The Domino Project

Poke the Box

by: Seth Godin

Amazon Price: $3.25 (as of 02/22/2012)

What we tried:
--a 5 pack
--a 52 pack
--a limited edition with a hand printed cover (letterpress)
--inexpensive Kindle pricing
--inexpensive hardcover pricing

We also tried a promotion to reward readers for pre-ordering.

And we created a companion ebook and workbook as well.

All the multipacks sold well. In fact, we sold out of the 52 pack for a while.

The letterpress cover was the nicest collectible we did, but it didn't sell out (yet). I think that's because it cost too much. The collectible for Emerson did very nicely.

The Kindle pricing was effective, but a big win was the $2.99 short time promo we did in September.

Do the Work

by: Steven Pressfield

Amazon Price: $6.29 (as of 02/22/2012)

We did the very same things we tried in Poke the Box, but this time for an even better book. Steve's book is extraordinary.

For this title, we also tested the idea of a sponsored edition on the Kindle. This was huge. More than 100,000 copies distributed, great publicity for our sponsor General Electric and an instant "bestseller" if you count free as a sale.

The impact of a sponsored edition was fabulous.

Self-Reliance

by: Ralph Waldo Emerson

Amazon Price: $7.75 (as of 02/22/2012)

Yes, he's dead, and yes, he's a pleasure to work with.

A student recommended the essay to me, and I was blown away by its currency and utility, even today.

We made a limited edition that sold out in less than a day. Using elephant poop paper, the folks at Holstee made some very cool greeting cards.

In addition, we did a sponsored edition with Ibex that reached nearly a hundred thousand people.

Anything You Want

by: Derek Sivers

Amazon Price: $6.99 (as of 02/22/2012)

Derek made this book sing. Another bestseller (our third in the row), it had no sponsor, no free edition, no special edition and it still went to #1 among all books on Amazon.

Derek focused his tribe on the book and people from around the world bought in. In addition, he offered hundreds of free songs to anyone who bought a copy.

Read This Before Our Next Meeting

by: Al Pittampalli

Amazon Price: $8.28 (as of 02/22/2012)

Brand new author Al Pittampalli blew people away with this focused rant about the greatest productivity suck of our work lives.

Sponsored by GoToMeeting from Citrix and a #1 bestseller, Al's book has already reached more than 100,000 executives, and possibly your boss. One technique that worked very well was a worldwide webcast with the author.

Al has had great success in working with organizations to bring them dozens or hundreds of copies of his book along with training... the book comes along for the ride but ends up cementing the lessons.

Pick Four (4 Pack - Designed to Share)

by: Zig Ziglar

Amazon Price: $39.99 (as of 02/22/2012)

Sales and productivity legend Zig Ziglar graciously permitted us to update, streamline and jazz up his classic goals planner. (Now half price through the end of January).

This was tricky as there was no digital edition, and we decided to pack the book in a four pack for one price... not even offering a single copy edition. I'm glad we did. The book went to #1 among all books on Amazon and sold out the print run completely on the first day.

I'm intransigent in my belief that sometimes, paper matters, and that writing something down on a piece of paper (particularly one that's bound in a book) is a transformative act.

Zarrella's Hierarchy of Contagiousness: The Science, Design, and Engineering of Contagious Ideas

by: Dan Zarrella

Amazon Price: $8.89 (as of 02/22/2012)

Certainly the cutest of all of our covers, this book was sponsored by HubSpot and MailChimp. As a result of Dan's network and sponsor support, we were able to break the Guinness world's record for the largest ever webcast (really, I don't make this stuff up). The book went to #1 among all ebooks, and spread Dan's ideas around the world.

End Malaria

Amazon Price: (as of 02/22/2012)

Michael Bungay Stanier came to me with an idea for an anthology--more than fifty authors, writing essays to educate and challenge. And the notion was that all the revenue would go to Malaria No More, one of the organizations in the lead against this devastating killer of children.

We figured out a way bring in corporate sponsors, increase the number of authors, do worldwide promotion and create both an ebook and a print edition. The book went to the top 3 in both Kindle and print. As a result, we've raised more than $250,000 in total, in just six weeks. Not enough, not nearly enough, but worth it.

Death & Taxes (1 Page Book) [Poster]

by: Jess Bachman

Amazon Price: $27.99 (as of 02/22/2012)

Jess Bachman is one of the pioneers of the online infographic. For years, he published this poster on his own, but we teamed up with him to make it easier to order and share. Even though a one-page book is alien to most people (and of course, there was no ebook edition), the poster is off to a strong start, making the top twenty list of all books on Amazon.

We Are All Weird

by: Seth Godin

Amazon Price: $13.45 (as of 02/22/2012)

This one hit the bestseller list the first day (I think it went to #9 overall) but it ultimately disappointed me. The problem, I think, was our lack of aggressive outbound promotion. We alerted my blog readers and readers of the Domino blog, but I didn't hit the road, didn't do a lot of virtual promotion, didn't push.

Part of the experiment to see how much the audience will lean in and take action on their own.

Still selling and based on audience feedback, I'm glad I wrote it. It's funny how our standards change: this book sold more copies in its first two weeks (particularly digital) than any other book I've written but two.

(PS the real cover is inside the cover you see on the hardcover.)

B

by: Sarah Kay

Amazon Price: $3.94 (as of 02/22/2012)

Available in a special illustrated edition, this is our only book of poetry, and the shortest volume we brought to market.

Sarah is just 23, the sort of person you'd like to know, work for, hire or have as a daughter. Her TED talk is one of the most popular of the year and it's not hard to tell why.

Her poem made me cry.

The Flinch

by: Julien Smith

Amazon Price: (as of 02/22/2012)

Julien Smith's free manifesto about fear.