Today is the official pub date for The Faith of Barack Obama by Stephen Mansfield. I am very excited about it’s publication. Of all the books about Obama that have been or will be published, this is the only one I know of that deals exclusively with his faith.
In the current issue of Atlantic Monthly (July/August 2008), Nicholas Carr asks, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” He then goes on to describe what the Internet is doing to our brains. This is a must-read for anyone in the book publishing industry.
The book, as we know it today, will eventually die. It won’t happen all at once. And it won’t happen immediately. But, in my opinion, it is inevitable. Why? One word: inefficiency.
Currently, Amazon.com has a big competitive advantage compared to brick-and-mortar bookstores. In a word, that advantage is selection. But that is about to change.
The old adage, “so many books, so little time,” is more true now than ever.
Recently, I wrote a post entitled Why the Bestsellers Lists Are Inaccurate. I followed this up a few days later with another post on the same topic entitled Toward a Better Bestsellers List. Andy Butcher, the editor of Christian Retailing magazine, read the posts. He then sent me an email with several questions. I agreed to answer them, provided I could do so on my blog.
I have argued for years that, “It’s the product, Stupid.” The secret to success in any business is to deliver a great, compelling product. No amount of marketing savvy, salesmanship, or operational excellence can overcome a weak product.
For example, the New York Times bestsellers list claims that it’s “Rankings reflect sales, for the week ending [current week], at almost 4,000 bookstores plus wholesalers serving 6,000 other retailers, statistically weighted to represent all such outlets.”… All the mass market outlets like Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Target, Costco, and Sam’s and Christian bookstores (some 2,300 stores or so).
I created a top-level organizational chart that answers that question. You can double-click on the chart for a larger view.
Sam Moore, the former CEO, who had held the job for forty-seven years, will continue to serve as the Chairman of the Board…. At the Shareholders’ Meeting, Mr. Moore gave me a five-fold charge: Make your family your top priority and remain faithful to your wife.
