Don’t buy “Small Is the New Big” by Seth Godin. If you are an experienced marketer, the book will be a bore, and a huge disappointment.

At the end of the entry I tag five talented bloggers to tell us which other books we should avoid. If you like the topic and want to join the meme, feel free to write your own entry and to tag your friends. Update to change the deadline: the most interesting entry before the end of January 2009 will get a 50 USD Amazon gift certificate or cash in your paypal account – to buy whatever you want… maybe a book that you like.

Please respect the main courtesy rule of a meme: link back to this original entry, or at least mention my name – Mihaela Lica – as the original meme initiator. I will publish links to responding entries each week, provided that I am able to identify them. Links to this entry or trackbacks will make my job easier.

Why a Meme?

A blog meme is an idea or even a question that is posted by one blog and responded to by other blogs. Usually the responded blogs link back to the original blog entry that started the meme and “tag” other blogs to spread the game. A very good explanation on how memes work is given by Chris Garrett on his New Media blog.

“Memes are interesting content when done right, and can give you an insight into others personalities and histories that you wouldn’t ordinarily have access to. But it’s mostly about links. The initiator gets a ton of links (all participants link back to the person who started the Meme) and everyone else gets some amount of link love too. You link to the next in the chain (”tag” them) and they link back when they complete what they have to do to participate.”

I was not very fond of memes myself. In 2006-2007 they were like a plague of the blogosphere – there was no end to the topics and the frequency of the “you’ve been tagged for the X meme.” Some of these memes were more than fun – they helped bloggers know each other better, they contributed significantly at building relationships between some bloggers, and certainly they built community. The “linking” and the SEO aspects came in second – as fortunate “side effects.”

Memes are no longer a trend – or if they are, they go under other names: “group writing projects” or “blog carnivals” to give just two examples.

Don’t Buy “Small Is the New Big” by Seth Godin

Reading Seth Godin’s “Small Is the New Big” and regretting buying a book that is just a collection of rants, I ended up wondering whether there were some other people like me, people who expected a lot from a book they bought and their expectations ended in disappointment. I remembered the memes – some of them were book related, but none asked: which book you hated the most? Well, I’ve decided to start a meme myself, but not to ask which book you hated the most (I don’t hate Seth’s book). My question is: have you ever regretted buying a book? And why?

Now I have to explain why I regret buying Seth’s book: because it tells me nothing new. The book is a collection of riffs, rants, blog entries and texts from Seth’s public speeches. This is not a problem – after all the author warns about the content of the book on the cover. My disappointment is due to the fact that there was nothing new for me to learn in his book. I am a Seth Godin reader – who doesn’t love Seth’s blog? But to see blog entries collected in a book, organized alphabetically was not such a cheerful experience. Imagine the “purple” cow, on a field, chewing cud endlessly, while the sheep stand with cheering ovations. This is how it felt to read “Small Is the New Big.” The cow is a pretty picture, of course, and chewing cud is very important for its nutrition, but what is really there for the viewers? Fireworks?

There are, of course, some sparks of genius in the book, but they are so hard to find amongst all the self-aggrandizing pieces of “marketing knowledge” (!) Nothing Seth writes about is new under the sun. Literally nothing.

I got the book from Amazon and I got burned – so many 5 stars votes fooled me. I bought into the enthusiasm of Seth’s fun club and unfortunately now I am afraid to buy other books by the same author. I said unfortunately – who knows, these books might as well be good. I’ll never know. Reading blog entries in print format really spoiled my appetite for any other Seth literature.

What About You? Have You Ever Regretted Buying a Book? Why?

If Maki or Liz Strauss would compile their blogs in book the experience would be much more rewarding. These two talented marketers are not the self-aggrandizing type.

Here’s an idea for those who want to “publish a book the easy way”: pull a Seth, but if you do, for God’s sake don’t make the book read like a nonsensical rant. Organize the content in categories, not alphabetically.

Well, enough ranting… Now to the fun part: have you ever regretted buying a book? Why?

I’m tagging some bloggers who light fireworks which are more beautiful than Seth’s, but are not as famous (and I will never understand why not!): Chris, Liz, Lillie, Phil, Alina, Pearl and Sue. Share your thoughts and challenge other bloggers and your readers. It’s always good to know opinions on “what not to buy” from people we trust.