Category: Interview

Richard Nash Interview: Bringing Together Writers and Readers

I had the pleasure of speaking with Richard Nash, who gave us a behind the scenes look at what he has been building for publishers, writers and readers. We cover the following topics:

  • How he and his team have developed the Cursor platform to “power the world’s next 50,000 publishers.”
  • The ways his new publishing venture Red Lemonade is trying to help writers find readers.
  • That the economics of content on the web has become “broad and shallow” because that is what people know how to monetize via ads. We dig into long-form reading online, and the “deep and narrow web” with texts of 100,000 words.
  • Social reading: its value and limits.
  • How reading and writing have been arbitrarily separated from each other, and that they should not be. That our capacity to create is now equal to our capacity to consume.
  • Reasons why the traditional publishing system has failed to serve some writers, and how we have an opportunity to change that.
  • That the definition of ‘publisher’ is changing. It is no longer about the act of supplying bookstores with product. The part that matters is those who bring together like-minded writers and readers.
  • How to bring together and serve a community online.
  • And many other topics!

You can watch the full interview by clicking the play button below:

[flowplayer src=’https://s3.amazonaws.com/WeGrowMediaInterviews/RichardNash.mov’ width=640 height=375]

You can find Richard in the following places:

Thanks so much to Richard for taking the time to chat!
-Dan

Tad Hargrave Interview – How Marketing Can Give, Not Just Take

I had the pleasure of speaking with marketing expert Tad Hargrave. In the book world, more authors are becoming marketers for their work. Inherently, this causes an identity shift, and a confrontation that they want to spread the word, but not bug people. Tad excels at this type of thing: focusing on how marketing can be a part of a process that supports an entire community, instead of focusing on just getting money from people. Some topics we cover:

  • How can marketing be inspiring and make the world a better place?
  • Where does marketing go wrong? (EG: Manufacturing insecurity in your customer to get them to “need” your product.)
  • How to consider the many income streams that support a business.
  • Why Tad uses a pay-what-you-can method of pricing his workshops and webinars
  • His experience as a street performer, and how he learned that marketing can be a positive thing, where people enjoy giving you money.
  • How honesty in marketing is refreshing, that one doesn’t need to mask that a transaction is going on.
  • The responsibility we have in marketing to ensure it supports the entire community in which you work.
  • How focusing on meeting JUST your needs can also deliver the worst aspects of modern culture – how our professional and personal communities are divided. But that focusing on how your needs can be met, AND others’ needs can be met helps everyone in bigger ways.
  • That, “when a lot of people think they want fame, they really want community; that when they think they want status, what they really want is stature – being held in high esteem by those you respect.”

You can watch our entire chat by clicking the play button below:

[flowplayer src=’https://s3.amazonaws.com/WeGrowMediaInterviews/TadHargrave.mov’ width=640 height=375]

Tad creates marketing workshops and offers consulting services for holistic & green businesses. You can find him in the following places:

Thank you so much to Tad for taking the time to chat!
-Dan

Susan Danziger Interview – The Challenges and Opportunities for Publishers

Susan Danziger Founder and CEO of DailyLit.com, and the organizer of The Publishing Point Meetups. We discuss topics including:

  • A behind the scenes look at both DailyLit and The Publishing Point.
  • Why she believes in the value of in-person meetups, and bringing together publishing outsides and insiders.
  • The feedback she received from publishers when DailyLit first launched – their apprehension and fear of “disruption.”
  • The challenge that large publishers face in supporting legacy systems, a large employee base and significant real estate holdings.
  • That publishers need to lead with technology, not follow.

You can watch the full interview by clicking the play button below:

[flowplayer src=’https://s3.amazonaws.com/WeGrowMediaInterviews/SusanDanziger.mov’ width=640 height=375]

You can find Susan in the following places:

Thanks so much to Susan for taking the time to chat!
-Dan

Joe Pulizzi Interview – Why Marketers Are Now Publishers

I had a great chat with content marketing expert Joe Pulizzi, discussing how individuals and brands can engage their audiences and customers by creating engaging content. Joe is the Founder of Content Marketing Institute, the media company that covers the content marketing industry. Some of the topics we discuss:

  • Why marketers should now be publishers.
  • That it is HARD to create compelling content that engages people.
  • To engage people online, you can’t be all things to all people. You have to focus on the specific needs of a specific audience.
  • Why for an author, the book is just ONE way to reach their audience.
  • That you engage people when you focus on THEIR needs, not your product or sales needs.
  • How it takes TIME to build your credibility and engage an audience online.
  • Why email is critical to reaching your audience.

…and more! Click play below to watch the full interview.

[flowplayer src=’https://s3.amazonaws.com/WeGrowMediaInterviews/JoePulizzi.mov’ width=640 height=375]

You can find Joe in the following places:

Thank you so much to Joe for taking the time to chat!
-Dan

Colleen Lindsay – “Every Author Has To Be An Entrepreneur”

Colleen Lindsay has been a literary agent, worked within large publishers, and at several bookstores. She is currently part of the business development team at Penguin Group and community manager for Book Country. We discuss a wide range of topics, including:

  • That, when an independent bookstore goes out of business, it is the result of bad business decisions, not market trends. “It Doesn’t Matter How Much You Love Books if You Don’t Know How to Run a Business.”
  • How thriving independent bookstores focus on customer service, community service, leveraging social media in a smart way, smart buying, and taking advantage of publisher & vendor specials.
  • Her experience and goals in helping to launch BookCountry.com – a free online genre fiction writers workshop.
  • How she and her colleagues approached the idea of building a new community for writers and readers online.
  • Where she is seeing opportunity for authors in the self-publishing ebook world.
  • Why all authors need to be entrepreneurs.
  • That the most important part of being a writer is to first get your craft right, then work on your platform.
  • The top things that writers often do wrong in the querying process.

Watch our full interview by clicking the play button below:

 

[flowplayer src=’https://s3.amazonaws.com/WeGrowMediaInterviews/ColleenLindsay.mov’ width=640 height=375]

 
You can find Colleen on Twitter at @ColleenLindsay, on BookCountry.com, and on her own site http://theswivet.blogspot.com.

Thanks to Colleen for taking the time to chat!
-Dan