O’Reilly just kicked off some PR for the release of Making things happen with a write-up on their blog a spiffy new press release, and to celebrate they’re giving away a free copy of the book.
All you have to do is head over to the O’Reilly PR site, and enter a comment describing the perfect project manager.
Winner chosen by Kathryn on April 15th.
[…] O’Reilly FYI : Scott Berkun is back and Making Things Happen in project management : ..I’m curious to know what people see as good qualities in a project manager, or the qualities that make a project manager terrible to work with. Please post your comments here, and I’ll select a winner (in a totally arbitrary fashion) to receive a free copy of Making Things Happen. Just post your thoughts by the end of next Tuesday (April 15). Thanks!.. ( via scott berkun: free copy of making things happen) […]
Wow, can O’Reilly really afford to give away one whole free book? That’s so generous — that must have cost them, … let’s see about $2 in real costs to give away that book. Incredible generosity. Keep it up O’Reilly…maybe next time you can give away 2 books.
Hey Seriously: Exactly how many free books do you think O’Reilly should give away? What’s the magic number?
1 is major publishing company pulling an el cheapo move, 20 is probably too many since you may not have 20 folks contribute to the “contest” then 10 is a good round number that would make a better blog headline than your current one and it wouldn’t make O’Reilly and you look like cheapos in your attempt to promote your next book.
Plus can you imagine the good will and multiplier effect that you would generate with having 10 or 20 folks “win” a free book … they would tell their friends, blog about it, share the book at work, whatever…but all the commentors who didn’t win, have nothing to say about your book NOW…they may end up buying it at some point, but the cost of the good will and promotion that you could have generated is completely lost. yes, I think I’Reilly is cheap but clearly this small promotion was ill-conceived if the bigger picture was considered.
You know, I am wondering just how creative many publishing publicity depts are. I give O’Reilly points for doing the one-book contest in the first place.
However, Seriously, you do have a point. Ten books wouldn’t have killed them……..
Hats off to O’Reilly for listening to the people who posted here. I got this email yesterday:
Thank you for posting your comment to the O’Reilly FYI blog. I ended up selecting ten winners and you were one of them. Let me know where to ship the book and I’ll get a copy out to you.
Best regards,
-Kathryn
This book came HIGHLY recommended.