Monday, June 13, 2011

Recommend a blog, win a book

When you write a book, the publisher sends you a questionnaire asking about promotional opportunities, on which you write down all your big-name author friends who will big-up your work, and all your TV-presenter buddies who will have you on their show.

I'm filling out the questionnaire for my forthcoming book, 'People Will Talk: The Science of Reputation' at present, and it's looking blank. So I'm hoping that someone reading this can recommend blogs to send a promotional copy.

The book is rooted in evolutionary biology, and branches out into all kinds of other stuff - online society, international relations, social networks, animal behaviour, social psychology, economics.

So what I'm looking for is tips on the top places on evo psych, (behavioural) economics, social networks (and capital), animal behaviour, business and brand-building, and so on - almost anywhere at the boundary of the social and natural sciences - who might be interested in the book and might want to review it.

I'd like to reward the person who sends the best recommendation(s) - based on how well they match the book, and how much I like the writing - with a copy of the book, which should be out in the autumn. I'll even sign it if you like, thus slightly lowering its resale value. A couple of rules for entrants:

1. I don't know you. If I do, please do send your recommendations, but either you can buy a copy, or I'll give you one anyway. You're not getting the prize.

2. I haven't heard of the site you mention. You'll have to take my word on this one. I'm not a big blog reader, but I think I'm aware of most of the big ones in evolution. I also know a few of the economics ones (crookedtimber.org and Marginal Revolution). Besides revealing promotional opportunities, I'm hoping that this exercise will broaden my mind.

Please leave suggestions as comments, or tweet me: @gentraso. (I'm not online every day, so don't be cross if I don't respond immediately.)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Not sure if this went through first time.

Hi John, I hope you’re well. We met years back (I was an office acquaintance of Sara’s), but no worries if my name doesn’t ring any bells. I spoke with Sara for the first time in ages the other day, and she mentioned your forthcoming book – congratulations on that! The topic’s right up my street, so I’ll check it out. One site I thought might be interested reviewing it is The Situationist (http://thesituationist.wordpress.com/), which is essentially about social psychology but covers a lot of stuff. I’ve also just set up a blog, and I might interested in reviewing it too! (It’s here: http://philosopherinthemirror.wordpress.com/ - might not be your bag (I’m going for the long, detailed post approach, with a slightly academic vibe). I also recently - and reluctantly - joined the Twittering classes; I know you don’t follow anyone, but I’m @MultipleDraftz. Finally, probably no need to publish this comment, but if you want to get in touch ever my email is danrbjones@gmail.