Book Review: The Dip, Seth Godin

Book Review: The Dip, Seth Godin, A Little Book That Teaches You When To Quit And When To Stick

The Dip? What is The Dip?

Being #1 is worth the effort, but it requires lots of quitting.

Most things worth doing can be described by two curves, either a cul-de-sac or a dip.

A cul-de-sac is a dead end. The Dip is the “hard part” between getting started and becoming the best. If you’re going to reach a dead end, it’s better to quit early. No amount of effort, positive thinking, or anything else will help. The Dip in contrast, requires lots of persistence to get through, but results in enormous success.

For example, I rowed crew in high school with Andy Sudduth who eventually made it to the Olympics (twice) and won a medal. I didn’t make it to the Olympics – instead I quit, which was the right decision.

Why? I enjoyed rowing, I was good, but I could never be great. This cul-de-sac was caused by my leg length. All great rowers need long legs. At 5’10”, I could never be the best in the world. I’d never make the Olympics, never mind win a medal, no matter how hard I tried.

Andy wasn’t facing a cul-de-sac. He was taller and otherwise better than I was. He powered his way through The Dip and emerged victorious. There may have been other equally talented rowers, but most people give up even when they are facing The Dip, not a sure dead end.

Why is being the best so good? The difference between good and great is vast! How much more does a rock star make than an average excellent musician? I’m a successful business book author, but I probably sell 1% or less of the books Seth does – he’s at the top of the heap. People beg him to speak for tens of thousands of dollars. Some people ask me to speak -- for a lot less.

Being the best is worth it – is worth the hard work to get through The Dip. Being the best means quitting when you can’t be the best.

The Dip is available for pre-order at Amazon. I like it! Highly recommended.

Book Review: Grassroots Marketing for Authors and Publishers

I'm a big fan of Shel Horowitz's "Grassroots Marketing" so I had to check out his new book and I wasn't disappointed.

Authors are responsible for marketing their own books, whether they self publish, use a subsidy publisher, or a traditional publisher -- that's simply a fact. I recommend this book for all authors and wannabe authors.

It concentrates on low and no cost strategies that work, and goes well beyond regurgitating the conventional wisdom. Shel's first book was written in '79, and his extensive first-hand experience with all kinds of publishing is apparent. If you order the book direct from him you get some bonuses including a five-chapter ebook on How To Write And Publish a Marketable Book.

The book is divided into four sections, Creating a Marketable Book, Publicity, Get Into - And Out of - Book Stores and Libraries, and Advanced Marketing. Except for the section on Book Stores and Libraries, most of this info is useful regardless of how you package your knowledge: traditional book, ebook, audio product, etc.

The Book Store and Library section itself is fascinating to me as I really didn't understand how they work. I also learned a lot from the chapter on Trade Shows and Book Fairs. The press releases examples, both good and bad, are great, although I would have liked a little more verbiage on the individual good press releases. I loved the Build Your Website section even though I know this extremely well.

I've been studying books -- how they get written, promoted, sold, AND provide value to their readers for a couple of years -- since before I ever started writing. I've read more than a couple of good books on the subject, and Shel's speaks to me more than any of the others.

My publisher is not sending me on a national book tour, it's highly unlikely I'll be on Oprah or even reruns of Hogan's Heroes, and I'm not spending tens of thousands of dollars on publicity and my publisher isn't either. Shel concentrates on practical no and low-cost ideas that have worked for him and others, and provides concrete examples. I wish I had this book before I became an author!

Did I get any takeaways I'm using yet? Absolutely! Despite finishing the book a mere 12 hours ago, I'm already implementing some of Shel's advice.

Ted's Amazon Book Promotion Program

Amazon is the 900 pound gorilla of online book sales (900 pounds is the new 800 pounds -- inflation), so I've been concentrating the last 30 hours or so on promoting my books on Amazon.

Jeff Lippincott, www.jlippin.com, a top Amazon reviewer, has kindly offered some helpful advice I've at least partially followed so far.

I've posted about 18 new book reviews to Amazon, which you, gentle reader (always wanted to say that!), have already read here long ago. If you want to go read them and click "Yes" for "Was this review helpful to you" for reviews you like, it would help me greatly, but you need to navigate to each book's Amazon page to do this -- a hassle.

I've also created three listmania lists, lists of books on specific topics I like. No surprise my books are on my lists -- I wouldn't write a book I didn't like! This causes my books and lists to show up on other books that I've included in my Amazon pages listmania lists.

There is a lot more I can do on Amazon too . . .

"So, Ted, what have you been up to?"

Promoting my books -- my responsibility as an author.

Hero of the Week

Well, looks like I was Hero of the Week last week!

This week, it's Phil Gerbyshak (who I'm proud to have nominated).

Hero of the week is the brainchild of Reg Adkins, who writes some very interesting stuff as well at Elemental Truths.

Hmmm, as the first "Hero of The Week" can I claim to be the Godfather of Hero of The Week, or would that be Reg?