New Release Books by Seth Godin

From the bestselling author of Linchpin, Tribes, and The Dip comes an elegant little book that will inspire artists, writers, and entrepreneurs to stretch and commit to putting their best work out into the world. Creative work doesn't come with a guarantee. But there is a pattern to who succeeds and who doesn't. And engaging in the consistent practice of its pursuit is the best way forward. Based on the breakthrough Akimbo workshop pioneered by legendary author Seth Godin, The Practice will help you get unstuck and find the courage to make and share creative work. Godin insists that writer's block is a myth, that consistency is far more important than authenticity, and that experiencing the imposter syndrome is a sign that you're a well-adjusted human. Most of all, he shows you what it takes to turn your passion from a private distraction to a productive contribution, the one you've been seeking to share all along. With this book as your guide, you'll learn to dance with your fear. To take the risks worth taking. And to embrace the empathy required to make work that contributes with authenticity and joy.

#1 Wall Street Journal Bestseller Instant New York Times Bestseller A game-changing approach to marketing, sales, and advertising. Seth Godin has taught and inspired millions of entrepreneurs, marketers, leaders, and fans from all walks of life, via his blog, online courses, lectures, and bestselling books. He is the inventor of countless ideas that have made their way into mainstream business language, from Permission Marketing to Purple Cow to Tribes to The Dip. Now, for the first time, Godin offers the core of his marketing wisdom in one compact, accessible, timeless package. This is Marketing shows you how to do work you're proud of, whether you're a tech startup founder, a small business owner, or part of a large corporation. Great marketers don't use consumers to solve their company's problem; they use marketing to solve other people's problems. Their tactics rely on empathy, connection, and emotional labor instead of attention-stealing ads and spammy email funnels. No matter what your product or service, this book will help you reframe how it's presented to the world, in order to meaningfully connect with people who want it. Seth employs his signature blend of insight, observation, and memorable examples to teach you: * How to build trust and permission with your target market. * The art of positioning--deciding not only who it's for, but who it's not for. * Why the best way to achieve your goals is to help others become who they want to be. * Why the old approaches to advertising and branding no longer work. * The surprising role of tension in any decision to buy (or not). * How marketing is at its core about the stories we tell ourselves about our social status. You can do work that matters for people who care. This book shows you the way.

"A one-two punch! Half kick in the ass, half cheerleading encouragement." —Steven Pressfield, author of The War of Art If you are happy being just a dreamer, perhaps you don’t need this book. If you’re enjoying the status quo, don’t even consider reading this book. If you are content waiting for success to find you, please put this book down and go find something else to read. Why has Poke the Box become a cult classic? Because it’s a book that dares readers to do something they’re afraid of. It could be what you need, too. "Is Seth Godin the Pied Piper for however many of us have been afraid to fail? Will I answer his call? Will you?" —Peter Shermeta, reviewing the original edition of Poke the Box

World of Warcrafters, LARPers, Settlers of Catan? Weird. Beliebers, Swifties, Directioners? Weirder. Paleos, vegans, carb loaders, ovolactovegetarians? Pretty weird. Mets fans, Yankees fans, Bears fans? Definitely weird. Face it. We’re all weird. So why are companies still trying to build products for the masses? Why are we still acting like the masses even exist? Weird is the new normal. And only companies that figure that out have any chance of survival. This book shows you how.

Made for dipping into again and again, Whatcha Gonna Do with That Duck? brings together the very best of Seth Godin's acclaimed blog and is a classic for fans both old and new. 'Getting your ducks in a row is a fine thing to do. But deciding what you are going to do with that duck is a far more important issue' Seth Godin is famous for bestselling books such as Purple Cow and cool entrepreneurial ventures such as Squidoo and the Domino Project. But to millions of loyal readers, he's best known for the daily burst of insight he provides every morning, rain or shine, via Seth's Blog. Since he started blogging in the early 1990s, he has written more than two million words and shaped the way we think about marketing, leadership, careers, innovation, creativity, and more. Much of his writing is inspirational and some is incendiary. Collected here are six years of his best, most entertaining, and most poignant blog posts, plus a few bonus ebooks. From thoughts on how to treat your customers to telling stories and spreading ideas, Godin pushes us to think smarter, dream bigger, write better, and speak more honestly. Highlights include: -A marketing lesson from the Apocalypse -No, everything is not going to be okay -Organized bravery -Choose your customers, choose your future -Paying attention to the attention economy -Bandits and philanthropists Godin writes to get under our skin. He wants us to stand up and do something remarkable, outside the standards of the industrial system that raised us. Seth Godin is the author of thirteen international bestsellers that have changed the way people think about marketing, the ways ideas spread, leadership and change including Permission Marketing, Purple Cow, All Marketers are Liars, The Dip and Tribes. He is the CEO of Squidoo.com and a very popular lecturer. His blog, www.sethgodin.typepad.com, is the most influential business blog in the world, and consistently one of the 100 most popular blogs on any subject.

In The Icarus Deception, Seth Godin's most inspiring book, he challenges readers to find the courage to treat their work as a form of art Everyone knows that Icarus's father made him wings and told him not to fly too close to the sun; he ignored the warning and plunged to his doom. The lesson: Play it safe. Listen to the experts. It was the perfect propaganda for the industrial economy. What boss wouldn't want employees to believe that obedience and conformity are the keys to success? But we tend to forget that Icarus was also warned not to fly too low, because seawater would ruin the lift in his wings. Flying too low is even more dangerous than flying too high, because it feels deceptively safe. The safety zone has moved. Conformity no longer leads to comfort. But the good news is that creativity is scarce and more valuable than ever. So is choosing to do something unpredictable and brave: Make art. Being an artist isn't a genetic disposition or a specific talent. It's an attitude we can all adopt. It's a hunger to seize new ground, make connections, and work without a map. If you do those things you're an artist, no matter what it says on your business card. Godin shows us how it's possible and convinces us why it's essential. 'If Seth Godin didn't exist, we'd need to invent him' Fast Company 'Seth Godin is a demigod on the web, a bestselling author, highly sought-after lecturer, successful entrepreneur, respected pundit and high-profile blogger' Forbes Seth Godin is the author of thirteen international bestsellers that have changed the way people think about marketing, the ways ideas spread, leadership and change including Permission Marketing, Purple Cow, All Marketers are Liars, The Dip and Tribes. He is the CEO of Squidoo.com and a very popular lecturer. His blog, www.sethgodin.typepad.com, is the most influential business blog in the world, and consistently one of the 100 most popular blogs on any subject..

V is for Vulnerable by Seth Godin is a full-color ABC book for grown-ups, with a powerful message about doing great work. V is for Vulnerable looks and feels like a classic picture book. But it's not for kids, it's for hardworking adults. It highlights twenty-six of Seth Godin's principles about treating your work as a form of art, with illustrations by acclaimed cartoonist Hugh MacLeod. A sample: A is for Anxiety, which is experiencing failure in advance. Tell yourself enough vivid stories about the worst possible outcome and you'll soon come to believe them. Worry is not preparation, and anxiety doesn't make you better. F is for Feedback, which can be either a crutch or a weapon. Use it to make your work smaller, safer, and more likely to please everyone (and fail in the long run). Or use it as a lever to further push you to embrace what you fear and what you're capable of. This is unlike any previous Godin book and makes a great gift, both for loyal fans and those who've never read him before. Seth Godin is the author of thirteen international bestsellers that have changed the way people think about marketing, the ways ideas spread, leadership and change including Permission Marketing, Purple Cow, All Marketers are Liars, The Dip and Tribes. He is the CEO of Squidoo.com and a very popular lecturer. His blog, www.sethgodin.typepad.com, is the most influential business blog in the world, and consistently one of the 100 most popular blogs on any subject.

Whether it is the TV commercial that breaks into our favourite programme or the telemarketing phone call that disrupts a family meal, traditional advertising is based on the hope of snaring our attention away from whatever we are doing. Seth Godin calls this Interruption Marketing, and, as companies are discovering, it no longer works. Instead of annoying potential customers by interrupting their most coveted commodity, time, Permission Marketing offers consumers incentives to voluntarily accept advertising. Now the Internet pioneer who has dramatically improved marketing effectiveness in media introduces a fundamentally different way of thinking about advertising products and services. By reaching out to only those individuals who have expressed an interest in learning more about a product, Permission Marketing enables companies to develop long-term relationships with customers, create trust, build brand awareness, and greatly improve the chances of making a sale.

Everything in our world, from marketing to technology to distribution to the capital markets, is moving at a faster pace than ever. Yet most companies view change as a threat, and survival as the goal. This book transforms all that. It contains a simple yet revolutionary idea: we can evolve our companies the same way nature evolves a species. Evolution is a fundamental force of nature, and Seth Godin demonstrates how it can be put to work in any organisation. The first step is to eliminate the anti-change reflex that's genetically coded into all of us. Once a company learns to 'zoom' (to change without panicking), it is much more likely to evolve. And a company that evolves can become ever more profitable. For the last five years, bestselling author Seth Godin has repeatedly demonstrated the power of his books by living their advice. He used the tactics in PERMISSION MARKETING to drive the book up the bestseller list. He followed the advice of UNLEASHING THE IDEA VIRUS to turn his treatise into a living example of an ideavirus. Now, as a committed zoomer, he shows his legions of fans how to turn their company into one that can zoom from one change to another. It's a formula for success whether the market is up or down, whether technology is hot or not, in all industries, from retail to tech to services.

The indispensable classic on marketing by the bestselling author of Tribes and Purple Cow. Legendary business writer Seth Godin has three essential questions for every marketer: “What’s your story?” “Will the people who need to hear this story believe it?” “Is it true?” All marketers tell stories. And if they do it right, we believe them. We believe that wine tastes better in a $20 glass than a $1 glass. We believe that an $80,000 Porsche is vastly superior to a $36,000 Volkswagen that’s virtually the same car. We believe that $225 sneakers make our feet feel better—and look cooler—than a $25 brand. And believing it makes it true. As Seth Godin has taught hundreds of thousands of marketers and students around the world, great marketers don’t talk about features or even benefits. Instead, they tell a story—a story we want to believe, whether it’s factual or not. In a world where most people have an infinite number of choices and no time to make them, every organization is a marketer, and all marketing is about telling stories. Marketers succeed when they tell us a story that fits our worldview, a story that we intuitively embrace and then share with our friends. Think of the Dyson vacuum cleaner, or Fiji water, or the iPod. But beware: If your stories are inauthentic, you cross the line from fib to fraud. Marketers fail when they are selfish and scurrilous, when they abuse the tools of their trade and make the world worse. That’s a lesson learned the hard way by telemarketers, cigarette companies, and sleazy politicians. But for the rest of us, it’s time to embrace the power of the story. As Godin writes, “Stories make it easier to understand the world. Stories are the only way we know to spread an idea. Marketers didn’t invent storytelling. They just perfected it.”

A full-color book about art, bravery and doing work that matters

Here are 30 ideas for making a different in a world that needs you from New York Times bestselling author Seth Godin.

The cult classic that revolutionized marketing by teaching businesses that you’re either remarkable or invisible. Few authors have had the kind of lasting impact and global reach that Seth Godin has had. In a series of now-classic books that have been translated into 36 languages and reached millions of readers around the world, he has taught generations of readers how to make remarkable products and spread powerful ideas. In Purple Cow, first published in 2003 and revised and expanded in 2009, Godin launched a movement to make truly remarkable products that are worth marketing in the first place. Through stories about companies like Starbucks, JetBlue, Krispy Kreme, and Apple, coupled with his signature provocative style, he inspires readers to rethink what their marketing is really saying about their product. In a world that grows noisier by the day, Godin's challenge has never been more relevant to writers, marketers, advertisers, entrepreneurs, makers, product managers, and anyone else who has something to share with the world.

The New York Times, BusinessWeek, and Wall Street Journal Bestseller that redefined what it means to be a leader. Since it was first published almost a decade ago, Seth Godin's visionary book has helped tens of thousands of leaders turn a scattering of followers into a loyal tribe. If you need to rally fellow employees, customers, investors, believers, hobbyists, or readers around an idea, this book will demystify the process. It's human nature to seek out tribes, be they religious, ethnic, economic, political, or even musical (think of the Deadheads). Now the Internet has eliminated the barriers of geography, cost, and time. Social media gives anyone who wants to make a difference the tools to do so. With his signature wit and storytelling flair, Godin presents the three steps to building a tribe: the desire to change things, the ability to connect a tribe, and the willingness to lead. If you think leadership is for other people, think again—leaders come in surprising packages. Consider Joel Spolsky and his international tribe of scary-smart software engineers. Or Gary Vaynerhuck, a wine expert with a devoted following of enthusiasts. Chris Sharma led a tribe of rock climbers up impossible cliff faces, while Mich Mathews, a VP at Microsoft, ran her internal tribe of marketers from her cube in Seattle. Tribes will make you think—really think—about the opportunities to mobilize an audience that are already at your fingertips. It's not easy, but it's easier than you think.

Gotta get me some of that New Marketing. Bring me blogs, e-mail, YouTube videos, MySpace pages, Google AdWords. I don't care, as long as it's shiny and new. Wait. According to bestselling author Seth Godin, all these tactics are like the toppings at an ice cream parlor. If you start with ice cream, adding cherries and hot fudge and whipped cream will make it taste great. But if you start with a bowl of meatballs, yuck! As traditional marketing fades away, the new tools seem irresistible. But they don't work as well for boring brands (meatballs) that might still be profitable but don't attract word of mouth, such as Cheerios, Ford trucks, Barbie dolls, or Budweiser. When Anheuser-Busch spends $40 million on an online network called BudTV, that's a meatball sundae. It leads to no new Bud drinkers, just a bad case of indigestion. Meatball Sundae is the definitive guide to the fourteen trends no marketer can afford to ignore. It explains what to do about the increasing power of stories, not facts; about shorter and shorter attention spans; and about the new math that says five thousand people who want to hear your message are more valuable than five million who don?t. The winners aren't just annoying start-ups run by three teenagers who never had a real job. You'll also meet older companies that have adapted brilliantly, such as Blendtec, a thirty-year-old blender maker. It now produces Will It Blend? videos that demolish golf balls, coke cans, iPhones, and much more. For a few hundred dollars, Blendtec reached more than ten million eager viewers on YouTube. Godin doesn't pretend that it's easy to get your products, marketing messages, and internal systems in sync. But he'll convince you that it's worth the effort.

Seth Godin, one of today's most influential business thinkers, writes bestselling books like Purple Cow and All Marketers Are Liars. And in between those annual books he delivers a daily stream of ideas on one of the world's most popular blogs. Collected here for the first time are eight years of his very best blog posts, magazine columns, and e-books. Small Is the New Big offers ideas and stories that can change how you work, what you buy, and how you see the world. It's an entertaining snapshot of Godin's fiercely original brain. Who else would argue that Fluffernutter was a brilliant business model? That we need a service that charges to send e-mail? That you can learn more about design at Hershey Park than at an Apple store, and more about marketing at a summer camp than at b-school? All of these riffs add up to a few essential themes: Small is the new big because big has gone from a huge advantage to a liability. Authentic stories spread and last, but lies get exposed faster than ever. The ability to change fast is the single best asset for any person or organization. Aretha was right: Respect is the secret to success. It's easier than ever to become remarkable. There's no excuse for sticking with mediocrity.

Why are some people easily outsourced, downsized, or freelanced into obscurity, while others have their pick of opportunities? In his most powerful book yet, Seth Godin argues that it's more essential than ever to become indispensable - to become a linchpin. Linchpins are the essential building blocks of great organisations: they invent, lead (regardless of title), connect others, make things happen, and create order out of chaos. They love their work and pour their best selves into it and turn each day into a kind of art - and, in today's world, they get the best jobs and the most freedom. Godin shows that the key to being indispensable is overcoming the fears that hold most of us back. If you have you ever found a shortcut that others missed, seen a new way to resolve a conflict, or made a connection with someone others couldn't reach, then you have what it takes to become indispensable. It's time to stop complying with the system and draw your own map.