing
. 0 Comments

I’ve been thinking about how we spend our money. Especially after listening to the complaints from many friends about the lack of money they have to buy the things they want. My dad also pointed out long ago when I got my first pay cheque from delivering flyers door-to-door in the neighbourhood, that as soon as you receive your pay cheque, everyone including the government is after your hard-earned dollar. It’s all in the marketing you see — everyone is trying to tell you that their product is worth your dollar.

Photo Courtesy of Toni Verdú Carbó

The reasoning that often follows is to weigh the things that we want against the things that we need. Sometimes the two get mixed together. This may be followed by the reasoning that poses the question — how frequent will we make use of this thing that we purchase?

I propose that we look at things this way. How many hours of work do we put in, just so that we can afford to buy [insert product]?

The question becomes … if we do not use a dollar value, how can we determine the true value of a product? How do we define value? Value can be in this case (without referring back to the crazy economic theories) the net worth of how much we desire a product that we are willing to exchange the hours of work from which we earn a wage.

The reason why I remove the dollar value from this perspective because the dollar bill itself has a tendency to eliminate (or make us temporarily forget) our ability to reference in our mind how much work we really put in for those hours of labour (skilled or unskilled). Don’t get me wrong now — the dollar bill itself becomes a reference for how much of it we are willing to spend but many of us tend to let go of how many hours went into that dollar bill itself.

By using time as a reference, we can then truly extract value from products worth extracting from. And when we extract value from products worth extracting from — we as citizens, customers, and stakeholders — impose a new value on all the products out there — time.

Time is a finite value for all of us (unless you are immortal I guess…) and as I point out to many businesses, time can never be recovered, but you can recover money (or even earn more) over time.

To Summarize

1. When thinking of purchasing something, think of how many hours of work you must go through in order to afford purchasing that something. How many hours of pointless meetings did I have to go through?

2. If deciding to purchase a product, ask yourself how many hours of [insert value: emotional, secular, spiritual, etc.] would be associated with the outcome of purchasing that product. Will I thoroughly use and enjoy this new DVD player? How often do I even watch DVDs?

3. Demand greater value from products. Businesses should be providing or injecting more value into and around their products. Really, if a business cannot think of ways of (or is unwilling to) injecting greater value into their product, then I would suggest that the product be cancelled. Think of the transition from VHS to DVDs — all those bonus features!

4. Impose the value of time on everything. Associate the hours you put in with values [i.e. obstacles, bosses, etc.] Were my hours of slaving away at work worth the $20 dollars spent on lunch? or that book? or that CD? that DVD?

5. Calculate your annual time budget. See how much you time you put into material products vs. activities.

*****

I am of course really simplifying this process but the point behind this action is for both businesses and customers to strive for waste reduction. This not only benefits everyone but also customers and businesses alike because customers would have a better idea of what they want and businesses would have a better idea of what they should produce.

Just like marketers often like to summarize consumer actions within a formula, by measuring our consumption by the hour — we have an opportunity to hone in on our own equation and define what we want — not what the marketer suggests to us.

Let’s put it this way. Calculate the value of a book in hours and then calculate the value of an iPod in hours. I’m in no way implying that one is more valuable than another — merely that it is extremely subjective. In that case, the calculation of hours can be a much better determination of value to a customer as opposed to a dollar amount.

*****

It’s rather funny. The value of time is often used for commuting, employment, business productivity, weekends, vacations, and travel — yet we rarely make use of this measurement on the products we purchase.

More on the value of time (Wikipedia).

And generalised cost.

Feel free to debunk this idea — it’s still whirling around my head … but I think it is still worthwhile to think about.

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What Drives Your Mind (or you)?

Published
by
Ehren
on April 17, 2008
in Aspirations, Ponderings and Unthinkables
. 1 Comment

Were we really able to do anything we wanted when we grew up? — Comic by Chris Harding

Question:  When you pick yourself up every morning and go to work or school or wherever — what is your key reason?  Is it to survive?  Is it to implement change?  Is it to interact with all kinds of people?

What is it that drives your mind (or you)?

I pose the question out there because that’s exactly the question that popped into my head when I was debating with someone about getting work done either by principle or by being objective-driven.  When you step into a new position, what is your goal in mind?  Is it monetary-driven, principle-driven, objective-driven or emotionally-driven.  Are you powered by a long-term vision or are you fueled by trends or new ideas?

I think by asking ourselves these questions on a daily basis we can determine what we consider to be success.  We’re able to see ourselves and the role we play within a larger picture and how we need different kinds of people to counter our own approaches so that we are able to see the multiple roads that are leading out in different directions — then we can decide which one to take.

This is important in any healthy organization whether it may be business or “other”, and just as important for the individual/employee.  Both need to acknowledge and understand this aspect of life in order to prosper from day to day.

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Why Book Promotion and Publishing MUST Change - Part 1

Published
by
Ehren
on April 7, 2008
in Aspirations, Ponderings, books, marketing, technology and work
. 6 Comments

Despite being employed in the book industry, I work in the realm of the web and everything I do involves thinking about how someone would interact with a website and ultimately, the product. I have always speculated and continue to state that book publishing (not publishing in general) as we know it is on the brink of experiencing an evolution and perhaps even a revolution. A number of recent blogs and articles that I’ve read over the past week caused me to thoroughly ponder why the traditional model of book publishing is dying. After lots of thought and help from a couple of friends (also fellow industry professionals), here is part one of my storm session.

Note: Thanks goes out to Tammy Cabral and Erin Winzer for taking the time to read over my messy blogging. You may also find a few opposing viewpoints from one of them on occasion throughout this post.

1. The Promotion Process Begins BEFORE a Book is Published

Traditionally book publishing involved a select number of people working within a publishing house/company who ultimately decides what should and shouldn’t be published. A book would then usually go through a scheduled process of editing, copyediting, designing, and proofreading before arriving from the printer. The sales, marketing and publicity staff would typically have a marketing plan in place that would begin as soon as the book is on the shelves of bookstores. A list of titles would be created for each of two major retail seasons — Fall/Winter, and Spring/Summer.

I had originally questioned this when I was first starting off in the book industry and as I observed how publishing companies operated, I realized that they were focusing on seasons because of the retail sector and the fiscal year. This still works — but it is no longer as effective as it used to be. Why? Because the time between the acquisition of the book and the arrival at bookstores is a lost opportunity to promote forthcoming titles — opportunity costs.

Now during this period I should point out that marketing and publicity departments are usually busy taking care of the current season but this is a time where authors can be and should be establishing themselves so that they build credibility. The other solution could be to simply have a team of staff dedicated to pre-publication promotion but that would still require the co-operation of an author.

Erin Winzer likes the idea but is concerned about the potential of saturating the market. My point is that this would not be any major promotional campaign as this team would be focused on helping the author establish his or her presence in different areas. This is vital for first-time authors.

A final solution would be to simply scrap the entire two-season model and run on a continuous basis. Most publishers use the two-season model because they operate along the lines of a fiscal year but it really shouldn’t matter. Changing an operating budget is not difficult although it may pose a challenge for the government grants (more on that later.)

Food for thought: If all the shelves in the world were suddenly warped, would we not change the way we produced and formatted our books? We need to address the need of the customer, the reader — not what we think they want or should want.

Shelflife by Charles Trevelyan

2. An Author Who Isn’t Online and Contributing to the Internet Will Go Unnoticed

Fellow blogger Maki at Dosh Dosh has written an excellent post on Why Are You Giving Away Content For Free? and is quick to point out Chris Anderson’s article in Wired — Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business.

“It is important to keep in mind the reasons why you are publishing blog post after blog post, all full of ideas and information and giving them away.

Do you know that you might generate more income by creating content and packaging it into the form of an affordable eBook, or perhaps a membership site? In terms of earning efficiency, premium/paid content might be a more lucrative venture than the act of simply giving away all your content away.

Chris Anderson recently suggested that ‘free’ is the future of business because the low cost of the digital web facilities the proliferation of free products, services or content. The web allows you to have greater flexibility in market definition: you can essentially give freebies to some, while selling to others.” — Dosh Dosh

I won’t deny that both Maki and Chris are speaking the truth with regards to free content and increasing sales, but I will point out that more importantly from a marketing perspective, contributing to the information available online is vital to establishing credibility, and more importantly, a following. Think about it — when a book is published, it is competing against an enormous amount of content available to the public. Authors are not competing against other authors and they aren’t competing against other books — they are competing against content.

How does one distinguish one piece of content from another? The author. He or she is the key to establishing credibility — but only by providing content that is relevant and genuine to themselves, to their visitors, and to their book(s). Blogging is only one step — outreach is the next.

Erin Winzer inquired as to whether or not a blog can generate sales and if it can all be tracked. In her own words:

The author is still Joe Smith off the street other than the fact that Joe Smith is now known as someone one who is talking on a particular topic. Also how many people will read Joe Smith’s blog – will it generate sales and can these sales be tracked?

The funny thing about blogging is that rather than relying on traditional media to establish someone as an expert on a topic, a blogger can become an expert as long as they provide solid and reliable content. As I stated before, outreach is vital and there is no better way than to reach out to like-minded people around the world through the Internet. I am not suggesting that an author go around hard selling their book online, rather I am suggesting that authors need to be interacting with common folk by bringing their perspective and allowing others the opportunity to relate. Whether it may be through a new idea or a totally different world they have created, people require something to relate to or comprehend before they can formulate some level of interest. This is natural human interaction — the most basic and noble form of marketing. Look at Squidoo, look at the forthcoming Google Knol — both of which are built upon the underlying purpose of providing free content that is associated with some level of recognizable source of credibility or authority on a subject.

Where my opinion differs is that I believe authors can develop this online presence on their own without relying on the infrastructure of Squidoo or Google Knol which really should just be considered extensions of their online presence rather than the foundation.

With regards to sales and tracking — technically yes and no. Just like all sales, nothing is absolute until the actual sale is made (wherever that may be) and while we can determine the level of interest on a blog, sales can only be tracked by point of purchase over time. Since blogging can be considered as both a short and long-term marketing campaign, blogs can change over time and thus so does the marketing campaign.

So fine — we get the idea that authors should be bloggers, now what?

As stated in 15 Trends to Watch in 2008 from Publishers Weekly:

“#4 Publishers will start acquiring specialized Web sites to get content for their books and to target niche audiences. By year-end, every major publisher will need to have an understanding of how to put a value on Web sites, because the old measures—namely, sales and profits—won’t necessarily be relevant and because the acquisitions will be smaller than what the companies would normally consider. The process will be similar to acquiring books, requiring a bit of imagination to see how the deals will pay off.” — Publisher’s Weekly

Honestly, I don’t even think publishers need to figure this out by the end of this year. The Globe and Mail just pointed out a blogging superstar in Japan, Mieko Kamakami, who is now a literary superstar — more likely than not — through a cellphone! (That subject to be touched on later)

Another insightful point:

“Joichi Ito, Internet entrepreneur and Technorati board member, says Japanese tend to view blogs more as exchanges with friends and a personal outlet than as news sources as Americans do, for discussing politics, technology and other issues.” — Globe and Mail

Sorry folks but any argument that an author should not have to blog is pretty sad. Marketing and publicity can do the best campaign they can for an author but if there is no credibility or some level of association with being credible — authors don’t talk to me about your book because I don’t know you. Yes that is blunt but it’s also the truth. Recently Random House offered a contract to Canadian Christian Landers for his blog on Stuff White People Like. What does that say?

Perhaps publishers will quickly begin to realize this and start spending more time online.

3. Destroy the Bestselling Model and Actually Help the Customer Already

Everything is a bestseller in some way, shape, or form. Why? Could we get anymore boring and fake? Usually when you step into a big bookseller, someone has paid for special placement in the “Bestseller List” or for a book cover to be facing outwards so that people can get a better view of it while browsing the immensely large store.

We don’t have time to go through everything - Photo Courtesy of Sharkatude

There is no such thing as a bestseller — there are only better sellers than others and we are simply talking about getting the right book to the right reader. Fellow blogger Erin Balser points out that she values the helpful bookseller and the independent bookstore over the big-box giants. Amazon is also a prime example of how helpful bookselling ultimately benefits both customers and publishers with fewer returns. Publishers should be taking those cues and stop paying for placement, and for goodness sake — stop the bestselling nonsense. The focus should NOT be on forcing people to pay attention to your book, but rather helping people find your book.

My colleague Erin Winzer who works as a publicist points out that this is unfortunately idealistic, and booksellers (especially big companies *cough* Indigo) rarely hand sells books.

What Erin points out is true but I can also point out that the whole idea behind helping the customer would likely be initially considered idealistic until we actually start changing our perception of what a customer wants. I’m not saying that we have to follow Amazon’s example because it’s never a good idea to do exactly what another company does — I am saying that it’s time to rethink our role. Hand selling books only goes so far, particularly with so many books out there but if we replicate the exchange of ideas that takes place with hand selling books — we can ultimately help people find what they are looking for — possibly with better success if we combine it with effective use of technology.

Nothing is bestselling — there is only the right book for the right reader. This may involve associating books through search engines, tags, related subject matter, similar books, similar authors, opinions, reviews, etc. These are all considered helpful tools. Tools that require investing time over money.

On the bookselling side, independent booksellers complain about the big box chains (like Chapters Indigo in Canada) and the lack of support from publishers yet these same independent booksellers fail to help people find the store. I have to confess that prior to working in the publishing industry, I did not even know about the small independent bookstores — and I grew up in Toronto! Yes that is sad, but doesn’t it demonstrate to you that the independent bookseller organization (CBA - Canadian Booksellers Association) has failed to communicate with people like myself? How can I find something if I don’t know about it?

For those who tell me that I should look one up … sorry folks, but I am not going to look at the Yellow Pages for a local bookstore and I definitely am not going to cross the city in order to buy a book just to support a local bookstore. What does this mean? It means that any local bookstore must begin to rethink their role. As I’ve pointed out a couple of months ago — Booksense.com which operates in the United States is an excellent way for people to find a local bookstore — but that is just the first of many steps.

******* Intermission *******

Taken from both the Quill and Quire and Erin Balser: HarperCollins just recently announced a new imprint that would focus on experimenting with a new model — one that focuses on reducing author advances and reducing returns. There is however the brief hint at publishing in many different formats (woopie…) My opinion? This is still a traditional publishing model, just one that is more frugal. Let’s try and be a little more innovative shall we?

Till next time! There are plenty of other issues that need rethinking so I’ve got plenty more to say but I’ll leave it there for now for the sake of readers and the fact that this is one really big post — stay tuned for part deux!

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Ideas are Exciting

Published
by
Ehren
on February 28, 2008
in Aspirations, Mentions, Unthinkables, video and web 2.0
. 0 Comments

Bad ones, good ones, they are all worth hearing regardless of whether or not we agree with them.  Why?  Why not?  It doesn’t really matter because the more ideas you have to work with, the more resources you have to build towards something successful.

Think of how many ideas are actually floating out there and most likely how many are likely the same or very similar to one another.  Only a minority of ideas actually are put into action — think of Google and Microsoft.  I am sure both companies are bursting with ideas (as are many other businesses).  Unfortunately, the company will only invest in ideas that they feel are successful.

What makes one company more successful than another?  It’s usually an idea or lots of ideas put together that lays the foundation for that level of success.

TED has a live webcast taking place at 5:15pm Pacific time.  Argh!  I wish I could watch it.  Suffice to say — if you are able to watch it, check it out.  Like their slogan says, they’ve got ideas worth spreading.

Ideas are always exciting.  What will make an idea successful?  Pretty much … more ideas.

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