What to expect from your publisher’s marketing and publicity teams
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What to expect from your publisher’s marketing and publicity teams

If you signed a deal with a publisher — traditional or hybrid — they probably made you promises about all the great work their marketing teams can do for you. But the rosy picture you have in your mind about their book publicity probably doesn’t match what they actually can do. Less than half of…

Elon Musk’s brand is an implausible future — and it’s cheaper than advertising

Elon Musk’s brand is an implausible future — and it’s cheaper than advertising

Tesla announced a humanoid household robot Thursday, with a prototype due out next year. It made headlines even though there was nothing to see but an actor in a suit. Elon Musk was just musing out loud with slides and silly props. This is not new. Most of what Musk announces has no dependable release…

Voltswagen? How the April fools at VW failed at pranking.

Voltswagen? How the April fools at VW failed at pranking.

Volkswagen posted, then withdrew, a press release about renaming the company as “Voltswagen” to reflect a commitment to electric cars. Apparently it was an April Fools joke — and very poorly executed at that. Here’s the timeline of how it went down: Monday, 29 March: Press release about the rebranding “accidentally” posted on VW Website,…

If you can’t sell right now, you may as well be generous

If you can’t sell right now, you may as well be generous

Coronavirus has frozen your business in place. Nobody’s buying. Nobody’s even able to buy. What should you do? Be generous. Give stuff away to your customers. It’s simple. The only real asset you still have is customer relationships. You also have workers — unless you’ve let them go — and those workers are used to…

The (only) three corporate messages that make sense right now

The (only) three corporate messages that make sense right now

My inbox is full of irrelevant messaging. There are the messages from everyone from my eye doctor to the bike shop about COVID-19. And then there are marketing pitches that were clearly created months ago and are totally irrelevant now. There’s only one thing on people’s minds: surviving the pandemic. If that’s all people are…