My new book is out. Yay!
The book is officially called Social Pollination: Escape the Hype of Social Media and Join the Companies Winning At It. Social Pollination is about how small businesses can and should be using social media – starting with creating goals and strategy, to the optimizing the 12 social media success factors on any platform, to measuring social media ROI, all the way to building a social media team when you see that social media is so much more important than advertising for 2010.
The target audience for the book is entrepreneurs, wannabe entrepreneurs, small business owners, startups, sales/marketing/PR types at any size company, and anyone who wants to build their “personal brand” in a strategic way. (And my mom. Hi mom.) Since 2010 is going to be an even bigger year for small business + social media than 2009 was, this book makes an awesome Christmas gift to any of the above who could use a little help with their small business/personal goals for 2010.
Of course, I would LOVE if all 2000 subscribers to this blog headed over to Amazon (or Barnes and Noble) to purchase the book TODAY. Not only would I probably hit some random Amazon bestseller list, but I would be able to pay my rent for like, 3 months. (That would really make my husband happy.) So, if you are in the target audience or know someone who’s in the target audience, treat yourself (or them) to a fun Christmas gift.
Amazon Link: http://bit.ly/6XFPof
Barnes and Noble Link: http://bit.ly/55xnPB
Since the book is aimed at entrepreneurial types interested in becoming thought leaders in their industry and therefore want to write their own books, I also wanted to share some behind-the-scenes info on the Social Pollination process. If this is interesting to you, make sure you leave a comment with your questions so I can answer them in upcoming blog posts. I’m happy to talk about the experience and give you the low-down on all the mistakes I made in the process of getting here – I just need to know what you want to hear about.
Writing
It took me 3 years to learn, practice, and digest the material for this book, and about a month to write down everything I learned and edit it. Don’t get me wrong – that month was like a vacation to hell for me – and I LOVE writing. I’ve heard A LOT of business authors say this about their first book, so it’s not surprising that this journey isn’t for the faint-hearted. And the writing has just begun for me, because marketing this book is probably the same amount of writing as I did for the book in the first place.
I’m happy it’s done though, and I feel pretty good, like maybe I just ran a marathon or something. I would definitely do it again. I know a ton of people want to learn how to turn their blog into a book, so leave your questions in the comments and I’ll write more about this in the future!
Pricing
You’d be shocked by how little control I as the author have over the pricing of my own book. Right now it is $20 on Amazon and $18 on Barnes and Noble. Those prices are bound to go up or down over the next several weeks due to the holiday season, and I can’t do much about it.
BUT what I can say is that companies have paid me $1500 to share with them a small fraction of the information in Social Pollination. This information has gained me 2000 blog subscribers and 6300 (real, non follow-back) followers on Twitter as a solopreneur. At $20, the book is a steal for the do-it-yourself types or anyone who wants to get up to speed on social media quickly.
Distribution
A ton of people have asked me how to get the book in their country. Right now the (English version of) Social Pollination is listed on Amazon in the US, UK, France, and Germany, as far as I know.
I am working to get the book available on the Kindle as well, so that should be up in a week or so, and I believe that should be available globally, though I don’t really know for sure.
If that doesn’t work, I may also set up a PDF version download, but I’m pretty wary of that for obvious reasons. The other option I can think of is ordering and sending copies of the book on my own (as in, I’m the distributor) but that could be an operational nightmare as well. So I am thinking through mass solutions to this problem and in the meantime, working one on one with a couple people who are serious about purchasing.
Marketing
A couple people asked me about my marketing plan for the book. My big online PR push will be in early January, so at the end of that push, I will probably write a long post about what exactly I did and what the results were. I’m hesitant to commit anything to digital at the moment because one or more of my ideas might change, or might suck and completely fail 
.
After the online push, I will do a huge offline push, which will involve more speaking, direct marketing, radio, book signings, etc. I’m pretty excited to get to that point too, and will probably write about it also.
They say it takes a year to market your book well. I really hope that’s not true, but I’m looking forward to at least 3-6 months of hardcore promotion.
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Lastly, I just want to say a HUGE THANK YOU to YOU. The book would not be a physical object without this community that has supported me over the years. I know it’s the cliche thing to say, but out of all the things I’ve done to reach success (like, ahem, getting a really expensive MBA), this blog has probably given me the largest return on investment. So for that, I am sincerely thankful.
Don’t forget to check out the book if you haven’t already, and have a fantastic day!
Monica O'Brien is the Director of Digital at Fizz and author of the book Social Pollination, which helps businesses leverage social media for crazy growth!
