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It’s so amazing to know that people around the world are (hopefully) finding the book helpful. And while pictures of your books are fun, I’d love to see some pictures or video of projects the book has helped you realize! Email them to me or post a link in the comments and I’ll post them here.

The squishy robot giveaways were a hit, and I even got to meet Hee Jung, from Make: Korea, who is part of the team that is translating my book into Korean! I also want to thank McGraw-Hilll for being gracious hosts. The blown up poster version of my book cover for the booth was great.

I spent plenty of time wandering the Faire, and this was one of my favorite sights:

Yes, that is a fire-breathing dragon trucked in from Michigan and made mostly from tires and scrap metal. If you ever get the chance to attend one of the Maker Faires, I highly recommend it!

As for other marketing activities, my efforts so far have resulted in requests for my book from several MIT professors, and an invitation to meet a few of them next time I’m in the Boston area. If you’re an educator who could used a complimentary copy of the book, please let me know in the comments or send me an email and I’ll have one sent right out to you.

I got this note from a reader last week:

I want to thank you for your wonderful book, “Making Things Move”. About three years ago I had an idea for an art piece that required motion… a very slow rotation. It was a long, painstaking, and also fun and rewarding process trying to figure out how to get there, and eventually I did.

But then my art life became so much easier: A friend of mine pointed me to your book, and it has been tremendously helpful. I learned so much that I decided to re-build the mechanism I had originally constructed and make a quiter, smoother, sturdier, battery-powered, and altogether better one. This weekend, I will be showing that piece at the Dumbo Arts Festival as one of their indoor installations. I’m adding a link below so you can see what it does.

Thank you so much for this well-written, well-organized, and altogether helpful resource!

As I told him, that’s just about the best email an author can get! The piece is pictured above, and below in detail. Yes, those are googly eyes. Thanks to reader and artist Sean Boggs for the pictures and permission to post his review! Click on this link to see his website with a video of the piece in motion.

A friend and former student of mine just pointed out to me that my book is listed on the website HackerThings: Products for the Discerning Hacker. I’m so proud! Thanks Adi.

So come on by the McGraw-Hill booth and say hi! I’ll be floating around Maker Faire the rest of the time too, so feel free to stop me and say hello any time.

Do you have anyone to add to the list? Are you a professor that would like an evaluation copy? Do you have ideas for making this email better? Let me know in the comments!
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Prof. XXX,

I see that you are teaching XYZ this semester, and I’d like to suggest a book I wrote as a companion text: Making Things Move: DIY Mechanisms for Inventors, Hobbyists, and Artists. If you can send me your address I would be happy to have my publisher mail you an evaluation copy. Have a great semester!

Thanks,

For a while now I’ve been brainstorming ways to reach out to more potential readers and audiences for Making Things Move.

However, like any highly evolved human, I tend to procrastinate when I don’t have a plan. So, here’s the first step: I’ve decided to implement something I’ll call Marketing Mondays, where I devote an hour or two each week to a combination of brainstorming new ideas and implementing them (both activities required) – catchy, huh?! And I’ll hold myself accountable for this by blogging about it, along with any interesting developments.

So for this first iteration, here are some ideas:

• Idea 1) Get the book in the hands of professors teaching senior design classes to mechanical engineering students (possibly biomedical engineering and electrical engineering too).
• Action 1) Get a list of the top engineering schools, find info for and contact professors teaching design at the top 10 schools.

I know there are hundreds, if not thousands of engineering schools out there, but those are the kinds of numbers that lead to procrastination. I’ll start with 10 and go from there. I’ve also been trying to think of ways to reach high school shop and physics teachers, and mentors of robotics clubs. If you know anyone that fits these descriptions, or a resource of how to find names, please do let me know. Thanks!

In the midst of my procrastination, I did manage to create a Facebook page for the book a couple weeks ago. It would be SUPER if you could A) Like it, and B) list it as one of your favorite books in your profile!

And of course I would love to hear your ideas on how to reach out to more potential readers. The school year is just starting so my head is revolving around academia, but I’m of course open to any suggestions you can think of. If you’re REALLY interested in helping out, I’m attempting to hire a book marketing assistant for academic credit. As the post mentions, the role can be filled remotely, so proximity to me in NYC is not required. Spread the word! Thanks.

I just found out the good news yesterday – SADbot has been accepted into Artbots! The show this year is in Ghent, Belgium. So either me or Ben (hopefully both!) will be heading to Europe to install and hang out with the other robot art.