In Search of the Long Tail: Crowdsourcing the Book Review Process

Today I received an amusing email:

Dear Mr.Howe,
How are you today? I hope you are doing great! I just saw a copy of your book at Barnes & Noble. I read the inside cover and thought you're really onto something and would like to buy it, however I'm getting laid off at the end of the week. I was wondering if you had an extra copy you don't need that you can mail me one to my house. I would really appreciate it a lot.
I hope to find a job soon.
Signed, Christopher Aguirre

My initial thought was, "Sorry about your job buddy, but actually, well, no. I sell these books of mine. It's how my publisher makes money." But as it happens I just received a few dozen copies of the Crowdsourcing Book on Tape. These come on top of a few dozen copies of the UK edition of the book, which arrived on top of my stack of unused galley copies and finished hardbacks of the US edition. In other words, I'm swimming in copies of a book bound for the pulping machine. Which gave me an idea.

The whole point of giving away advance copies is to generate buzz and, ideally, press. We identify individual writers and bloggers we think will be interested in reviewing the book. Then we send them a book, unbiden, and hope for the best. But if you think about it, this is a pretty antiquated system, and neglects the long, long tail of reader-bloggers that are really responsible for driving a book's popularity. Why not turn this equation on its head, and ask the crowd whether they'd like to review the book?

So that's what I'm going to do. While supplies last, I'm willing to send you a copy of the US, UK or audio version of the Crowdsourcing book. All you need to do is post a comment containing your address, a link to your Website and your good faith testament that you do intend to read and review the book, and I'll zip one off to you. **UPDATE: You must provide an URL to an existing blog, or otherwise specify what forum in which you'd like to review the book. We’re crowdsourcing the book review process, not the book reading process, which is, if you think about it, pretty crowdsourcey already.**

And yes, I did send a book to Christopher. Let's all wish him luck with his job search.

Comments

[Seth Lewis]

I'd love to read a review copy, if there are any left ... even in PDF form would be great (seth.lewis [at] mail.utexas.edu). I'm thinking about it as a book that I might assign to my class (on blogging and citizen media) next spring. Thanks!

Here's our class blog, where I'd post a review this fall: http://writingforonline.wordpress.com/

Seth Lewis
School of Journalism
University of Texas at Austin
1 University Station A1000
Austin, TX 78712-0113

[Peter Organisciak]

Peter Organisciak
1206-8715 104 St NW
Edmonton, AB
T6E 4G7

My site's http://crowdstorming.wordpress.com/ (where I've already written about your excerpts twice).

[kath]

hi, I'd love to hear an audio copy. I've posted on http://www.aliak.com/content/crowdsourcing - but I'd rather not put my address here if that's ok.
thanks
kath

[Marcelo Träsel]

Hi, Jeff!

Although I live in Brazil, I would like very much to review your book on my personal weblog (http://www.insanus.org/martelada). It will also be very helpful for the Online Journalism and Online Marketing classes I give at PUCRS university here in Porto Alegre.

Marcelo Träsel
Famecos - Prédio 7 Sala 201
Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul
Av. Ipiranga, 6681
Porto Alegre - RS
Brazil
90619-900

US or UK version are both fine.

Thanks a lot!

[Anssi Ruokonen]

If its not too late, I would also like to review your book. I would also use it as a source for my thesis, give recommendations to business associates and post the review&thoughts about the book in couple social networks. And I can take either UK or US book version.

Anssi Ruokonen
Lehtolantie 7 a 5
01450 Vantaa
Finland

[Charles Dietrich]

I'd love to get a copy of your book and write a review. US or UK book versions are both fine. I'll post a review on my blog at:

http://charlesdietrich.com

Charles Dietrich
810 N Cayuga St
Ithaca, NY 14850

[John Wren]

I'll write about your book, please send review copy to:

John Wren
960 Grant St. #727
Denver, CO 80203

www.JohnWren.com

[Ben Green]

Hey Jeff,

Pretty new to the crowdsourcing concept but am more than intrigued. Don't have a website but will happily write a review at waterstones.com & Amazon.com (came to the idea of crowdsourcing through Mechnical Turk)

Not sure if you are happy to post outside the US but if so:

Ben Green
26 Kettering Road
Broughton
Northants
NN14 1LZ
United Kingdom

Thanks either way, love the site!

Ben

[Tim Latham]

Thanks for your great offer. I'd love to receive a copy of your UK version book. I'm currently working on a crowdsourcing B2B service.

Tim Latham
19 Dovecote Close
Barrowden
Rutland, LE15 8ET
UK

[Melanie Rieback]

Your book sounds great! If you could send me a copy of the UK version of 'Crowdsourcing', I'd be happy to post a review to ReadingSocial on Facebook, mention it on Twitter, and make a note of it on the Wiki(s) for the various open-source SW projects that I'm running.

Melanie Rieback
FEW / Dept of Computer Science
De Boelelaan 1081a
Amsterdam, 1081HV
The Netherlands

[Birgit]

I would love to review your book and add to Amazon.co.uk (you currently have just 3 reviews on the UK site) and to promote the idea of it. We have just started a social network within our company to promote internal comms and we're going to use crowdsourcing to support our case for this so would be very interested to learn more.
B.Schmidt
2 Addiscombe Road
East Croydon
Surrey
CR9 5AF
U.K.

[Lauren]

If you're still willing, I'd love a copy to review on my blog. I'd also post a review on Amazon.

Thanks!

Lauren Finzer
26 Carisbrook Dr
Orinda, CA 94563

[kraloyun]

I will review your book on my site, gladly. I'm looking forward to it whether I get a free copy or not.

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