If You Can't Put 'Sex' in a Title, Try 'Startup'

If You Can’t Put ‘Sex’ in a Title, Try ‘Startup’

Every publication tries to live up to its name and PublishingTrends.com is no exception: our focus is on industry trends. In a recent People Magazine on what’s “In” and “Out,” we talked about how YA novels are moving from an obsession with vampires and werewolves, to one with angels and demons. Over the years, we have asked industry seers to contribute various “Trendspotting” pieces about the industry to our newsletter — and in 2011 we started a new blog, PublishingTrendsetter.com, which distills cutting edge information for young book professionals.

A new pair of trends is cornering the self-help business book market, and because they juxtapose entrepreneurialism with an appreciation for the current economic conditions — the pillars of today’s workplace — we think they’re worth noting.

Both trends saw their genesis in a book published by Crown last Fall, The Lean Startup by Eric Ries. Many in the media industry saw Ries attempt to reinvent publishing in talks he gave at Tools of Change.

The logical next step in this nascent trend was Mark Nager‘s Startup Weekend, about — yes — “How to Take a Company From Concept to Creation in 54 Hours,” which came out last November. Earlier this year LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman published The Start-up of You, about developing career goals, which elicited this blurb Mike Bloomberg: “Whatever career you’re in — or want to be in –The Start-Up of You holds lessons for success.”

Meanwhile, in April O’Reilly published Ash Maurya‘s Running Lean (part of a new “Lean Series” curated by none other than Eric Ries) and next Fall comes The Lean Entrepreneur. So it’s no surprise that Portfolio just published a book called The Ultra Lite Startup, about launching a business with absolutely nothing.

But probably the book that speaks loudest to publishers is another O’Reilly book, Todd Sattersten‘s Every Book is a StartUp, which takes the agile startup approach in allowing readers to buy copies and give feedback for a final version due out at the end of the summer. Given O’Reilly’s interest in entrepreneurs (the company hosts an annual Startup Showcase), and their clear appreciation for all things lean, perhaps it’s not too late to change the title to what all publishers can relate to: . Now that’s a title that might outsell sex.

3 Comments

May 9, 20129:36 am

Phil Simon  (@philsimon)

I understand the need to be topical but there’s a very real danger here. Topics quickly become saturated and, unless you’re first to market, you’ll quickly have a tough time differentiating yourself from the slew of other books. I shudder at the thought of writing a “me-too” book.

May 10, 201212:32 am

Kat Meyer

Dear Lorraine,
Thanks for noting Todd’s book. Just a small correction – it’s not exactly coming out in June. It came out iteratively, over a year and the final(ish) product is available at full end price this summer (I thought it was July, but June works). Bigger point being – readers have been buying Todd’s book for quite a bit longer than the so called release date. They’ve been buying and weighing in on, and owning whatever improvements and additions come later. It’s a living example of the agile approach. I don’t know – call it lean, call it sexy – call it useful for readers (that’s what I prefer). Just don’t call it “coming out in June.”

May 10, 20127:27 pm

PT Editors

Thanks, Kat! “coming out in June” has been removed!

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By Through the Eyes of a Startup: Reading Todd Sattersten’s Every Book Is A Startup - Publishing Trends on September 14, 2012 at 1:11 pm

[…] putting the word “startup” in the title of a book seems to be all the rage, but can (and should) the publishing of each title be treated like a […]

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