I’m going a little off-topic here, because like all authors, I get assailed with questions about how I got my book published, and my ongoing journey with the book.
Perhaps the biggest challenge for a first-time published author is, how do you get publicity for your book? One well-travelled route is getting big names to read the book and comment on it.
After my book came out, I emailed several big names in the business world asking if they would read the book and comment on it. Many of their assistants responded along the lines of, “Send the book, if s/he has the time, s/he will read it and respond.” In virtually every case, I didn’t hear again after I sent out the book. On some level this is perfectly understandable since the big-names are usually extremely busy and presumably, have tons of requests from other authors. Mostly, it seems to me that big-names end up commenting on other big names’s books, in a mutually beneficial, and perfectly reasonable, relationship.
That said, I sent an email to Scott Adams of Dilbert fame, especially because my book pertains to the root cause of boss behaviour. But that wasn’t the only reason I sent him the request. What I like about Scott is that he’s always thinking and searching for answers to rather deep questions, and is forever coming up with some model – or cartoon - to explain things. (My all-time favourite explaining the current financial crisis here)
Since my book offers a new way (ie, Systems Thinking) to explain the old problem of bad boss behaviour, I sent off my email to Scott, half expecting him to not respond – he obviously gets lots of emails every day, besides the comments on his blog.
I was pleasantly surprised when Scott himself responded, but disappointed to read that he has a policy of not reviewing books (this was several months ago, though I thought it would be useful to share, at least with authors who plan on writing to Scott - maybe his policy has changed!).
