“Oh, and I forgot to mention, we’re trying to sell a lot of books.”
How Jeff Seroy, Senior Vice President of marketing and publicity at Farrar, Straus and Giroux sounds in my head.
My latest “Change This!” update included a notice that the publishers of “The World is Flat” by Thomas Friedman are offering the audio version of the book for free. Why? Well, two reasons.
- They want you on their mailing list. But a free audio version of this recent classic is probably worth a few emails.
- They’re trying to generate buzz about Friedman’s new book, “Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need A Green Revolution And How It Can Renew America”
Jeff Seroy, Senior Vice President of marketing and publicity at Farrar, Straus and Giroux, said the purpose of this audio giveaway is to “celebrate Friedman’s enormous influence on our lives and times. And in preparation for the release of his new book, a green manifesto and a continuation in many ways of his thinking in ‘The World is Flat’, we want to enable anyone who hasn’t already read ‘The World is Flat’ to catch up with Friedman’s argument and vision for the future.”
“Oh, and I forgot to mention, we’re trying to sell a lot of books.” (He didn’t actually say that last part, but you have to know he was thinking it.)
Still, it’s a nice offer. So, from now until August 4, you can join their mailing list to get access to three “easy-to-download” sections (Why not just one, I wonder?) and, as an added bonus, shortly thereafter you’ll be able to download a pre-release audio excerpt of the new book.
