Leave it to the man who wrote the book called Re-Imagine! – Business Excellence In A Disruptive Age to launch his latest by combining a bunch of modern technologies to get the word out, create the buzz and getting the book to sell (sounds like a recent rant – I mean Blog entry – I made).
Tom Peters let people know on his Blog about the release of Project04: Snapshots of Excellence in Unstable Times, which his website describes as “a lifetime of Tom’s observations and exhortations, from Tom Peters classic rants (e.g., ‘Destruction Rules’) to his gentler essay on ‘Grace.'”
From the Blog he encourages those interested to sign up at BzzAgent where they can help spread the word and get a free kit (including the book) to help spread the joy (and word) – I am signed up and primed to go.
Seth Godin deploys programs like this constantly to build buzz and sales around his book launches. The end result? It works because the people reading the Blog are already engaged and, more often than not, are “raving fans” as Blanchard says. Peters is just giving his present fans more incentive to get the word out (free stuff now with bragging rights and the possibility for more free stuff later). I would be curious to get Tom’s insights on how the launch for Project04: Snapshots of Excellence in Unstable Times differed/compared to his previous literary launches?