Folks, I am told that authors have to do (virtually) all the marketing for their books themselves and have to promote them shamelessly the time without looking like it. Since subtlety is not my strong suit, I hope readers will cut me a bit of slack if I mistakenly go overboard. I also hope describing snippets of the process will be instructive to anyone thinking about writing a book himself.
The book is officially published 3/2/10 (countdown!) and may be in bookstores a wee bit before that. You can preorder, and I will have a button and links to the major online book vendors on the website soon.
The book has also gotten some good blurbs. One I liked particularly, sadly, had to be rewritten because the publisher hated it (no accounting for taste, needless to say). This was from Satyajit Das:
Robin: “dot.con, world.con! Holy cow, Batman, what cons next!”
Batman: “e.con, of course! Yves Smith, my favourite batgirl ever xxxx, lays bare the evils of neo-liberal economics and the underworld of the Financial Crisis as only she can.
Robin: “Do I need to really read it!”
Batman: “Of course, It’s all done with your money!”
But Das was gracious enough to re-do his, and the other ones are strong:
“In ECONned, Smith blows the top wide open on the role that economists
and policy makers had in enabling Wall Street greed and misdeeds. This
fascinating book reads like a detective story uncovering the roots of
our disastrous financial philosophy– a must be read for everyone
from Wall Street to Washington to Main Street.”
Nouriel Roubini, Professor of Economics at New York University and founder of RGE Monitor“Yves Smith has written a wonderful book which combines first hand knowledge of financial markets with a devastating attack on the scientific pretensions of economics. It is required reading by all those who want to dig below the surface of the worst economic collapse since the war to the intellectual and regulatory rottenness underlying it.”
Lord Skidelsky, author of ‘Keynes-The Return of the Master’“This book is a fascinating and insightful reminder that economics is like any other powerful tool. It can be used to help understand the world and solve important problems—or to rationalize ridiculous behavior and overwhelm common sense. Smith provides a brilliantly researched tour of good ideas gone bad.”
Charles Wheelan, author of Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science“Lost your job, lost your life savings, the country’s going down the proverbial – want to know who did it? Yves Smith tells the tale of how bad economics created the foundations for the ‘Madoff economy’. After you read the book, just collect your pitchforks and get ready to march on the University of Chicago or Wall Street or both! A refreshingly sane and honest analysis.”
Satyajit Das, author of Traders, Guns & Money: Knowns & Unknowns in the Wonderful World of Derivatives.
“The helplessness you feel in the face of the demonic complexity of modern finance . . . set it aside, and pick up Yves Smith’s ECONned. Indignation, clarity, and omnivorous knowledge come together in her writing to explain how . . . we, the taxpayers, are being meticulously fleeced.
Never go into an argument about the financial crisis unarmed again.”
Stephen Metcalf, Slate Columnist
Now on to working on the press release (no joke, that is on my plate for tonight)
48 comments
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No apologies needed – sometimes you gotta toot your own horn a little. Congratulations on the positive reviews – I look forward to reading the book.
Congrats, Ives! Great endorsements; I’m sold, but too bad you lost the Bat Girl image. Will you offer autographed copies from here?
Thanks for reminding me! I plan to, but need to figure out how to coordinate that with Palgrave.
Will there be any book tour?
hi yves,
congratulations.
i strongly recommend you check out this video by seth godin. many excellent ideas about promoting books.
http://toccon.blip.tv/file/970223/
Robin’s hyperventilating dialogs with Batman is a classic exploration of economics and the world of comic book mentality, the utter foundation of modern financial innovation.
Your publisher is in grievous error.
Yves,
Didn’t you work hard enough on this puppy to tell everyone how good it is? :-D
Thought so!
Congrats!
Fantastic! Now I can reference said blurbs to unsuspecting trotters whilst I feed them their own nipples as a first (old Roman gastric delight and deliciously ironic…), then issue your prose as a gift. We’ll see how it goes, should be an interesting concourse never the less.
Its that or some form of heavy element down the road.
Skippy… again, Kudos!!!
PS discount for volume over 100????? not kidding either!
Congratulations on your sterling reviews. They should make marketing your prose much easier. Let them speak for you.
I just want to believe that you are going to use the deserved acclaim you get from this book to redouble your efforts to challenge our current economic ship of state instead of escaping to Australia or Japan or ???.
Thanks for your efforts to date which are greatly appreciated.
you’re too old for Batgirl. Channel Emma Peel…..
(!)
Hearty congrats … Hope to read it soon. can you post the link to Amazon page once you have it?
Finally! now the wait begins for us!
I don’t mind you tooting the horn. finally someone is tooting the right one! Can’t wait to lay my hands on the copy.
Congrats once again!
Rahul
A word of congratulations from France! I have long ordered your book on Amazon.
It seems you might read French from your oft expressions such as “quelle surprise” and the like. Have you, by any chance heard of a slim but devastating book called “Libéral mais non coupable” (liberal but not guilty) by someone who, like you, writes under a pseudonym, Charles Gave. He operates now in Hong Kong, having long decided that Europe had little future.
I very much look forward to comparing your views (which I am sure will be more detailed) with those of Gave.
Best of luck anyway!
Congratulations.
I was going to be buying your book anyway, but the fantastic reviews make me more than anxious to read it. Congratulations!!
Second that. Congrats Yves. Look forward to reading the book.
Do you publish as e-book ?
to self make an ebook, use dtp.amazon.com
I used to be a director on the kindle team at Amazon.
Yes, that is now pretty standard in publishing. I think they release it for Kindle etc. on or right after the pub date.
Cool! Looking for to reading it cover to cover.
Added to my Amazon wish list. Make a daily stop at the blog. Not crazy about the cover, but looking forward to reading what’s inside. Congrats
Oh good, this means mine will be out before yours, and they’ll be so disappointed with mine that yours, expectedly very good, will look spectacular!
(j/k)
Roubini though… hmmm….
Congrats, I will def pre-order. Is it going to be kindle ready?
If you want to do a discussion re the book and bring some books up and do some quasi book signing/sales in the fairfield county CT area let me know. I am on the board of the stamford cfa society and we’ve done similar events. had the late peter bernstein do a speech along with some books and we’ve also had flat out book signing events.
Don’t know how you manage to run a first-class daily website and write a seminal book.
If those who populate government had as much integrity, self-discipline, application and knowhow we wouldn’t be in the state we’re in now.
In addn to Donlast’s 9:10 AM comments, there’s the ongoing business that actually brings in income!
Yves: Last year, you discussed the subtitle. What was the decision?
I’m excited to read it.
Question for ya: How rigorous is fact-checking process in a book like this? Do you have to take out insurance in case someone slaps a libel suit on you? Or do the big money people ignore this sort of writing? I can’t imagine you can cover this subject without laying out a few players as complete rat-fink bastards.
NO FACTCHECKING. I do have a ridiculous number of endnotes. This is not like magazines, where the magazine eats the liability. Basically, the author is liable even when the publisher is named in the suit. The contracts are horridly one sided in favor of the publisher.
They did have a legal review, however, that is standard. And the reality is anyone would be nuts to sue someone who published a book that has dirt that is reasonably accurate. First, it brings even more attention to the matter. Second, the target would be able to do discovery (meaning get access to e-mails, phone logs, financial records) to prove that his claims were valid. And the target would have trouble arguing the records should be kept sealed.
Chicago School of Economics
Died – 3/2/2010
Since this is my favorite finance blog, I preordered just now.
when you post the links to purchase the book Yves, be sure you proudly put it at the top of your site! you can preorder from Amazon in case you didn’t know – here’s the link: http://tinyurl.com/ycopyep
can’t wait to read it!
I will buy your book.
I’d really like a signed copy, can you make that possible?
I got Zandi to sign a copy of his for me. He was at our offices for a presentation. We had been clents of Economy.com for near ten years and we counted him a friend. When we first bought into his services we were at his annual confab in West Chester and at the conclusion I told him he did ‘Good Work’. He looked at me like I was some sort of buffoon, then turned gracious and let me wander off for the airport. To this day I doubt that he understood the compliment. I still think he does Good Work despite the fact he continues to be reluctant to be completely forthright as to current conditions and what they portend. You, in contrast, occupy a position that permits you to be very forthright.
As to your blog, You Do Good Work. I do not always agree with your positions, nonetheless I find your points of view interesting and very often very helpful. For me the value of your blog is that it is, indeed, Good Work and what that means as to the quality of the prose and the research that lies behind the argument.
I’ve been building a collection of signed copies obtained from writers I consider to have a viewpoint worth attention, not necessarily because I might agree with their arguments, but because they present arguments that should be considered. Your arguments here in your blog are of that nature, they are a contribution to the dialogue and they enhance the understanding of our current condition and where it is that we are headed.
All the best
I’m happy to sign copies, the easy way is a signed bookplate (this is what Barry did), which I will see about organizing via Palgrave (Wiley does this, but I haven’t gotten Palgrave to focus on that).
Congrtulations on the good reviews! I will pre-order the book when it is available to do so.
Won’t you please come to Chicago (to promote your book)?
The Seminary Coop Bookstore on the U of Chicago campus frequently hosts authors. Its main store is in the building that is destined to house the Milton Friedman Institute. The irony would be delicious. I’m sure you already have lots of friends in Chicago, but if I can do anything to help, please let me know!
This is their website: http://semcoop.indiebound.com/
Please keep us all up to date re: your travel plans.
Congratulations on the excellent reviews. I look forward to reading your book.
Congrats, Yves.
Your success bring tears of joy to my eyes.
You go girl!
Pre-ordered mine at Amazon. Love the “Mad Men” cover…
If your book has the same impact that your blog has had, you will change the world.
Good on ya, Yves!
Congrats on the book, and those are some great reviews! Toot away. We’ll all be reading it, I’m sure.
I preordered mine from Amazon.fr but I have to wait until mid-April. I look forward to having you signing it during the European leg of your book tour!
Kevin,
Thanks so much for your order, and sorry about the delay. The UK pub date is six weeks behind the US. Don’t ask why, these things are a mystery to me.
Congratulations on the great reviews. Of course, S. Das review was the most telling and original. I very much look forward to your book and will tell everybody in Switzerland about it. And I appreciate your great work in this blog. It’s one of the best analysis of the current dire conditions we are in.
Go Yves! Please keep us appraised of your book tour schedule!
Can’t wait to get it! Have my order in at Amazon. Congratulations!
Congratulations Yves! Am preordering now…
Pre-ordered mine some time back, really looking forward to the read.
I’d love to see you in person again in Portland, you should do a reading at Powell’s Books. Let me know if you’re interested.