Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Seth Godin May be Over His 'Stats' Problem, but...

update 8/10: please see the following: Seth Godin is a Good Guy, I Am a Dope
(i didn't simply delete this post because I am OK with the historical record reflecting some of my dopiness, Seth is a good guy, as I'm sure is Imal who originally forwarded the link to Seth).

...does not seem to be over inexplicably failing to source the New York Times' story that inspired the blurb. Eww. Here's Seth's post:

I'm totally over my stats problem...
But I worry that if you're an author, you might not be. You might be spending hours a day checking your sales ranking on Amazon. If that's you, I hope you'll forgive me sharing this site that Imal sent in today. Type in an author's name and watch the rankings all day long. If I were in charge, I'd reformat the page, but like I said, I don't check anymore.

Here is his un-sourced creative inspiration. I bring this up only because the guy yammers on constantly about things like "building trust", and one good way to build trust is to give credit where credit is due. Especially when the original inspiration is much more interesting than what you have to write...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

He obviously got the tip from someone named "Imal." How can you blame Seth Godin if Imal never mentioned the NYT article?

Robert Seidman said...

in theory perhaps, I'd blame him for not reading the New York Times, and I would be surprised (though not shocked)if Seth did not see that article.

In reality I was just collecting more data on whether it's better to act like a dope.

Thanks for the data.

Seth Godin said...

Robert, I'm sure you'll be pleased to set the record straight.

For the last week, I've been traveling and haven't read the Times once. Also worth noting is that Imal sent me the ORIGINAL PRESS RELEASE, not the article.

So, no foul, right?

Imal Wagner said...

I am so sorry- I sent it to Seth - and since it was early morning I forget to link it back to the NYTimes- not Seth's fault - all mine

send me the -you did this wrong message - not him

imal
authors@comcast.net