I congratulate Jacob Morgan and Josh Peters–both of whom I’ve talked to on the phone in recent months, and who I respect for their social media passions–for deciding to co-author a book to help businesses navigate the social web.
The details are fuzzy at this point, and you can click that link to read what I just did, but apparently a publisher noticed their Social Media for Authors e-book and offered the duo a deal.
I’m astonished at the fact a publisher reached out to them, in contrast to Dan Schawbel’s lengthy blog post last fall on how he pitched publishers, not the other way around, to commit to his two-month-old title, “Me 2.0.”
I’m also troubled by this book deal.
Not to pick on Jacob and Josh (and I mention other bloggers and their pending books farther down this post), but if I hadn’t read their good news–and didn’t know who they were from other bloggers–how would I know they are writing a book? How would I know they are being paid to write a book? Is it a stretch to assume that one’s blog content is a sponsored conversation and that any verbiage contrary is a lie?
As Adam Singer wrote last winter:
…if cash is directly given up front for a post on something, no matter what is written, it is viewed by the reader as influenced by money. The reader simply cannot take it seriously.
Now that I know Jacob and Josh have a financial arrangement with a publisher to produce a book, I am biased into believing that every future blog post of theirs is directly influenced by money.
Face the facts: If your favorite blogger is a published author and doesn’t explicitly tell you, how will you know? Or, do you not need to know or care to know?
It gets deeper. Paul Gillin has published books; and Danny Brown is working on his first. With disclosure I’ve personally met Paul and interacted online with Danny, I’m troubled.
If you visit Paul’s blog right now (you can click the above link), you will see sidebar images and links about his books. I presume Danny will have such a scheme after his is published. But what do you see when you visit syndicated communities like Social Media Today and click into Paul’s post on the Kindle or Danny’s post on video?
I don’t see sidebars there. I don’t see book images. Most of all, I don’t see disclosure language of their authoring books. Wouldn’t their blogging entries be framed under sponsored conversations?
On his blog yesterday, Chris Brogan wrote about a marketing transition from tradition to content:
Marketing is shifting away from impersonal interactions and back towards the more effective world of word of mouth. Blended with the world of word-of-mouth, however (or maybe more accurately, I should say that word of mouth is only one tool in the bag), are sponsored conversations.
Like Jacob and Josh, Chris and Julien Smith are co-writing a book, due in bookstores in August, called Trust Agents.
If I purchased Chris’ and Julien’s book at a signing or conference which they both attend, I could chalk up my interaction with them as personal. You’d agree with that, right?
Continuing with that logic, if I didn’t know who Chris or Julien were and never saw them in person (or even knew about their blogs or tweets), and entered a bookstore and bought their book, wouldn’t that transaction be an impersonal interaction–and by Chris’ own assertion, be a sponsored conversation?
I’ll say this one more time…
In September, two books will hit the shelves. Online journalist Shel Israel is six months deep into writing a book called Twitterville and Paul Chaney is nearly finished with his title, The Digital Handshake.
If you gloss over Paul’s admittance that “the market is glutted”–which begs the question whether any of these books will be consumed to the critical mass they and their publishers intend–isn’t it true that every future (and past) blog post of theirs is now a sponsored conversation because their content may have been influenced by money?
If I’m off-base, please enlighten me. There’s nothing I’d like more than to be told I’m wrong, but the facts seem to speak for themselves.
Photo credits: Esther G and Paul Watson
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Ari Herzog is an online media strategist and Newburyport City Councilor-Elect.
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{ 18 comments }
Interesting views, Ari, but ones that I think you are a little off-base with.
Just writing a blog is biased by money in some way. You use your blog (as pretty much everyone that writes a business advice-led blog) to potentially attract new clients to you. You mentioned in a previous post that you were available for work and advised what you can do.
You have an About section that shows off your skills, as well as a link to your Visual CV. Therefore, you’re in the business of writing posts that could alert potential clients of what you do and what you can bring to their table. So, that would place you in the “biased for money” camp as well.
There are many different reasons for people to write a book, and there are many different ways it happens. Chris Brogan/Julien Smith and Jacob Morgan/Josh Smith have already been signed, which is great news for them.
Others (like myself) have been approached about possibilities of a deal but nothing firmed up. There are interested parties, but at the moment I’m still thinking of the self-published route with optional backing and partnerships.
I don’t think you can say any future posts after announcements are biased by money. I read the majority of the bloggers you mention and haven’t seen a distinct change in tact with any of them (with the exception that Chris Brogan may be doing more mentions of companies he’s working with, which might be mentioned in his book as well, but that won’t be apparent until his book launches).
With regards links in sidebars, is that any different from those that have affiliate adverts? The difference is at least the sidebar links about books are 100% relevant to that person (or should Seth Godin quit while he’s ahead and take away his book sidebars).
In a way, again you could say that your sidebar links – AdAge, Social Media Today Featured Blogger, Junta, Alltop and BlogBurst – are telling potential employers or clients that you’re worth hiring. So, back to the “biased by money” view?
It’s all relative and (personally) not as important as I think you might feel it is.
Cheers!
I understand your concern, but I have to disagree. While the idea of these people being somehow compromised might be worried, you’re working off a faulty model, that being that people are somehow pure and unbiased (or are supposed to be) when they are reporting.
Do you consider the newspapers or news sites you visit unbiased? Because they are just as interested in making money as any of these bloggers, more so, because they need more. Have you ever blogged about something because it was the trending topic on Twitter or on Google Search? I know plenty of professional-level blogs who do just that because it drives traffic. What about newspapers and cable news that increase their reporting on Swine Flu, creating even more of a panic, because it helps their ratings or distribution? Those groups are just as compromised, perhaps more so.
The idea that we can write without bias is an illusion to begin with and these bloggers with book deals are the least of my worries on that count.
AramZS´s last blog post..Journalism From the Outside
I don’t think a book deal constitutes a bias. Mainly because the ideas on the posts and within the blogs are representative of the blogger themselves.
Having trouble making the leap that you are…care to elaborate?
Stuart Foster´s last blog post..Where is Mobile Going?
Hi Ari,
Some interesting thoughts here. I am not sure a book is the same situation. Let me explain:
Say company X sells widgets – but no one is talking about those widgets, so they pay a blogger cash to write about their widget. I think this is a lose-lose scenario, as outlined in my post you quoted above.
But a book is a different case because of the model involved – a publisher likes the idea of an author and decides they want to be the ones who publish that book. It doesn’t seem to me the writers would be influenced by the fact a publisher took interest, that’s just one way books happen nowadays. It’s not the same as cash-for-blog posts, which run afoul of many things including clearly written rules by the engines.
Scenario, Adam:
1. You start reading blog.com written by Bloggy.
2. One day, you read a blog.com post where Bloggy writes about a toy. You enjoy his perspective, and add a comment.
3. Unknown to you, Bloggy wrote a post in the past indicating a company was going to pay him to write a series of posts about toys. But since you are new to blog.com, this is the first toy post you’ve seen.
Suppose the company is a publisher and the toy posts are future chapters of a book. Using your “different model” above, Adam, you talk about the writer uninfluenced by the publisher. I’ll agree with you there; but what of the reader by the writer? How would you feel, months after commenting on blog.com, you learn Bloggy is writing a book and your comments will be part of it? Wouldn’t you feel Bloggy shielded the bias?
See where I’m going with this? If there is disclosure on each blog post–such as Shel Israel’s “Twitterville” series–then transparency is met. Without the disclosure, Bloggy may as well be lying to you as you would assume he came up with those toy posts without being influenced.
Hi Ari,
I think more disclosure is usually better, but we also have to assume that readers have some ability to filter or you risk making ‘disclosure’ irrelevant. I don’t think this relates only to cash like transactions.
In your book example I’m not sure how the fact that the bloggers are going to be published would effect their content in un-expected ways. In other words, it is fair to expect readers to know that if you write in one place you may also write a book. Disclosure applies if you start reviewing other books from that publisher or start writing on topics specifically designed to flog your own book. That being said, I’m also not sure why anyone would keep quiet about having a book deal. I would certainly be crowing.
Journalists have always had to navigate the fine line between how they are paid and what they write. The larger the news organization the better that line was defined. Now in the world of blogs, where the staff may be a total of one, the line is and will continue to get fuzzier. Does the fact that many are focused on Key Words to drive traffic that clicks on ads need to be disclosed? I’m not sure. Does the fact that I live by day as a business consultant – yes. (Probably more than I have now that I think about it) If you are reviewing a product provided on loan or for free – absolutely.
Fred H Schlegel´s last blog post..Ways To Kill Business Innovation Through Analysis
Agreed one would crow about a book deal, but not on every blog post, right? That’s my point.
It’s the details that trap us. Gets complicated quick and when in doubt disclose on every post or in a bright noticeable spot in your blog. Many ‘how to’ book deals can fall into this category simply because if you have a book out about how to use the i-phone then it is likely you have a vested interest in the i-phone succeeding. Posts about the i-phone need that disclosure. (of course that doubles as a point of expertise). The more successful you are as a writer the less important that disclosure might become – for instance if you had written books on all the smart phone platforms – now your expertise is spread across the industry and disclosure could actually be superfluous.
Glad you’re making us think about this Ari. While we played with the ethics question quite a bit in J-School the change in publishing platforms is blurring lines in ways that writers need to think about carefully. It can be tempting to take a gimme, but if a blogger is not careful their reputation will not recover. And as a group if we appear to be ‘for hire’ when the money starts flowing (wishful thinking?) the platform will falter. Good news is, I think most advertisers are very aware of the danger and are treading lightly as well.
Fred H Schlegel´s last blog post..Ways To Kill Business Innovation Through Analysis
…and I’ve been told I’m wrong. I don’t think I need to write a lengthy comment here, for others already have. The crowd has spoken. Thanks.
I can’t say I understand the logic here. It might be me (traveling and a bit sleepy), or it might just be a wee too circular.
So, I say, huh?
Hi Chris, let me try this simply:
If you write a blog post tomorrow about a toy–and I learn after the fact that you had entered into a financial transaction with a publisher for a book deal–is it fair for one to presume that your blog post about the toy was a sponsored conversation?
You may not be compensated specifically for that post–but how would I know that the toy is not referenced or otherwise related to research for your book?
If you are either paid to write the book or will receive royalties from sales of the book, then isn’t every blog post that you write from the moment of the contract a sponsored post?
Because if I write about something that requires disclosure in my book, it’ll be also written about in the book.
How would you know?
Don’t let me scare you: the world is RIFE with unknown deals and dealings that aren’t disclosed.
We’re the people working on bringing those to light. We in general.
Chris Brogan…´s last blog post..Spread Your Wings- Get More Retweet Action Today
Actually, Ari, I can see your point. But perhaps that’s because I know you pretty well. There is a gray area here, like there is with most things involving posting stuff on the Internet.
Having said that, however, the influence of having a book deal might be good (as in, the information dispensed might be of higher quality) and disclosure might tend to make people trust the blog more rather than less because after all, someone else thought highly enough of what is being written to actually publish something penned by the same people.
That is, if you trust the judgment of publishers …
And AramZS, writing without bias should be a goal – especially if you’re trying to inform/assist people and especially if you’re not being edited by another party with a bias based on revenue – not an illusion. Your comment made my heart drop.
Gillian Swart´s last blog post..Now I feel better
I think I get where you are going. It is kind of the way I feel when I visit blogs, and I see them advertising some ebook or program. I wonder if their review of the product is true to their feelings about it, or if they are boasting about it because they are part of an affiliate program and will make money off of it.
At the same time, it’s a matter of how much you trust the author. Is it possible to believe they are giving an honest review of something they truly believe in, and are hoping to make money off of something they stand behind fully.
~ Kristi
Kikolani´s last blog post..What is Success?
hey ari, so if i understand correctly, if i’m published under wiley with Chris, i may be unduly influenced to speak good things of them because a transaction has taken place? is that what you mean?
julien´s last blog post..Bixi bikes: First impressions
looks like everyone beat me to respond!
the whole point of a blog from my point of view has always been to promote unique and valuable content. yes i was fortunate enough to have a book deal, but how does that change the type of content i am going to publish? i will make announcements, ask for feedback, and share details as they become public, but does that mean that the quality or the value of my posts has gone down? absolutely not.
im also having trouble trying to understand how a book deal somehow influences every blog post that i write. when the book is out i will certainly put a link to it on my site and try to engage the community for their support, but all of my posts will be business as usual.
as adam mentioned nobody is getting paid to post, we have a relationship to create something entirely new and unique.
also keep in mind that for many authors cash is not given up front at all, you are paid based on royalty fees. there’s more to be said but everyone else has already said it.
~jacob
jacob morgan´s last blog post..Could Facebook Replace Your Email?
There’s not a whole lot more I could add to what’s already been said but, I’d like to express my thoughts. I think you’re reasoning is a bit off base, just because I make a blog post and have a publishing contract doesn’t mean I’m being paid to blog.
Like Jacob as I’m working on the book and once it comes out I’ll be talking about it and making references to what’s gooing on with it, but overall it’s not going to be a major factor in what I blog about. My publisher isn’t paying me to continue writing my blog, nor are they paying me to talk about the book, that’s all done by me and of my own volition.
Once the book is out my posts won’t suddenly be all about the book, but since the book’s subject will be what I blog about (Social Media) they will be related. When you look at it, it’s my blogging on the subject that created the chain of events that lead me to the book opportunity.
Josh
Josh Peters´s last blog post..I’m going to be an Author!
Hi Ari,
I guess you could say that it really depends on “who is” the person writing and what is their character.
I wouldn’t say it’s wrong to write a blog thinking of the book in mind. It’s just focusing on their goals.
If what they write helps me that’s all good to me.
The biggest problem is if the blogger will “change their perspective” because of interests involved.
Being authentic is a real challenge because there will always be those who criticize. To me it’s the only way to be though.
If the blogger cuts a book deal but remains faithful to what he believes it’s still a good thing.
All the best,
Eren
Eren´s last blog post..Ultimate easy healthy homemade blueberry muffin recipe
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