Mea Culpa

We’re sorry. We made an error in judgment.

It was an enthusiastic error, and one that we made because we were excited.

We sent out an email to a list of our friends, acquaintances, social media contacts, and other people announcing the Twitter Marketing for Dummies book.

It’s my fault, I guess. This was my first book. I helped write it, and even though my name is not on the cover (see my previous post Ghostwriting for Dummies), I was still pretty excited.

I wrote half the book with Kyle Lacy over the summer, at the same time I was working on my own novel, running a new business, preparing to move, and trying to spend as much time with my family as possible. It’s been an exciting time.

I also asked my partners, Paul and Mike, to help spread the word. “Let’s send it to our contacts,” I said. So we did.

We had one complaint. Despite our best efforts to give readers the opportunity to opt out with our “Instant Unsubscribe” option, this person shared their unhappiness with receiving the email with complaints on Twitter. I did not know the answer to his question and provided a canned response. This made him angry. My partner Paul, did address the question directly, as he was already connected to the person on Linkedin.

Lesson learned. Despite knowing better, it is always best to be direct and answer a person’s question. If you don’t know, find the answer. “When in doubt, find it out”

(Their public grievances did work to our advantage, however, since they led to a big bump in traffic and a couple book orders. So I guess we should appreciate their public outcry.)

So, if you received our email and you didn’t appreciate it, please hit the “Instant Unsubscribe” link, and accept our apologies. Forgive me for my enthusiasm, it’s exciting publishing a book.

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