‘Blogging for Dummies’—WTF?!

posted at 1:47 am
on Sep. 1, 2005

Comments: 7 so far

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I was completely shocked when I visited Amazon.com today and saw this book in my “recommended” list. Why shocked? Because Susie isn’t writing it!

As you well know, Susie first proposed exactly this book, with exactly this title, to Wiley early in 2004. They liked the idea, and hired her to write it, but eventually decided they wouldn’t go for the title. They said they needed to offer something more than “just” blogging for the book to sell.

She fought fairly hard for the original title, but eventually decided that for her, the most important thing was to have written the best blogging book possible regardless of the title on it. The core of the book would still be a very hands-on, detailed guide to blogging. And that’s how it got to be called “Buzz Marketing with Blogs for Dummies.”

Since it was published, Susie’s book has sold quite well. She’s averaging about 10,000th on Amazon every weekday, months after the book has been released. That’s darn good.

Good enough that Wiley has evidently decided to publish another book on blogging, this time called “Blogging for Dummies.”

Here’s the thing. They have never contacted Susie about this. The first we heard of it was today on Amazon.

I think that’s pretty shoddy, or disorganized, of them. [short_rant]The cover even SOUNDS like “Buzz Marketing”: “Set up, publish and maintain a blog that draws readers"… [/short_rant]

There’s no reason I can imagine for Wiley not to come back to Susie about a general blogging book. After all, she’s since written a third book for them, and they’ve asked her to write even more. She’s never missed a deadline, and her copy is clean as a dog’s bowl. So, why they then went and asked Brad Hill to write another book about blogging, I just don’t know.

Having this blogging book out might serve Wiley pretty well, but I doubt it will do good things for the sales of Susie’s book. Interestingly, Joe Wikert, a publisher at Wiley blogged about this issue of issuing competing books just last month, and Brad Hill himself commented about how unfair it was that authors have to sign non-compete clauses but that published could put out competing books. Uh, Brad…

So I don’t know what to think, but I do have a favor to ask.

Susie’s far too sweet and polite to raise a fuss about this, but I would appreciate it if you could point out the silliness of this situation—please, nothing against this other author Brad Hill, who seems to be a very frequent writer of Dummies books. He doesn’t have his own blog, which is odd, but he writes for Weblogs Inc., and I’m sure his book will be decent.

It’s the folks at Wiley who I think have acted a little wantonly, and I’d like you to call their attention, and the attention of others, to the fact that they already have a book about blogging, and that it’s weird to bring in another author into a subject area in which you already have an expert.

Secondly, please help me make sure that any mention of this new “Blogging for Dummies” book does not claim that this is the first blogging book by Wiley, or the first mainstream blogging book, or anything like that. Susie wrote her book starting in the fall of 2004 and had it published in March ~~2004~~2005. It was the first Wiley book about blogging. It’s also the first business blogging book of any sort. She ought to get her props, and as her peeps, I’m counting on you.

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Comments

my editor tells me that this came up at a time when i was already engaged in writing amonther book, "bittorrent for dummies".

Posted by Susannah Gardner at 9:55 am on Sep. 1, 2005

still, sus, i think it's pretty stinky of them not to have mentioned it to you! plus, they must have (or at least should have) known that they were going to do another blogging book even before they asked you to do the bittorrent book, so they could have acted sooner... i don't know, i think WTF is right.

Posted by jason at 12:10 pm on Sep. 2, 2005

Thanks for mentioning my book, and my apologies to Susannah Gardner for any disappointment she experienced. I have been in her exact position many times.

For the record, I have been discussing a general blogging book with Wiley since 2002. We came very close to doing it then, but the project was scrapped at the last minute, after we had discussed the financials. Susannah can tell you how painful that is. My Dummies editor was certain that Wiley would eventually come back to it, and she was right.

"Bloggin For Dummies" is quite different from "Buzz Marketing...," which I have here in my office. Obviously there is some overlap, but my TOC contains explicit instructions for several blog platforms and services. Susannah's book treads lightly in those details with the exception of ExpressionEngine. I think "Buzz Marketing..." is shelved in the business section, and mine will be on consumer shelves. The two books will find different audiences with some overlap, I imagine.

Anyway, I just wanted to point out that Wiley did not come to me randomly. We had a long background with this proposal.

It's true that I don't write a personal blog at my main site currently, as you pointed out. But I maintain seven other blogs, five professional and two hobby, and I'm developing a few more.

BTW, one thing I will never do, and never recommend that my readers do, is create a horizontally scrolling blog. I'm all for individuality, but man, what a pain in the ass. On that snarky note I bid you good evening.

Posted by Brad Hill at 9:47 pm on Sep. 2, 2005

Brad, it's good of you to respond.

I think the issue of who's hired to write on a new topic is measurably different than the issue of how additional books in the same subject area are commissioned.

Susie and you both had a "Blogging for Dummies" proposal. They hired Susie after giving the title and focus a tweak. Then they went ahead and did a book in that matches her original proposal, without asking her to help or even letting her know it was happening.

Consider if, after you'd written "Building Your Business with Google For Dummies" you then woke up to discover that Wiley was coming out with a book called "Google for Dummies" and it would be written by someone else. Not cool.

If Wiley treated you unfairly during your initial proposal stage, I'm sorry, and if this has happened to you before, so much the worse. Still, that's no justification for legitimizing the current situation -- Wiley should have come to Susie first, or least given her a chance to compete for the book.

Regardless, I wish you great success with the book. A rising tides will, I hope, raise all our boats at least a little.

Posted by Travis Smith at 11:48 pm on Sep. 2, 2005

Travis said:

"Consider if, after you’d written “Building Your Business with Google For Dummies” you then woke up to discover that Wiley was coming out with a book called “Google for Dummies” and it would be written by someone else. Not cool."

I have been in that position innumerable times, including with the Google series (although I can't complain about having three books in that series). I sometimes makes me unhappy, but there are reasons for it.

You're seeing this from Susannah's perspective, and I'm sure she appreciates the support, but I'm curious why you don't think I should have written "Buzz Marketing." I believe I was talking about a blogging book before Susannah was, so why shouldn't they have come back to me when Susannah tilted her book as a business proposal? I emphasize here that I *never* felt envious of Susannah's book, and probably wouldn't have written a business book about blogging if given the chance. My question is theoretical.

You mention Wiley treating me "unfairly" but that's not how I see it--sorry if I conveyed that. Stuff like that just happens if you're involved in enough book proposals. It did not "legitimize" the current situation, nor do I believe the current situation needs legitimizing.

Here is what I think happened:

1) I proposed "Weblogs For Dummies" (different title then) in early 2002.

2) Wiley withdrew its interest after deciding that it couldn't successfully sell the book.

3) I moved on to other projects, including the Google series.

4) Susannah appeared, proposing a book about blogging. Wiley, with a recent history of deciding against the topic, offered to spin her project into a business book. They ignored me at this point, perhaps because I was tied up with writing about Google. I knew nothing about Susannah's book until it was published and I saw it on Amazon, just as you discovered my book.

5) Blogging became mainstream enough to revisit the idea of a general how-to book, and Wiley returned to the person with whom they first explored the topic.

Now, another factor might be that I'm nicely connected to everyone in the Dummies division of Wiley. I've been building relationships there since 1994, and I'm the first to admit that I receive great treatment. One reason I'm not bitter about competing books in my topic areas is that Wiley repeatedly has brought high-profile projects directly to me, regardless of whatever proposals might be sitting on their desks.

Posted by Brad Hill at 5:49 am on Sep. 3, 2005

Let me add that Susannah's editor might be correct, and Wiley would have asked for a general blogging book if she had not been writing something else. I'm guessing about what happened.

Posted by Brad Hill at 5:53 am on Sep. 3, 2005

ain't free speech grand?

i don't know that you guys are really talking at cross-purposes. it seems like what all this boils down to is that timing is everything when you approach the publisher, no matter what kind of previous stake you feel you have on a subject. that may not be right, but there it is. what frustration or disappointment (or not) exists here is probably more constructively expressed to our editors, since it's certainly not other authors that are responsible for this kind of situation.

brad, i'm eager to see your book, which i know you must be working on right now. it's obviously a topic i'm invested in and it's definitely time for this book to happen.

best,
s.