Ted Demopoulos, co-author of Blogging for Business with Shel Holtz, has a new book on shelves in early November (if not sooner, according to an update on Ted’s blog it’s shipping out now) about leveraging the power of the blogosphere, or podcastosphere as the case may be. Ted was kind enough to answer a few questions I had on the book and the process, or lessons learned, while writing it. The book’s value, in my opinion, lies in it’s broad premise and yet its simplicity. Each chapter is a new tip/ idea/ case study expressed by someone who is actively participating in the conversation that is the blogs. The theories aren’t abstract, but are practical and accessible enough for those who haven’t waded in with both feet or even more than a toe at this point.
{disclosure, I’m one of the 101 people Ted interviewed – my piece is called “Solving the Content Dilemma” and I’ll post about some specifics on my tips at a later date}
Q&A:
How difficult was it to join together the disparate styles and ideas from 101 different people around the blogosphere? How long did it take to interview and write the book?
It was surprisingly easy putting together the 101 different styles and ideas, but it was surprisingly hard finding 101 people who were willing to be in the book. I had to coax so many obviously talented people who had lots to contribute. I dealt with “What me? I’m not ’smart enough/experienced enough/my thoughts aren’t coherent enough/etc.’” continuously.
It took about 4 months to interview everyone and write the book, and was a much longer project than I expected. It was also much more of a learning experience than I expected. Much of the book is a series of stories, or we can be ‘official’ and call them case studies, on how people benefit from the blogosphere, and the rest is people’s advice on various topics.
How did it differ from writing “Blogging for Business” with Shel Holtz? Would you do a book of this kind again?
It was much harder than writing Blogging for Business. Obviously Shel was an enormous help, and much of Blogging for Business simply flowed from our minds into the book, although some of it was certainly tough and required extensive research.
None of What No One Ever Tells You About Blogging and Podcasting just flowed out – it all involved scheduling time with others, lots of emails, telephone calls, smoke signals, and drinking lots of coffee and beer with others :) Then there was this 4+ week unplanned interruption mid-book, when I travelled to Siberia with two kids, a wife, and a mother-in-law in February to adopt Anastasia, our newest family member. I didn’t interview many people in Siberia — actually only one, a Splogger over a bottle of vodka!
I’d love to write another book like this — after a recovery period. Writing a book involves an intense time commitment.
What was the most rewarding part of writing the book?
Absolutely no question – all the great people I met!
Are you following the books advice?
Yes, I learned a lot and have applied a lot. Everything from advice on writing, to building traffic, handling borderline inappropriate comments, and making money from blogs.
On a personal note, it was a terrific experience to be interviewed by Ted (only wish it had been in person over a beer! ;)) and have my ideas on how to leverage the blogs successfully integrated into such an amazing compilation of thoughts by bloggers of all shapes and sizes, including: Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki, Shel Holtz, Debbie Weil, and our own Canadian PR alumnus Joe Thornley.
All the best to Ted on its success… now to just get my copy in-hand and start putting the other 100 ideas into action!