How Authoring a Marketing Book Can Help Your Business: i-frontier, PFS New Media

Writing a book helps your Web marketing business – it’s that simple. Writing the book is not. But it’s definitely worth the time and effort, says Brad Aronson, founder and president of Philadelphia-based Internet advertising firm i-frontier. Deirdre Breakenridge, VP of corporate communications at PFS New Media, agrees.

Aronson last year co-authored-–with Robbin Zeff of the Zeff Group-–“Advertising on the Internet,” now in its second printing for publisher John Wiley and Sons. Breakenridge is finishing up a book on cyber-branding due in the fall for Prentice Hall, home of books by PFS New Media CEO Jason Miletsky and President Dennis Chominsky.

Publishing Deals: Luck plays a part. So does big demand for all things Internet. Aronson was speaking at a conference and Zeff was in the audience. She already had a deal with John Wiley and Sons and asked if he wanted to do the book with her. Breakenridge teamed up with Prentice via her PFS colleagues. “I landed right on it because my partners were involved with Prentice,” Breakenridge said. “Prentice saw the need. All I had to do is say, ‘I want to write a cyber-branding book’ and they said, Go.”

The Long Of It: Both authors talk of the sacrifice. “I have a full-time job plus demanding deadlines from the publisher,” Aronson said. “You have to be committed to spend a lot of time. It took maybe two to four months. Work all day, write all night.”

“It’s an arduous task,” agrees Breakenridge. “It’s exciting, but it’s a long process-–you lose a lot of sleep thinking about it and doing it.”

The Payoff: Panache, prestige, power! Writing a book makes you look like the expert you are. “Just for the sheer fact that you have a book to put on a conference room table-–it says, I wrote the book on this,” says Breakenridge.

PFS New Media gives plenty of the books away, but Prentice Hall markets them to the public as well, in stores and at Web sites such as Amazon.com. Neither Breakenridge nor Aronson could quantify the impact on company sales, but both agree that literature has been a big success. “It’s a tool, “Aronson said. “It’s paid for itself many times over in new business.”

Tip: Aronson advises to remember to demand the book include a bio on the author, to help your customers identify you with the book.

Bonus Points: “It really makes your grandparents happy, too,” he says.