Last week there was an Indy Christian Geeks lunch at my favorite coffee shop. During lunch, I had a special gift delivered from the good folks at Wiley Publishing (also here in Indianapolis!). The guys had some fun… snapping some photos and uploading them to Twitter within minutes with great titles like, The Secret is Out!
Kidding aside, Wiley has really had an incredible impact on the publishing industry with the Dummies brand. By blatant packaging and branding their books For Dummies, they were able to instantly overcome peoples’ anxiety about the subjects they wrote about. Dummies now have over 150 million books in print and more than 1,400 titles. Dummies guides are the now world’s bestselling reference brand.
The Dummies brand doesn’t stop at the logo… the writing style of the books is conversational, consistent, and comforting. The books can easily be flipped through to find the right checklist or could be read from cover to cover. In speaking with Wiley, they’ve really got the publishing down to a science!
I spoke to Kyle Lacy, author of the upcoming Dummies Twitter Marketing for Dummies and he said it was an incredible experience writing the book. Kyle said the editing team was supportive, efficient, and quick to get his content into shape.
Dummies have expanded, with a robust online community. You can catch them on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, too! Check out their site – there’s a TON of material there. I found this great little tutorial on How to Create a Facebook Page for your business.
Update: I also wrote my own Dummies guide after this article. Pick up a copy of Corporate Blogging for Dummies!
Disclosure: I’m using my affiliate links for Amazon in this article for the book links.
