Kudos to the PR team at Thomas Nelson. I thought it was a cool idea that they were offering a free copy of their new book The Faith of Barack Obama to the first 100 bloggers who promised to write a review of it. It's a good, smart way to leverage the blogosphere...but it's not exactly revolutionary, right? That's not the end of the story...
I submitted my request and got confirmation that I'll be receiving the book shortly, but here's where they set themselves apart. The confirmation message also included a PDF file attachment with the first 48 pages of the book so that I can start reading it now. Simple, but brilliant. Even better, thanks to the fact that it's not some tightly locked or DRM'd file I was able to forward it to my @kindle.com e-mail address and it was quickly converted and wirelessly loaded onto my Kindle (and it looks great, btw). After all, I'm not that likely to start reading a 48-page PDF on my computer or print it out, but I'll jump right on it tonight on my Kindle.
So great job, Thomas Nelson team, but I do have one comment to offer that could help make this an even bigger PR success the next time around: The e-mail message that accompanied the 48-page sample made it quite clear that I'm not supposed to share this file with anyone. That's unfortunate. After all, it's just 48 pages of a 192-page book.
My gut tells me that if someone were to read the first 48 pages for free they'd be highly likely to pay for the rest of the book. And if they did read the first 48 pages for free and decided not to buy the book, well, you probably wouldn't have sold it to them without the 48-page sample anyway, so you didn't really lose a sale. Why not let all your blogger reviewers post this sample and offer it as a free download for anyone who's interested?
UPDATE: Thanks to CEO Mike Hyatt and the PR team at Thomas Nelson I'm now able to post and share the 48-page sample of The Faith of Barack Obama noted above. I read this sample and am very much looking forward to reading the rest of the book when it arrives. If you'd like to read the sample as well just click here to download it.
Joe, as the CEO of Thomas Nelson, I completely agree. This is a great idea. I have instructed my PR people to read your post and begin implementing this immediately!
Posted by: Michael S. Hyatt | August 07, 2008 at 12:35 PM
Hi Mike. Now *that's* what I call *responsive*! Thanks for taking the suggestion in the favorable manner it was intended, not as a criticism. I applaud the fact that you're on top of the blogosphere discussions about Thomas Nelson. More importantly, I admire your willingness to alter a policy in real time. Well done.
Posted by: Joe Wikert | August 07, 2008 at 12:45 PM
Joe. I was also impressed by the response from Thomas Nelson, especially how quickly they got back to my request for a review copy. I can understand the policy of asking bloggers not to post the copy, but for Mike Hyatt to change the policy on the fly?
WOW.
I'll have to ask my minister if it is doubly sinful to envy a Christian publisher :-) Thanks for talking about the book in your post and I look forward to seeing your review.
Posted by: Brent Beckley | August 07, 2008 at 01:11 PM
There's also a viral widget on Mike's blog that anyone can cut and paste into their webpage. It allows free online reading of the Obama book introduction.
Direct access to the widget:
http://csd.ingramdigital.com/widget/?isbn=9781595552501&cpid=CHP00004WD-WIDGET
Posted by: John Cain | August 07, 2008 at 06:18 PM
Joe, same great experience here, and I greatly appreciate the heads up about the offer, because it is a book that I'm looking forward to reading. As with you, the first 48 pages are already on my Kindle. Now I've got to make sure that I start implementing this approach with my own books.
Posted by: Stephen Windwalker | August 08, 2008 at 11:21 AM
This is a great strategy I'll share with our community. Thanks.
Posted by: Philip Davis | August 16, 2008 at 12:09 AM