So far, Julien and I have been very fortunate. Trust Agents hit the New York Times list within two days of the book coming out. The week after, we hit the Wall Street Journal list. That was you. YOU did all that, and I’m grateful.

As part of the promotion, I made a trade. I gave away 5 deals of “200 books for a 1/2 day of my time” and then gave away 4 (there’s still one left) of “300 books for a 1/2 day of my time.” That most definitely moved the needle. I’m in the midst of fulfilling all those requests, by the way. It’s a LOT of flying, but it’s also a great way to get out and meet great folks.

More recently, with my promotion for Mitch, I gave away 10 guest blog posts and accompanying tweets, in exchange for a purchase of 10 of Mitch’s book. (We sold out pretty quickly.) A strange side-effect was that a bunch more people bought Trust Agents at the same time (so thanks!).

How Might I Tie Trust Agents Sales to Social Change?

Here’s what I know: every individual sale is wonderful, and I’m always grateful, but as one of my mentors, Jeff Pulver taught me: it’s every bit as much work chasing single sales as it is making bigger things happen. So, knowing that every blog post you wrote helped, and knowing that visiting places is helpful, but not really scalable (I’m traveling 49 out of the next 60 days), I want your thoughts.

How do we kill two birds? In what way can I tie purchases of multiple copies of Trust Agents to something charitable and cool? I’ll give you some starter thoughts, but I want YOU to share yours.

Ideas for Trading Multiple Copies of Trust Agents for Social Good

• If a corporate sponsor bought 300 copies of Trust Agents, I’d donate 5 hours to a nonprofit of their choice, helping with social strategy, promotion, blogging, etc.
• What if I offered to pay $50 to a charity/cause for every 10 copies of Trust Agents an individual bought (up to 10)? (That way, it’s within reach of an individual to make a difference).
• What if, for every 10 copies an individual buys, I donate 1 book to a local library?
• …and your ideas will go here.

What do you think? What are other ways that people can tie a marketing goal (selling more _____) to a charitable good goal? How have you seen other companies do it, and how do you think it applies to what I’m trying to do for Trust Agents, and/or for that matter, how will you take these ideas and apply them to you?

The kid in the photo (and the photo itself) belong to Leeann

So, again, the book’s fine the way it is. I just came away wanting more than what he chose to write. Read other people’s much better reviews at Amazon, if you’d like ( Collapse of Distinction).

But here’s the story. Scott told me this in a follow-up email, with regards to my comment that the cover needed to change:

I went to B&N and asked for their input. I just thought it was a bit incongruent to write something creating distinction through, in part, listening to the customer — then, not ask the company I hoped to be the top retailer of my new product how I could make it better.

The head business buyer there read the book, went to the publisher and said that he wanted to do a push for the book — but absolutely hated the cover, and wasn’t willing to do anything for product he felt was so badly packaged. So, the publisher got him involved in the new design.

Think about that. Scott wanted the book to succeed. He wanted Barnes & Noble to be pleased with it. So he asked them what they wanted. Makes sense that if B&N is going to be a big distributor, you might want to care what they think of your design choices.

This one little story alone, about how Scott wanted to be sure his book was distinctive, was useful, was salable, made me go back and rethink my “meh.” I think he’s a smart cookie, so maybe you should skip my opinion and check out the book for yourself.

I’m allowed to change my vote, right?