Russell Davies

tales from the long tail

Seeing two new books that I really like the look of emerge from the web (Cooking With Booze and How To Worry Friends And Inconvenience People) dragged up memories of my own adventures in publishing land, and I realised it was just about two years ago this week that I excitedly posted this picture of Egg, Bacon Chips And Beans on the big front table in Borders.

I remember excitedly following my sales rank on Amazon (though I can't remember how high it actually got, above is what it is now) and comparing them with a friend who's a real author. And there were all the nice reviews and interviews and the short-listing for the Blooker thing. And the occasional warm glow from an email from someone who'd actually bought one. Or from seeing one in one of the cafes I'd reviewed.

And then, nothing. No-one bought one.

It seems that year everyone bought bucketloads of Does Anything Eat Wasps and Is It Just Me Or Is Everything Shite? (especially in Tesco and Asda where it counts). And no-one bought EBCB. I got a statement the other day from my lovely agents. Harpers printed 20,000 copies and they tell me that gross unit sales were 7,428 and net unit sales were 4,702. (I'm not really sure what gross and net means in this context - does this mean there are about 3,000 books to be returned? Not sure.) So, not no-one, obviously. But it wasn't a hit. And very quickly after Christmas though there was still a bit of press interest in it, I realised that Harpers weren't bothered any more. Everyone who'd worked on it was now doing something else. That was it. EBCB (the book) was over.

And don't get me wrong, I loved doing it, I'd have done it if I'd only sold one copy. And I got a very generous advance, so financially it was splendid. But you know, it just seems sad that there are some 15,000 books in a warehouse somewhere. Not being bought. Not being remaindered. Not being pulped. (I don't think, do they have to ask me if they do that?)

Anyway, I was rather inspired by the stuff that James has done for Cooking With Booze, he's put it online, he's built a mobile version, he's done videos and everything. So I've decided I'm going to stop moping and face up to my long-tail status, and see if I can't do something to knock that sales rank up a little. Not sure what yet. Maybe more regular posting on ebcb would help. But I'm sure I'll think of something.

In the meantime if you'd like to buy a copy to help me out, you can get one from here, or maybe here. As my agent described it 'it's the ideal Christmas gift for the man in your life you don't know very well.'

more jump

These seemed to strike a chord so I thought I'd add a few more. This Peter Ustinov.

Audrey Hepburn.

Hugh Gaitskell.

John Steinbeck.

Aldous Huxley.

microwinners

I asked Jeremy, the esteemed digital publisher at Penguin to judge our fine self-generated microtrends. He's chosen Dave, John, John (Dodds), El Gaffney and Tom. But since Tom seems to be John Dodds again I'll nominate Brandon for the fifth prize. Thanks to everyone for entering. I thought there were some great things there. Penguin people - how about us doing the follow-up for you? If the winners email me (russell at russelldavies.com) I'll point you in Jeremy's direction so you can claim your winnings.

hats off to penguin

I for one, an enormously grateful to Penguin. Because if it wasn't for them most of my presentations about interesting, imaginative, clever digital/real things people have done would be empty. They'd probably get my vote for Marketing Company Of Recent Years (if such a thing was votable). Which makes it all the more surprising that I was so churlish when they tried to send me a book a while ago. I think they probably just the felt of the brunt of my pissedofness about all the stupid PR blog/outreach email you get. Which has only gotten worse recently. But, the thing you have to applaud them for; they remember. So they very, very delicately reached out today to see if I'd be interested in a copy of Mark Penn's Microtrends. And yes, I would, because I imagined there'd a student planner or someone out there who'd like a copy. And hearing that, they've offered 5 copies so now we can have a Special Mark Penn's Microtrends Prize Give-Away Competition.

The rules are these. Go and have a look at the Microtrends site and have a look at some of the ideas he's put in the book. You don't really need all the data that Penn has at his disposal, you just need to do some good noticing and think of a good name. Stick them in the comments below. Not too long, please.The best 5 new Microtrends win a copy of the book. (Best means some combination of Clever/Insightful/Funny/Lateral.) If we don't get 5 entries then we'll donate the books to a good home.

Oh, and I forgot to suggest a deadline - how about 9pm (GMT) on Thursday?

jump

I found this fantastic book in our local Oxfam shop on Friday. It's a simple thing. Pictures of famous people jumping.

This, for instance, is Capt Edward Steichen. Don't you just love him, even if you've no idea who he is, seeing him jumping like this.

And here are our old friends The Duke And Duchess Of Windsor, jumping nicely. I suspect these pictures are so much better because everyone's dressed so formally. It wouldn't be so charming to see some modern celeb jumping up and down in their hoodie and trackies. Looks very like a modern flickr project though. I can imagine a series of webcelebs photographed like this.

Even with everything you know about Nixon, doesn't this graceful little hop make you slightly inclined to vote for him (although that's unlikely to be possible)?

And somehow you feel like this picture tells you something about Robert Oppenheimer's character, and might reveal something of the mind behind the Manhatten Project. I'm sure it doesn't really. It's just a man jumping. But look at that stretch, that energy. Although they're very posed, almost formal, you sense something candid and revealing in the jumping.

Anyway. It's a good book. Keep an eye out in second-hand stores or have a look on alibris.

the anaesethetic of the familiar

(Above; the Harvard psych-cognoscenti eagerly await the commencement of Mr Pinker's address)

I went (with Gareth who's written about it too) to hear Steven Pinker speak about/from his new book yesterday. He's no fool, knows what an audience might enjoy and decided to focus on the chapter about swearing. Very popular. He used a great phrase while talking about the uses of swearing - describing it as a way of overcome 'the anaesthetic of the familiar' to shock people into noticing something. And that struck me as a really useful idea in a lot of circumstances. So much of our lives (especially our business/work lives) is trammeled by convention and habit that we're suffocated by the anaesthetic of the familiar a lot.

And he introduced a word I'd never heard of but really liked too - dysphemism. It seems that a dysphemism is essentially the opposite of a euphemism. So while a euphemism allows you to talk about a topic without confronting the nasty reality of that topic (say 'poo') a dysphemism is an intentionally hard word intending to confront you with that reality and make you examine if (say 'shit'). Again this would seem to have a lot of applications in business life, which is festooned with euphemisms, concealing reality and causing bad decisions. The interesting challenge might be to find the dysphemistic words that will usefully confront people, rather than just saying 'your business is shit'.

adventure thrills action

I bought these books today, 40p each. Very pleased. They may not be 'good design' (there again they might be, I always seem to get that wrong) but they're damn interesting and enticing, partly, I think, because they're so energetic. You don't really see books like this any more. Shame. (Or do you?)

And who could resist the strange saga of 'liver-eating johnson'?

They look good on the shelf too.

the triumph of klona

My copy of Churnmore just arrived from Amazon, ordered on Ben's recommendation. And ten minutes later I've read it and loved it. It's the perfect encapsulation of how reasonable people can do stupid things. Again and again and again.

to the end

I've just finished reading this. Very good. Not as brilliant as I thought it was going to be at the start but definitely worth reading. But I came very close to not blogging about it because someone at Penguin emailed me and told me about it. (Though, coincidentally I'd already bought a copy.) I like Penguin. And I can't fault them for writing to me about it, it's set in an advertising agency, it's likely to be of interest to me.

But I could feel that email causing the beginnings of that knee-jerk journalistic cynicism that I've always hated. (What do these people want? Why are they emailing me?) I never really understood that mindset, but now that I'm getting a small fraction of the PR bombardment that they get it makes much more sense. Someone emailed me the other day to ask if I'd review their chocolate easter egg on eggbaconchipsandbeans, I can see why they did wrote but, well, you know, I'm not going to do that.

On the other hand, those same cynical news organisations are sometimes completely credulous about the dumbest PR scam. Like this whole thing about McDonald's trying to get the OED definition of McJob changed. Obviously, McDonald's do not care about dictionary definitions. Obviously. But earlier this week I listened to a McDonald's executive talk for 5 minutes on the Today programme about how great it is to work there. Very clever.

This post is perfect illustration of my point about the difference between the way I blog and the way I feel I should write for Campaign. I have no point here. And no real ending. But, hey, you know.

reading

I get a lot of people asking what they should read if they want to get started in planning. And I always say Eat The Big Fish and Truth Lies And Advertising. Because they give you a sense of what planners do. In advertising agencies at least.

But that's not a lot of use unless you also understand the context planners operate in. Which is why (having just finished reading them) I'd also recommend MadScam and The Houdini Solution. Because, they give you great thoughts about how the rest of the business works.

I'm not sure I need to say much about MadScam, George has already said it all. And, as you'd expect, it's a clear, very-readable, nonsense-free guide to how to do your own ads and maybe, how to hire an agency. It's aimed at small(ish) business owners but the advice is good for everyone, because advertising isn't that hard and the principles that apply for Stan's Stunning Sarsaparilla ought to apply to the Coca-Cola company. The only reason they don't is all the people that get in the way, but no-one knows how to deal with that. Anyway. Read MadScam, it'll tell you how to do advertising. If you can then find away to help with some planning on top, you've got yourself a profession.

The Houdini Solution is similarly straightforward and good. It'll tell you how to have decent ideas. And again, Ernie probably explains it better than I could. (Reviewing books by bloggers is easy. They do it all for you.) Having good ideas is the hardest thing in advertising. Most people don't bother. So you should read everything you can about it. (Especially James Webb Young's Technique For Producing Ideas, written in the 30s and still one of the best things you can read about ideas.) The admirable thing about The Houdini Solution though is the emphasis on work-rate and practicality. This isn't designed for ivory tower folk, it's for people who want to work at ideas until they create enough good ones that one of them will be great.

Anyway, both good books. Get them both.