The Gawker Guide to Conquering All Media [Hardcover]

Gawker Media (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2, 2007

With the same deliciously biting irreverence and insider dish that's made Gawker.com addictive to millions of readers every month, The Gawker Guide to Conquering All Media serves up a hilarious blueprint for climbing to megawatt power in the media world.

While yanking back the curtain on the media elite, The Gawker Guide reveals the secrets of emailing like a mogul, posing for the paparazzi, decoding "agent speak," spotting the next bestseller, landing that holy grail assignment, boosting blog traffic, navigating the six cocktail evening, and all the other weapons readers need to climb high -- and stay there.

"I came, I saw, I conquered. With this book, I could've done it quicker."

-- Julius Caesar

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Atria Books (October 2, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416532994
• ISBN-13: 978-1416532996
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,997,272 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars As Good as the Gawker Blogs Are -- This Book is That Bad., October 1, 2007

By 

D. Hobby "dhobby" (USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Gawker Guide to Conquering All Media (Hardcover)

I am so, so disappointed with this book.

There are not many books that I will pre-order. But given how smart, timely and successful Nick Denton's family of blogs are, ther was no way I was going to let this book go unread. I wanted my copy ASAP. Pre-ordered and even went for the fast shipping.

Boy, did I learn a lesson. It'll be a long time before I pre-order a book again, no matter who it is by.

(Maybe the fact that even the editorial review had to be written by a dead guy should have tipped me off.)

Granted, it is funny at times, and predictably snarky. But otherwise, it has absolutely no redeeming value. It is merely a (shallow) parody of a business book. Granted, Gawker never promised it would be a book of any substance. What they did do, however, was to promote it in their trademark pithy style in the exact same manner as they would if it *had* been a book of substance.

It is rather like showing up at a pancake dinner, paying, waiting in line, and getting a single pancake for your $9.95.

"But sir, the sign *did* say 'pancake' dinner..." would be the accurate but disingenuous reply.

There is absolutely nothing there that might teach you how the Most Successful Blogger in the World thinks. In fact, this book may very well be an extremely clever joke designed to extract a huge paycheck (as if Denton needed it) from the Gawker readers without in fact revealing anything of substance at all. That would be in line with Denton's history of brilliant thinking, and be a totally in-character respone to the hyperattention placed on him by the blogging world.

As a 50-click+ per day Gawker reader, I feel quite used. The sad thing is, there is a fantastic, must-read book to be written from Gawker's amazing run.

But this ain't it.

Prediction: This book will quickly skyrocket to the top of the biz list, due to the Gawker readers' preorders. But i will fall quickly, because Emperor Denton is quite naked.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Never again, my child., October 7, 2007

By 

E. C. David "Hack" (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Gawker Guide to Conquering All Media (Hardcover)

Gawker owns the online blog universe. Well-written, off-kilter, intelligent writing about the Media world of New York - it's a website I check several times a day. So you can imagine my frustration with this book of theirs. Substanceless is perhaps the best way to describe it. It's a joke about media but none of the jokes hit. It attempts to give some information as well but almost all of it is advice from the perspective of that thick-rimmed glasses-wearing intern who always seemed to pick fights with everyone at your company. I rather get punched in the face than reread this book.

4 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hit and Miss, October 15, 2007

By 

Estro_generation (Brooklyn, NY, United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Gawker Guide to Conquering All Media (Hardcover)

Gawker=snark, and this book does not disappointed in that department.I originally bought this as a way to superficially explore the industries I would be dealing with (i.e. film, movie, mag) in my new job. Since I am fairly new to media, I knew the book would have something in the way of advice to offer me. After reading the first chapter on the book industry and finding it surprisingly accurate , I was sold. However, as with most books these days, especially in the non-fiction genre, all the good stuff is packed in the front. As I read through the sections on radio and New Media I kind of felt as if they were phoning it in when it came to the snark. Even with the little knowledge i have of these two industries I still can tell filler when i see it. Maybe someone had a blog to write and handed off to an intern.." YOU! SNARK!NOW!" Who knows. Still a good buy with laugh out loud moments,and decent info (especially the book section)... though I'd get it used if I had the chance.