Attack of the Flak
Attack of the Flak
Going Rogue Versus Gone Postal
Wednesday, 11 November 2009 20:18
On November 17th Sarah Palin's book "Going Rogue" will drop. I think I'll choose the same date to drop my book, "Gone Postal." I'll walk over to where I've got 'em stacked, pick one up, and drop it on my office (bedroom) floor where it will land with a muted thud (much more muted than Palin's book tour through the "real America").
I also think I'll make more money publishing my book than HarperCollins will make off Palin's memoir. She got an advance of anywhere from $1.5 million to $7 million. If that number is $5 million, HarperCollins will need to sell 400,000 copies in order to make any money.
Myself, I've printed 40 copies via createspace and have distributed most of those to the 20 or so people who have pre-ordered. I've also had one online sale. I'm already in the black.
New PR
Friday, 10 April 2009 16:30
This is good stuff:
Francine Hardaway writes an article in Fast Company about Brian Solis and Deirdre Breakenridge writing about the aging business of PR. And here I am writing about it.
Money quote:
"The future of PR is already underway and it's defining who we are and what we choose to represent."
To me, this justifies what I am doing right now. I have chosen to represent myself, my book, and Rose City Publishers. Whether or not this is economically feasible at this point remains to be seen.
Swag
Friday, 19 December 2008 20:07
As a PR person, or anyone in marketing for that matter, we frequently pick up corporate crap; the sundry tchotchkes companies use to "brand" themselves and give to people to take home to their kids after a tradeshow in Vegas. AKA: Swag.
An old associate from one of the first agencies I ever worked at connected with me on Facebook and posted something about a former client.
(This is completely meaningless fluff, by the way. It gives me a chance to relay a bit of humor and get my last post off the front page).
I had a t-shirt from that client and was wearing a sweatshirt from another (Micro Focus, for whom I did some Y2K scaring as they were a COBOL compiler company that was selling a tool to fix the two-digit date problem in that language. I can't take all the credit for over-hyped Y2K paranoia [nor would I want to] but I did get that client into the tech trades from whence it went mainstream).
I've got heaps of swag: stacks of t-shirts, pens, pencils, notebooks, backpacks, computer cases, coffee mugs, a brand-etched champagne bottle (empty), hats, of course. However, my all-time favorite, the best little souvenir I ever scooped up, is the Allied Telesyn Nose Hair Clipper.
What's better, I use it. Not nearly as often as my wife would like, but I do use it.
It makes me smile just thinking about it.
Here's hoping you're smiling, too.
When did PR become synonymous with BS?
Wednesday, 17 December 2008 00:09
It seems every time I see the two letters that define (one of) my profession(s) in print, there's some diminishing qualifier in front of it.
I thought googling "just PR" of "PR BS" might reveal a host of quotes from mainstream media outlets defaming public relations. It wasn't as clean and definitive an exercise as I'd hoped.
That being the case, I had dinner, half a bottle of chardonnay and a coupla PBR and sat back down here to finish this post.
I went to this industry event two weeks ago and listened to people talk about social networking. Ironically, there was a woman I'd worked with at Edelman there who I hadn't seen in damn near a decade (she was actually sitting in the chair where I'd deposited my backpack, having moved it during the time it took me to get a drink at the bar and come back).
If I hadn't moved my physical being away from this cursed screen and gone to some blah blah blah event in the "real" world (I'm not sure why I used quotation marks) she and I never would have reconnected.
I'm now trying to figure out what this has to do with PR being thought of as BS...
Oh, yeah, there was this woman from Microsoft who was on the panel and she kept differentiating Marketing from PR, she also clearly defined PR as something separate and distinct from "branding" (I used quotation marks there cuz I think "branding" is BS [at least how MSFT woman talked about it]).
My old Edelman colleague and I nearly scoffed up our banquet chicken (it was actually a fairly tasty squab, but that's beside the point). PR is not media relations. PR is not writing press releases (do me a favor, if an exec refers to a press release as a "PR," stick a Bic in his jugular).
PR is public relations.
And that is FINALLY starting to be true. When I fell into this business, it was all smile and dial, it was working the analysts, it was drumming up case studies. Well, you know what, everything's changed. I'm not entirely sure of all the ramifications, intracacies and some other words I might insert her, but I've gotten the distinct feeling that this is a good thing and I might actually be proud of doing PR if it all works out as I think it might, which again I am incapable of elucidating upon at this time.
OK, I'll probably delete this in the morning.
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