Comments on: On Self-Promotion

By: Laur

Laur — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 11:28:44 +0000

I’ve read Little Brother (which I recommend), and I read BoingBoing from an RSS feed, and what I can attest is that, while there were a lot of Little Brother related posts, not all of them were of the “buyitnow” persuasion. The gadgets and tech used by Cory in the book got their very own Instructables section, and all of them popped on BB, because it’s tech and gadgety and cool and Cory used them in his book, so what better topics were there? Besides, it’s not like anyone is _making_ you read this stuff, I can skip things that don’t interest me at the touch of a button, which is what most of you can surely do as well.

On the other hand, his books are available online for free, so it’s your time he’s asking for, not (necessarily) your money. Although in my case he definitely ended up with both.

By: King Rat

King Rat — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 02:41:27 +0000

I don’t have a problem with the placement of Cory Doctorow’s promotional material/advertisements. I might have a problem with his frequency however. (I don’t, because I don’t read BoingBoing, though.) Even then I wouldn’t have a moral problem with it. I might object because it reduces the signal to noise ratio for my reading. If anything get’s too repetitive and frequent, I may drop it. Depends on how much useful information there is to me. Doctorow’s use of his megaphone too often in that way will drive off readers.

The local Seattle Times recently did something with their RSS feeds where every time they make a minor change to a story, it shows as a new item. So I saw many stories 3 or 4 times a day, with no utility for me at the margin (to use a set of terms pushed by Tyler Cowen). This is, I believe, what the commenters at BoingBoing have a problem with. There’s no utility for them to see postings about readings they won’t be able to attend, or the 23rd interview of the week which is the same information but a different order as the previous 22 interviews.

By: Bob Nolin

Bob Nolin — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 21:11:38 +0000

One more thing - I don’t feel that YOU are a skeevy car salesman. There is a right way to do this, and you are a good example of doing it right. Which is why I subscribe to your blog, and not Doctorow’s.

By: Bob Nolin

Bob Nolin — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 21:09:17 +0000

Dave -

Your points about the death of traditional marketing are right on. No problem there. But I have to say that the very in-your-faceness of Doctorow has really turned me off. The impression I get, right or wrong, is that here is a guy who is all about using the system. He knows how to play the game. Good for him. Does it make me want to read his work? No. I don’t like to feel manipulated, and so the result is I’ve formed a very negative impression of him. Like a skeevy car salesman.

Is this because he’s a writer, and writers shouldn’t behave like this? Perhaps. We hold writers up to a higher standard. They’re up there with doctors and classical musicians. We don’t expect such folks to be out there hawking their wares. It lowers our opinion of them.

I realize that that perception hampers your ability to earn a living, but people do think that way. This could explain at least some of the virulent postings.