➻ Shawn Coyne recently wrote a review of Bryce Hoffman’s American Icon (one of Jack’s favorite books of the year so far), and how the lessons reflected from Ford CEO Alan Mulally’s leadership in the book contains in them the ideas espoused in Pressfield’s The War of Art. Discussing Alan Mulally’s leadership of Ford Motor Company, the implications that has for the future of book publishing, and When the Ladder Becomes a Wheel, Shawn writes:
Analog hierarchies use the pursuit of the fruits of labor—money, status, Big Kahuna-ship—to “incentivize” individuals. Do this and we’ll pay you more and get you into the Country Club… Daniel Pink writes a lot about this and he’s found that it is not the best way to motivate a human being.
What digital territories demand is much more difficult. They demand honesty, integrity, and connecting with other people to explore common interests. The fruits of our labor in a territory aren’t about being named one of People magazine’s 100 most beautiful people. The reward is simply to continue doing your work. If your work is professional and meaningful, there’s a tribe of like-minded people on the planet who will find and support you. If it isn’t, work on something else.
Alan Mulally’s big triumph was not making billions of dollars for Ford. It was getting the people who spend eight hours a day at Ford to love their work.
So what does this have to do with Book Publishing?
These two books, American Icon and The War of Art, got me to think about where the book business stands today and where it’ll be tomorrow. Don’t cringe. It’s good news. Very good news.
To hear the good news on the future of publishing, and to see it (Mr. Coyne developed some great visuals to explain his idea), head on over to the original post.
➻ Looking back at the last fifty years of publishing, there is one title that could be considered a business book among the Top 10 Most Read Books in the World—Napolean Hill’s 1937 classic, Think and Grow Rich. It came in a distant 9th place behind the Holy Bible, Mao’s little red book, and a lot of modern fantasy and fiction.
➻ And just in case the future of physical books is in any danger, there are now two perfumes that will keep the scent of them alive and help you smell as if you have a Nose in a Book: “In the Library” by CB I Hate Perfume and “Paper Passion” by Geza Schoen. I’m assuming the next Kindle released will be doused in this stuff.
➻ The American Booksellers Association has posted a article on how independent bookstores around the country are >Working With Self-Published Authors that should be helpful to both independents and self-published authors.
➻ “I don’t think literature can content itself with being either a mask or a mirror of reality. I think literature creates reality or it is not literature at all. You have to write “La marquise sortit à cinq heures,” to copy the banal details of life, but this is not enough. The mirror is also a way to augment reality; it augments reality or it does nothing.”
—Carlos Fuentes, The Art of Fiction No. 68
➻ Take Time with The Books
