You gonna write about anything other than Dan Pink's new book Dave?
Along with ninety-five other people I agreed to help Dan Pink promote his new book To Sell is Human. I don't have a personal road-map for doing this. I've helped other authors over the years, mostly by writing about their books. A few have been collective efforts with others, the latest being Seth Godin's new book, The Icarus Deception. In this case I agreed to pay out money in advance. For Seth however, it was a no-brainer. I am receiving more value than I am paying out.
Although I did pre-order and purchase Dan's book, I joined this team effort because I truly believe in his work. Here's what we get: a signed first edition of the hardcover, an advance reviewer's copy and entrance to an exclusive Facebook page. What we really get is to be part of a team; a unique opportunity to learn and the ability to make a collective difference.
To Sell is Human stands on its own. Actually, this is the reason I wrote this post in the first place but I ventured off the beaten path a bit. We'll get to this in a minute. I wanted to make sure that my friends and acquaintances know about all the free stuff Dan is giving away for a limited time if you purchase the book before December 31, 2012. All I can say is: Extraordinary value!
In spite of never meeting Dan in person, I have a high degree of trust in him. I became aware of the lad in the late 90's via his work for Fast Company ( I have copies of all his FC articles since 2000). His book A Whole New Mind in 2005 was when I really connected with his thought process. He single handed-ly introduced me to the concept of design. I will never, ever recover!
Here's the thing about his work and for me it started with Drive. I do not require reams of case history and research to believe a point he is trying to make. Some people enjoy reading about research and the intricacies of experiments. I don't. I trust in Dan's effort. I'm not saying not to include the research and data, at times it is most useful, especially when Dan presents an interesting person. I just do not require it to form a belief.
Besides, there's a powerful force than runs just beneath our society today when it comes to validating an author's words, especially high profile ones like Dan. I call it the Wikipedia Phenomena. If Dan publishes a book with errant information, social media like Twitter and Facebook will light up with correcting data and detail in a heartbeat.
Buy the book, enjoy all the free stuff and in the end, make your live easier when trying to move people to buy into your thoughts, beliefs and widgets.