Lovely Mostly Books picked up the Nibbie for best new indie bookshop this week, and have a very thorough and professional write up of the night on their blog, complete with pictures including one of my staring at my toes as I accepted our XSL award. Read it here and pass on your congrats whilst you're there as they, along with Mr B's who got best indie, are very worthy winners.

Here's an idea: buy up oil as soon as it becomes available and then sell it to other people at a profit. Sounds a bit farfetched, doesn't it. We're used to the idea of investment bubbles in most areas: bubbles being caused when buying and selling become more about profit than use. Which is to say, when people buy a house or a ton or copper not because they plan to use it, but because they plan to sell it again at an opportune moment. But somehow you don't expect people to do that with oil. You get the impression that it will be used up as quickly as it's available. But the ever excellent Jon Taplin, whose blog I find distinctly more-ish, sees just such a speculative environment. I'm glad to have stumbled upon his explanation, because the record profits of oil companies have had me baffled for a while. Usually, when the cost of your raw materials go up, your profits are squeezed. But not if the price rise is down to stockpiling and tactical selling. See here and here for more.

And if you're interested in such things, read his excellent thoughts (which coincidentally mirror my own) about a catastrophic Republican meltdown in the offing here.

There's a little piece in the latest Bookseller sort of written by me. I wrote the first draft, but it's changed a bit since then. Something like that always seems to happen and it's a weird thing being rewritten. I like to think that with a clear brief I'm not a bad writer. I wrote a book about retail strategy a while back and the global head of McKinsey was very complimentary about it. Stuart Rose (boss of M&S) liked it enough to give a quote for the cover. I've also had some success with fiction. I think you could find my novels without too much trouble in most European countries (including this one). So all in all, I don't tend to feel like I need someone to step in and fix my prose for me. A hint or two is all I need. So if you happen to see the article and you wonder why, instead of ridiculing phrases like 'Publishers often engage with questions of finance...' or 'The clarity this affords is paramount;' I seem to suddenly be embracing that sort of corporate silly-speak, the answer is that my words were given a smart new suit of clothes and a haircut after I finished with them.

OK. I don't speak German, so I don't really know what that means. I just thought it might mean 'little book'. Note to self: bilingual puns are tricky if you don't speak the language. Anyway, the little book in question is the paperback edition of Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine which is now out in affordable and portable paperback. It's a love story set against the backdrop of the French Revolution, told through the eyes of one of Marie Antoinette's ladies-in-waiting. Well, not really. I just thought if I said that people would be more likely to read it. It's really about less romantic things like how the world works. People insist on democracy, so if you want to start wars or steal billions you have to do it subtly. This book is about exactly how that sort of thing happens right under our noses. And when I become Emperor, I'll put it on the school syllabus and give tests afterward to make sure everyone reads it. Here are links for the Book Depository and Amazon (just in case you're tempted).

I'm thinking of buying a ticket for the London launch of the paperback on Monday. Anyone want to come with me?

Emma Barnes in action

Much of last Sunday was spent musing about how I was going to make my new bullwhip, in honour of the new Indiana Jones film (said films being a primary reason for me doing an archaeology degree. Oh yeah, that and screwing up my history A level so I couldn't do history. Thanks, Dr Arthurson, wherever you are, for teaching us the wrong syllabus). But now I want to make one of these. Isn't it gorgeous?

Rob's comment: I will be lending Em my copy of Make Magazine issue 9 and pointing to p82 where they show you how to make a bullwhip.

Just read this in Publishing News which says we are developing the Bookbackers idea into something tangible and real, right now. There's no reason why they should know, I suppose, but we're not actively developing Bookbackers at the moment. We'd love to, of course, but the only way it will work is as an industry initative - hence the presentation at the BA conference in a session about industry wide initiatives. I got lots of good feedback at the conference, so do get in touch if you'd like to form a team to develop this idea. And bring your corporate credit card and diary, as it'll need money and time to work - another reason why we're not developing it immediately ourselves.

There was something I meant to add to my Otakunomics post. Having bought a new copy of Serenity, I now have a secondhand copy which I am willing to part with for free, gratis and no money down. If you want me to send it to you, valued blog habitué, then e-mail me at the gaudy address to the left and tell me why I should send it to you (and where in the world you want it to go).

If you're not sure what we won that Nibbie for last night, here's our entry form (pdf, 165kb) which should make it a bit clearer. We can do this stuff for your business too, comparatively cheaply, so drop us a line if you'd like to save several months' time a year.

At the BA conference I gave a pitch, as part of the Next Big Thing discussion, for a new innovation called BookBackers. As with most things at Snowbooks, BookBackers is Rob's idea which I pinched for the BA conference, and I'm sure he'll be adding in a more erudite way than me to this idea over the next few weeks. But in the meantime, here's the transcript of the presentation, dreadful lame jokes and all. If you'd like to see the slides that go along with it, here they are
(PDF,451kb). The dots in the text below indicate a new slide!

is the sound that two nibbies and an IPA award make when banged together, which is what I've just been doing. Huzzah, we won the Innovation Nibbie last night.

Sorry for the blog-dearth of late. I've been frolicking about in the States (and then chain-snoozing since I got back) and Em has been off prize-hunting at the BA conference - which is just embarrassing if you've ever seen it: Em takes her big carpet bag with her to Brighton and starts pestering people to give her prizes. "Can I have that prize?" "Well, this one is for literary agents. Are you a literary agent?" "Might be. What about that shiny one? Can I have that one?" "Well, this one is for innovation. Have you innovated much recently?" "Probly. So can I have it?" And this goes on until someone weakens and says "Oh, OK" and another prize goes into the carpet bag.

Anyway, now that I'm back and reasonably compos mentis I just wanted to tell you about a purchase I made while abroad which fits very well with one of Maestro Godin's views on Valued Customers. I bought a Collectors' Edition of the movie Serenity. This is not shocking news in itself, except that I already own an excellent DVD of that movie. I bought this one because it has Bonus Material. The cast and director got together three years after the movie was made to record a second commentary. Is that - plus a few other odds and ends - really worth $21, given that I already own a copy of the film itself? And the answer to that is obviously 'No'. Except if it's one of your favourite movies and you're a bit obsessive about the cast and crew and how the movie got made.

No posts for 3 days then two in one hour. Maybe I'm just angling for the prize for blog post 1000 (this is number 972).

This is a post for people who run companies that are office based. You might like to know how my days in the office break down compared to my working from home days. If you can't be bothered to click to read on, the summary is that I get approximately one million times more things done at home than in the office. It's genuinely worth thinking about whether your business would be more productive if you sent everyone home.