I bring this to your attention for three reasons:

(1) It’s a good entrepreneurial model.  In February 2007, Author Jill Keto and her husband Dan, saw the writing on the wall for the global economy. But they knew it could take up to two years before any book saw the light of day via old media publishing timelines (gatekeepers, agents, etc.).

So they self-published on Amazon for $40 and watched the title climb to #3 under “Recession” books.  Jill says that they now have a six-figure deal with Simon & Schuster, as well as some prime bookshelf real estate with Barnes & Noble and Target. (backstory on S&S: Jill cold-called the company’s president on the day that her assistant just happened to be out — so the publishing mogul picked up the phone herself.  Jill gave her elevator speech and she  Fedexed out her finished product that same day).

(2) I was personally introduced via “Linked-In” to Seattle-based Jill from future MCDM’er, Chris Hare:

Hi Hanson,

I recently met Jill Keto at the local coffee shop and would like to introduce you to her and her work. Jill is dynamic to say the least and has tapped into the groundswell of social media to get the word out and land her first book contract with Simon & Schuster. Her content is timely as she focuses on helping women and their families survive and thrive in the recession.

(3) I’m going to propose an MCDM partnership to my Multimedia Storytelling students, as she begins her marketing campaign in earnest (which she describes as “placement, word-of-mouth and television”) in the next few weeks.  She’ll be a guest in our third class, and one of our assignments could be to figure out how to produce some short, MCDM-branded online videos that capture the book’s practical, humorous essence.  Jill is supposed to be leveraging traditional media with possible TV appearances on Good Morning America and Today, so it’d be interesting to see what we can do on the social media storytelling side (and how much attention we can garner for our program).

And of course, what I like most about Jill, given my own leanings, is her provocative, independent style, as evidenced in her introduction:

Discovered within one week that having a corporate job is about as much fun as jamming an ice pick into your leg.  My disdain for authority got me branded as a boat rocker and general troublemaker.

Check out Jill’s blog at www.practicalchic.org.

Related Posts

• August 31, 2009 — Visual Storytelling For Web: Tips And Techniques (1)
• April 7, 2009 — Flipping the Media Africa-Style (1)
• January 23, 2009 — The Death of Story? Not in My Class. (10)
• January 21, 2009 — The State of the MCDM (2)
• December 1, 2008 — Is New Media contributing to the economic recession? (0)