Shelly's Pybop
Books for Content Strategists, Writers, and People Passionate About Content
Here are books I’ve read, reference, or are on my forever expanding reading list (in no particular order):
“How To” Create Exceptional Content for the Web
- Letting Go of the Words: Writing Web Content that Works by Ginny Redish
- Content Strategy for the Web by Kristina Halvorson
- Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability by Steve Krug
- Get Content Get Customers: Turn Prospects into Buyers with Content Marketing by Joe Pulizzi and Newt Barrett
- Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
- Audience, Relevance, and Search: Targeting Web Audiences with Relevant Content by James Matthewson, Frank Donatone, Cythia Fishel
Marketing to People
- The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use Social Media, Blogs, News Releases, Online Video, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly by David Meerman Scott
- Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs (The New Rules of Social Media) by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah
- Digital Body Language: Deciphering Customer Intentions in an Online World by Steven Woods
- Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking, Revised Edition by Andy Sernovitz
- The Open Brand: When Push Comes to Pull in a Web-Made World by Kelly Mooney
- Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust by Chris Brogan
Getting Inside Their Heads (So We Can Speak Their Language)
- Why We Make Mistakes: How We Look Without Seeing, Forget Things in Seconds, and Are All Pretty Sure We Are Way Above Average by Joseph Hallinan
- How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer
- Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell
- Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely
Innovating with Content
- Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? by Seth Godin
- Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
- In Pursuit of Elegance: Why the Best Ideas Have Something Missing by Matthew E. May
- Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity by Hugh MacLeod
Have you read any great books that have inspired you to create exceptional content for your company? Let me know. I’d love to add them to my reading list!
Please note: purchasing books from my reading list helps support this Pybop.
Posted by Shelly Bowen on Mar 02, 2010. Filed under Web Content Strategy, Web Writing and Editing
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Great list! I’m definitely retweeting this.
Here’s one you missed: “Audience, Relevance and Search: Targeting Web Audiences with Relevant Content http://www.amazon.com/Audience-Relevance-Search-Targeting-Audiences/dp/0137004206/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_1
It’s forthcoming (Due in stores on April 30), but people can get rough cuts of some of the chapters before publication at this link: http://my.safaribooksonline.com/9780137048250
Kind regards,
James (Twitter: James_Mathewson)
(A co-author)
Comment by James Mathewson on Mar 02, 2010
Thanks for the content book addition, James! I added to the list, and I look forward to reading it this spring.
Comment by Shelly Bowen on Mar 02, 2010
Smart compilation! Here are a few I recommend as well despite being a bit older (but still quite relevant):
- “Killer Web Content” by Gerry McGovern http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/killer-web-content.htm
- “Naked Conversations: How Blogs Are Changing The Way Businesses Are Talking With Customers” by Robert Scoble & Shel Israel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naked_Conversations
- “The Cluetrain Manifesto” http://www.cluetrain.com/
A must-listen podcast for those who aren’t quite sure whether to invest in Ginny’s book (you should!) might want to check out:
- http://jeffparks.ca/index.php/books/ginny-redish-writing-web-content-that-works
Comment by Kristina Mausser on Mar 03, 2010
Terrific List! – One book I have referenced frequently in the past decade – and never is out of date – “Envisioning Information” by Edward R Tufte.
Comment by Nancy Speroni on Mar 03, 2010
Thanks for the contributions, Kristina and Nancy! Those books really help round out the list.
Comment by Shelly Bowen on Mar 04, 2010
Shelly,
thanks for the mention of Digital Body Language, much appreciated. Great list! I’ve read a good number of them, but you have me inspired to dive into a few more.
Comment by Steve Woods on Mar 05, 2010
Shelley,
Thanks so much for the plug for our book. I hope Get Content Get Customers was valuable for you.
Newt
Comment by Newt Barrett on Mar 05, 2010
Shelly…great list. Thanks for the inclusion.
I would add Gary Vaynerchuk’s Crush It for Content Marketing Motivation.
Thanks,
Joe
http://twitter.com/juntajoe
Comment by Joe Pulizzi on Mar 12, 2010
Hi, Shelly,
finally the list. I am looking forward to reading the books you and others on this page have recommended. I am currently reading Get Content Get Customers! Cheers, Nenad.
Comment by Nenad on Mar 14, 2010
Depending on one’s slant, also:
THE CONTENT MANAGEMENT BIBLE, Bob Boiko
COMMUNICATING DESIGN, Dan Brown
CONTENT CRITICAL, Gerry McGovern
EVERYTHING IS MISCELLANEOUS, David Weinberger
HERE COMES EVERYBODY, Clay Shirky
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE FOR THE WWW, Louis Rosenfeld and Peter Morville
GLUT, Alex Wright
and any number of digital style guides, from Wired to AP.
Comment by Jeffrey MacIntyre on Mar 19, 2010
Wow, great additions, Jeff, thanks! My book wish list is getting very long.
Comment by Shelly Bowen on Mar 19, 2010
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