Yesterday at the O’Reilly Emerging Technology Conference, Matt Webb, one of the authors of Mind Hacks, which I wrote about in my writing/writers’ blog Writer’s Edge last month, told me that whenever his book is mentioned on the blog Boing Boing, there’s a measurable spike in sales at Amazon. That’s “buzz” in action, electronic word-of-mouth that’s more precious than golden advertising in the book publishing world.

This morning one of the co-editors of Boing Boing, sci-fi writer Cory Doctorow, offered an even more thought-provoking idea: he said that giving away his novels via ebooks increases sales of the hard copies. You can read more about Doctorow and his novel notions on his website, craphound.com. He’s actually blogging the conference by publishing his notes almost in real time, session by session on Boing Boing. It’s a fascinating experience!

Publish your ideas with Georganna at Writer’s Edge.