商業(yè)往事丨第84話：無法取代的書評態(tài)度

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無法取代的書評態(tài)度

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（英文文章在中文文章之后）

土井英司是日本著名的書評家。當(dāng)土井英司在日本亞馬遜工作時(shí)，他為《我如何從失敗到銷售成功》一書寫了一篇書評。這是一本1964年初版的舊書。在他發(fā)表書評之前，這本書在日本亞馬遜每天賣不到一本。然而，經(jīng)過他的評論，這本書在日本亞馬遜的銷售量每天可以超過十本。

這件事之后，亞馬遜網(wǎng)頁上顯示了；這本書訂單增加了十倍。但是計(jì)算機(jī)并沒有說明為什么這本書銷量突然變好了。這件事讓土井英司理解到；計(jì)算機(jī)通常只能給出結(jié)果，而不能給出原因。因此，土井英司認(rèn)為，書評是一件不會輕易被計(jì)算機(jī)所取代的工作。

在日本亞馬遜發(fā)現(xiàn) 土井英司的書評多么有影響力的之后,，他們要求他寫更多書評。因此，土井英司開始挑選選書籍，閱讀這些書，分析這些書，并且每天把這些內(nèi)容發(fā)布給在日本亞馬遜的讀者。

他在日本亞馬遜工作時(shí)，每周要寫七篇書評。這意味著他每天要讀一本書。他喜歡這項(xiàng)工作，因?yàn)樗部梢詮淖x書中學(xué)到一些東西。然而后來日本亞馬遜改變使用出版社提所供的書評，土井英司還是丟了這項(xiàng)工作。因此，2004年土井英司在日本亞馬遜失去工作后，他就開始了自己的書評生意。

他開始在網(wǎng)絡(luò)上發(fā)表關(guān)于管理和商業(yè)類書籍的書評，而且他照樣的幾乎每天都發(fā)表一篇書評。就一個(gè)書評者來說，這是一個(gè)相當(dāng)不錯(cuò)的商業(yè)模式，因?yàn)榫唾徺I管理書籍的讀者來說，購書、讀書的一種投資。一般來說；他們讀書不是為了娛樂，而要藉此提高工作績效。這些讀者需要有人給他們一些關(guān)于他們感興趣的書籍的信息，并且介紹這些書的重要觀點(diǎn)，以幫助他們決定是否該購買這些書。

盡管出版社也會付錢請他來寫書評，但土井英司把讀他書評的讀者當(dāng)成為他的主要客戶。這是他的書評受到讀者歡迎的原因，因?yàn)樽x者知道，他們可以信任他的評論。土井英司的生意模式之所以能夠活下來，是因?yàn)槌霭嫔缛匀恍枰腥藖斫榻B他們的書，而 土井英司在他的書評中為讀者提供了寶貴的觀點(diǎn)。即使是出版社付費(fèi)讓他寫評論，他仍然誠實(shí)的提供他意見和總結(jié)。

How to Get Something Valuable from Books

Eiji Doi is a famous Japanese book critic. When Eiji Doi worked for Amazon Japan, he wrote an introduction for the book How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling. This is an old book that was originally published in 1964. Before his review, Amazon Japan was selling less than one copy per day. However, after his review, Amazon Japan started selling over ten books per day.

Subsequently, the Amazon webpage for this book showed that orders had increased tenfold, but it didn’t say why. This helped Doi to know that a computer usually only gives the result, not the root cause. So, this led him to think that the job of a book reviewer won’t easily be replaced by a computer.

After Amazon Japan discovered how influential Doi’s reviews were, it asked him to do more. So, Doi would select books, read them, analyze them and write reviews for readers on Amazon Japan. He wrote seven book reviews every week when he worked for Amazon Japan, which means that he read a book a day. He loved this work because he also liked to learn new things from reading books. However, Doi ultimately lost his job when Amazon Japan began using book introductions provided by publishing houses. So, in 2004, after losing his job, Doi started his own book review business.

In particular, he published online reviews for management and business books, and he did so almost every day. This was a pretty good business model for a book reviewer because management books are an investment for the readers who buy them. Generally, they are not reading for pleasure but rather to improve their job performance. Such readers need someone to give them general information about books that they are interested in and also to introduce the important points that such books make in order to help them decide whether to buy these books.

Doi treated the readers of his reviews as his primary customers, even though publishing houses often paid for his book reviews. This made him popular with readers because they knew that they could trust his reviews. Doi was able to survive because the publishing houses still needed someone to introduce their books, and Doi provided valuable viewpoints in his book reviews for his readers. But even when writing paid reviews, Doi still provided his honest opinions and summaries.

Doi regarded himself as a reader to select books for his customers. He believes that reading management books is an investment in oneself, not leisure reading. So, when he reviewed a book, he cared about what benefits the book could provide for him and other readers, what important points that readers needed to pay attention to, and what lessons readers could learn. When he read a book to review, he studied it. And when he reviewed it, he not only introduced it for his readers but also taught or summarized some of its main concepts.

So, he selected books from authors with valuable experience that his readers could benefit from. And he helped readers to gloss over the concepts that they likely already understood so that they could focus on the concepts that were likely new to them. He advised readers not to be distracted by beautiful, interesting or funny passages, but rather to focus on those concepts that can inspire them and take them to a higher level.

I have to agree with Doi’s approach. As managers, when we read a business book, our goal is not to have an emotional experience, or to admire the author or the person the author is writing about. Our goal is–or should be–to learn something from the book that can help us in our careers or give us better performance. When we read a book, we spend (or invest) a lot of valuable time, so we should get something valuable in return.