Archive for September 1st, 2009:
Photo courtesy of Gawker
If reading 140-word tweets all day is not enough for you, how about a book filled with the cream of the Twitter crop? Well, you’d be in luck, as HarperCollins recently published the book Twitter Wit: Brilliance in 140 Characters or Less. Editor/compiler Nick Douglas reportedly received a $50,000 advance for the collection. And those who originally penned the tweets that appear in the book? They receive a free copy.
Contributors have also been encouraged to promote the book and were sent an “online buzz kit” from the publisher, complete with graphical ads they can post on their blogs, Facebook pages, or basically anywhere online. HarperCollins has also called on contributors to tweet about the book and to “get your mom, grandma, cousins, favorite barista and high school band teacher to buy one.” In addition, the publisher is sponsoring a video contest to promote the book. The winner will win an iPod Touch.
So what do you think of this marketing campaign? Is it brilliant or presumptuous? The contributors don’t receive royalties, so they have nothing to gain by the book’s success except bragging rights. Are you planning to buy the book?
For more on the Twitter Wit promotion, see this article from Gawker.
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