Being editor-in-chief of a major magazine must do wonders for your book sales. (Or not.) Wired head honcho Chris Anderson published a 4,703-word excerpt touting his new book and how "free" is the future. Want to read it for yourself? Grab Nick Douglas's 100-word version, read the full article on Wired.com, or get your very own dead-tree edition of Wired — free!
"Free!", the upcoming book from Chris Anderson, explores the exciting new business concept of freebies. Okay, Wired's editor-in-chief isn't pretending he discovered loss leaders, ad-subsidized media and such; he's just the first to sell a book about it (coming this summer, though of course there will be a Free! version). For Anderson, the book means a Free! feature article in Wired, released today. It's 4,703 words! Here's the 100-word version, in Anderson's own (edited) words.
Much as I'd like to see Anna Wintour in a polo, fleece vest and baseball cap, Chris Anderson is unique among Condé Nast's editors-in-chief in being openly geeky. For a segment on Wired's PBS science show, Anderson flew aircraft drones with hobbyists, and wrote and narrated the segment himself (it's embedded below). Though it looks like he really enjoyed himself, it also feels like he's telling Wired's core nerd audience, "We're still keeping it real!" But they aren't! Update: Chris points out that he is indeed a hardcore geek who runs a whole forum about DIY drones. Wired still not geeky.
"My book will be previewed as the cover story in Wired this month. Out in about ten days. Link then. I think you'll like it ;-)" author Greg Chris Anderson writes on his blog, The Long Tail. Getting Wired to promote your new book with a cover story is pretty impressive. But don't be jealous. Rumor has it Anderson lets Wired's editor-in-chief have his way with him whenever. In the shower. In bed. Everything.
Nerd-lusting Star editor-at-large Julia Allison is all grown up. She's on the cover of a magazine! Sure, as a commenter on some other blog noted that "Time Out notches just below Delta's Sky magazine and just above the vaunted Baugher Family Christmas Newsletter," but we all must start somewhere. In a recent poll, 65 percent of you recently voted for Julia as the girl who makes your geek go wild. If Sarah Silverman and Jenna Fischer can make the cover of Wired, why not Allison? Take a memo, Greg Anderson.
Chris Anderson
Chris Anderson's BookTour is one of those why-didn't-I-think-of-that sites. It scratches a specific itch to bring together touring book authors and the people who go to see them. Bespectacled novelist groupies are spared from the non-bookish mob at Upcoming — and vice versa. A billion-dollar idea? Of course not. But a required, um, bookmark among the New York literati by March? Yeah, I'll bet a buck on that. A side note from BookTour's About page: San Franciscans spend more per capita than residents of any other American city on books and wine.
You know that old story about how the English and German soldiers sang carols to each other from the trenches on Christmas Eve? Then the next day they went back to killing each other? The Valleywag staff dipped into the eggnog and got all feel-nicey about five people we've picked on all year. Each of them, we decided weepily, taught us something about humanity. And that was before the drinking started. Quick, read it before we wake up with a hell-hangover and delete the whole thing.
Wired editor-in-chief Chris Anderson left his iPhone on during a recent trip to China. Because the device automatically checks for new email every 10 minutes, Anderson rang up more than $2,000 in data charges. AT&T eventually contacted Anderson in China to warn him about his bill. They offered to switch him to a $300-a-month plan. Anderson told MSNBC.com he agreed to the switch, but hasn't heard back from AT&T since. They way we see it, his only remaining option is to pull a Kevin Rose.
I thought it would be cool to friend Wired editor Chris Anderson on Facebook, considering the number of love-bites we've given him lately. But if G. Christopher Anderson from Wired has an account, it's buried in the long tail of 500-plus loose matches. Great. Facebook won't let me search for "Chris Anderson Wired." It won't let me join the work group for Wired or the Times or any other pub I write for, because I don't have an email address at their domains. Has Facebook heard of freelancing? One of the costs it cuts is the IT overheard of maintaining email addresses for hundreds of part-time contributors. But hey, Facebook will let T-shirt sites be my friend. If anyone wants to make some professional contact and get some real work done, I'll be over at LinkedIn.
Chris Anderson, the editor-in-chief of Wired, was not always Chris Anderson. As journalist John Kelly recounts, he once hired a questionably talented fellow named Greg Anderson to play bass for his New Wave band, The Item. (Kelly owned a bass but didn't know how to play.) Anderson didn't dig The Item's Partridge Family pop-punk appeal. He quit for the bleached-hair friendliness of Egoslavia. The only problem? For Anderson to jam with the cool kids, he had to change his name, since Egoslavia already had a lead singer named Greg. (Egoslavia, for that matter, was originally called R.E.M., but that's another story.) We're not sure Anderson's name change was that wise an idea. As Chris, he now risks confusion with the Chris Anderson who runs the Ted conference, not to mention two Australian Chris Andersons — the rugby player and a telecom executive. Next time, Chris, pick a first name further down the long tail.
As we noted earlier this week, Wired editor Chris Anderson published 329 email addresses that he had blocked in the past 30 days; most were PR firms sending unsolicited pitches. Anderson stated (and several PR and media professionals corroborated) that it's foolish and counterproductive to send pitches to a magazine's editor-chief rather than a more specific writer or editor, especially since Wired publishes staff writers' addresses.
Wired editor-in-chief Chris Anderson has had it up to here with unsolicited emails from PR agencies. But he's the beneficiary when colleagues use the tactic. Del.icio.us founder Joshua Schachter notes that his inbox is filled with unsolicited emails from Wired flacks. Sent to an email address, Schachter points out, which is on his blog, not one he uses to sign up for mailing lists. Call it the Long Tail of PR. Whether or not Anderson approves, he certainly gains from the PR mail-all list: The most recent Wired message touts Wednesday's edition of the PBS show Wired Science, and the subject line highlights a special appearance by Anderson himself.
Wired editor-in-chief Chris Anderson has had enough of unsolicited emails from PR professionals. So much so, that he posted a list on his blog of 329 PR Hester Prynnes, guilty of promiscuous overuse of their email outboxes. No more will their very unimportant missives waste his time — emails from these people will be summarily blocked. Among the guilty: Flacks from SparkPR, Edelman, Ogilvy, Weber Shandwick, SutherlandGold, Bite PR, and Text100. If you're wondering, Outcast, Hill & Knowlton, and Burson-Marsteller managed to escape Anderson's long flail. Prepare for lots of stories about Facebook, Hewlett-Packard, and Hillary Clinton in the next few issues of Wired.
Wired editor Chris Anderson has finally had it up to here. He just published the long list of everyone who's been banned from his inbox—mostly publicists—in the last month. (One of the people he banned works for the Department of Commerce, but hey!) Total dick or total genius? You decide. Also, he only gets 300 emails a day. Ha! Oh, baby. Come over some day and I'll show you my inbox. [The Long Tail]
I recently wrote that videogame developers can't follow in the footsteps of Radiohead and give away their wares for free. Wired editor Chris Anderson — known around Valleywag for his theory of the "Long Fail" "Long Tail" — disagrees. He disagrees with Valleywag — and with Wired. Anderson's "free games" manifesto, in which he argues for in-game advertising, virtual item sales, and shareware business models, has one severe flaw: he's talking about the games no one wants to play. In fact, he didn't name any titles, which makes me wonder if he ever plays. Mr. Anderson, I'll be glad to return to this debate if we agree to discuss games that are actually, you know, fun.
Chris Anderson, author of The Long Tail, blogger, and editor-in-chief of Wired, has a hobby that has confronted him with a dilemma. Anderson builds unmanned aerial vehicles — also known as UAVs or "drones" — and runs a UAV social network on Ning called DIYDrones.com. On that site, he shares his expertise in open-source fashion. Recently, Amir Aalipour, a resident of Tehran, proudly posted photos of his UAV sporting the Iranian flag that he built by following sources like DIYDrones.com. This alarmed and frightened the Wired editor. His knee-jerk reaction was not to seal up the windows with duct tape because a cloud of radioactive dust is going to descend from the jihadist's radio-controlled airplane and kill us all. No, Anderson's knee-jerk reaction was, instead, to worry that others would have that knee-jerk reaction, and put his hobby out of business.
A specter is haunting Chris Anderson — the specter of leisure. On his blog, Wired's editor complains of having suffered countless indignities on his most recent family vacation to England and France. Catching Lyme disease right before he left was bad luck, of course. The freak rainy season? Blame it on climate change, which Anderson's magazine has at least been trying to address. But everything else? Anderson's fault. Here's why.
PAUL BOUTIN — Skip the year-end recaps and next week's inevitable Predictions for 2007. Instead, bone up on these four tech/biz insiders whose blogs you don't read, but should say you do. All four are way more successful than you. Each posts faster than you can read. SVUG's party trick: Read 'em today, then trust they'll keep blogging the same topics through March.
