Category Archives: books

Twitter marketing

Posted on by
Reply

Last night, I got in a car accident on the slushy highways of St. Paul. Luckily, I was unscathed and the car only has some minor damage. When I got home, like all people today, I tweeted about it and moved on.

Today, I received this.

Looks like someone has been reading Gary Vaynerchuk. Now, I’m not going to call of course, but this is another example of a business leveraging Twitter in a very savvy way. Looking at their tweet history, that’s not a bot. There’s someone sitting there, mining and searching tweets, and trying to reach out to potential customers. Nice work.

Bush: "I’ll screw him in the ass!"

Posted on by
Reply

From a Haaretz review of the new book Ariel Sharon: An Intimate Portrait

Speaking of George Bush, with whom Sharon developed a very close relationship, Uri Dan recalls that Sharon's delicacy made him reluctant to repeat what the president had told him when they discussed Osama bin Laden. Finally he relented. And here is what the leader of the Western world, valiant warrior in the battle of cultures, promised to do to bin Laden if he caught him: "I will screw him in the ass!"

Ah Georgie, speaking as eloquently as always. This once again displays George’s silly and child-like grasp of reality. It also reaffirms his singular grasp of the actual situation with terrorists, this bizarre notion that if you just capture Osama Bin Laden (which we still should) that all Islamic terrorism will suddenly fall away.

No wonder other nations don’t have a lot of respect for our leader, he doesn’t know when to rein in the potty talk and be a professional. I know Bush is a good ol’ boy and all, but there’s a time and a place. Talking with another world leader is neither.

Obama’s Book Deal

Posted on by
Reply

Barack Obama and the Book Business
By Peter Osnos, The Century Foundation

Now comes the part in which Obama showed a steely side and displayed an element of character which, while completely legal and entirely within his rights as a writer, makes me uneasy. Everyone agrees that our political system and values are being corroded by money. One subset of the cash culture is that public figures use books funded by large media companies to support a lifestyle that is possible only because their service to the country makes them salable. Generals Tommy Franks and Norman Schwarzkopf came home from their Persian Gulf stints and took about $5 million each to write about their triumphs. Bill and Hillary Clinton earned tens of millions of dollars telling the stories of their lives in the White House. As soon as Newt Gingrich led the GOP to a 1994 takeover of the House of Representatives, he signed a $4 million contract with Rupert Murdoch–owned HarperCollins. Revelation of the deal backfired on Gingrich. Eventually, he took $1 and royalties on copies sold. But the episode made Gingrich a target on ethics issues.

After his victory, Obama, on the advice of friends I have been told, decided to replace Dystel as his agent with Robert Barnett, the formidable Washington lawyer who has represented the Clintons and a host of other major Washington political figures and writers. Whereas agents take a flat percentage of all the clients’ earnings—usually 15 percent these days—Barnett charges by the hour, which means that the bill is substantially smaller as a portion of the proceeds on big deals. Dystel, a feisty sort, was furious. I have no idea about the details of interaction between Barnett, Dystel, and Obama, but I would bet it was not warm and fuzzy.

Between Election Day 2004 and his swearing in as a Senator, Obama signed a two-book deal with Crown for “seven figures” (probably somewhere in the vicinity of $1.5–$2.0 million). By signing the contract before taking office, which Hillary Clinton also did on her book deal, Obama does not fall under various requirements for disclosure and reporting that applies to members of Congress. The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream was published this month to great fanfare and sold, according to Bookscan, the service that tracks about three-fourths of book sales, 67,000 copies in its first week.

| Read Full |

Like Osnos says, while entirely legal it is a little shady for Barack to be cashing in on services not yet rendered (so to speak, he may in fact prove live up to the hype). Once again, I love Barack Obama, but he is walking a very thin line between celebrity and public servant. He needs to decide which role he prefers more and go with it.