However, in calling your post ‘Wake Up, The Medium IS The Message!’, but at the same time, telling us that the medium and the message are not identical, rather that the medium becomes a fundamental part of the message (rather than the whole), you were subtly altering our perceptions of your post

One, on writing “achievement requires action,” instead of the longer sentence, I should probably qualify my thoughts a bit better.

I would actually not automatically default to on or the other. Rather, I’d look at the nature of the market I am writing to and choose the expression most likely to convey the message in the way I believed that market would be most likely to experience the way I want it experienced.

When I write, I often create a mental mock-up of a person to write to. And, depending on the intended use of the content, I’ll sometimes invest a substantial amount of time in researching the preferences, emotions and experiences of that person. I do this less here on the blog, but for copywriting or marketing, it is a fundamental piece of the puzzle.

Two, I am not saying the medium and the message are identical. I AM saying the medium has such a strong influence on the fundamental expression of the message that it literally alters the experience of the message and, in doing so, it becomes a part of the message.

So, the real take-away here is to invest yourself in the details of how you (a) express, (b) package and (c) distribute your message, because those elements don’t just ride along with your message, they shape your message.

However, no one in that audience will receive the message the same way, however it is conveyed, as they will bring their life experiences to bear, not only on the medium, but the message itself.
That’s when it gets even more complicated…

And I prefer ‘achievement requires action’ too. It actually makes me think more than the longer example

I can see where there is some confusion. Selling books (or anything) is not always about the content, medium or message.

Marketing is about fulfilling the wants and desires or your customers (readers) and giving them the experience they want.

You can’t measure the value of a book by the number of words in it, and you can’t judge a message by the medium.

However, to your point of “medium is [partly the] message” — I’d suggest that the size and permanence and historic use of the book form says different things about your content, before I ever read a word, than does an eBook or a magazine-formatted series of chapters… we think about a feature film on the big screen differently than we do a TV-movie… so yes, packaging the content IS an aspect of the content. At least in my biz it is. Thanks for starting the smart discussion.

I feel like there are mixed metaphors here.

The medium is a vehicle for the message. It isn’t the message.

This does NOT in any way change the fact that “God is in the details,” as Mies van der Rohe said. I love Eames’ quotation, also.

The message should be both well-crafted and finely tuned to your chosen medium. Your book should be the best book you can create, not a book that feels like it was once a PowerPoint or a blog article.

I picked up a book by [well respected marketers who also blog] not too long ago, and was appalled to realize that 90% of what was in it was straight from their blog.

It wasn’t so much that I’d read it all before (irritating), as it was that a blog article does not usually have the depth or the permanence to belong, verbatim, in a work I pay 35 bucks for. If the thoughts are sound enough for a book, great. They still must be expanded, tweaked, and crafted to suit the medium. It felt like their editor decided to take a weekend and put together a book to scam folks, knowing that our collective standard for writing has changed somewhat in the era of blogs.

The medium certainly affects the message, as you say. I think a message CAN be repurposed, but I despise “good enough” mentality and I definitely think that at each moment, the message should be tuned again to the vehicle you choose, not just shoved into a medium it’s not suited to.

“Achievement requires action.” Look, you said it again without saying it! A great work in any medium requires focus, craft, detail-orientation. We all need to be reminded of that.

Regards,

Kelly

= )

What you are describing means that you have integrity regarding your ideas, articles, and products. No way is that a bad thing!