Thursday, February 18, 2010

My-Oh-My, What A Jaded Marketing World We Live In!!!!

My new book "The ABC's of Speaking", which has gotten a lot of attention this week after a great story in Monday's Austin American-Statesman, is now available as a downloadable iPhone App. We had just put up "Batteries Not Included" last week, and more of the New Year Publishing titles are on the way.

Our iPhone developer accidentally listed the price as "FREE" for the small book of public speaking tips. While it is our intent to charge for the book, we decided to announce on Twitter that the book was temporarily available at no charge. It should take about 24 hours for it to update, so we figured we would share the book with those who wanted to act fast.

It was funny how many people accused me of a "marketing stunt". The immediate reaction was that there was no mistake made by a developer, but instead this was a New Year Publishing ploy to promote the new book.

My-Oh-My, what a jaded marketing world we live in nowadays. In the online social media world everyone thinks that people have an angle everytime something happens. Can't things just be what they appear to be?

In this case we saw that the book was listed for free and decided to tell everyone who follows me on Twitter to let them grab the book while they had the chance. I would rather people read my books, blogs, and other pontifications.... even if they do so without paying me any money (Now, do not get me wrong... I like, respect and appreciate everyone who buys a book!).

Not sure when the price point will kick in, but if you search "ABCs of Speaking" in the App Store you will find the book. Enjoy!

Have A Great Day.

CLICK HERE
to read the article in Monday's paper.

thom


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hadn't put that much thought into it Thom but I see your point; maybe I've been conditioned to think it was a ploy. In any case, I think it's good for the book so best of luck! Hope you get lots of downloads: free and paid! -Jaded Jason ;-)

thomsinger said...

Jason (Jaded Jason), thanks for the comment. It was not just you who thought it was not an accident! Made me laugh.

JibberJobber Guy said...

Happens to me frequently. Sometimes it is a marketing tactic, but sometimes it's a gift or whatever. We are definitely conditioned to think negatively about stuff like this.

What I've found, and I'm sure you have also, is that you really can't please 100% of the people... some have other issues (disgruntled, etc.) that you'll never be able to help with, and their lashing out is more a symptom of their deeper problems... :)