You know those people. The ones who have an idea for a book, who have maybe written a little bit of a book, but don’t know where to go or what to do next. Emmett Cox used to be one of those people. He was a man with a book idea, but no plans…until he saw my tweet at last year’s M2010 (now Analytics 2011) conference in Las Vegas.
While at conferences, I like to send tweets encouraging folks to stop by and talk about the topics they are interested in. My tweet last year said something like, “Want to write a data mining book? Stop by the SAS Publishing booth and let’s talk.” Emmett happened to be walking by the monitor which displayed a running list of tweets associated with the conference. My tweet scrolled by while he was there. The monitor was just outside our booth. So, Emmett walked into the booth and asked if I was available.
We talked a few times during the conference. It turns out that Emmett had already written a lot of the book using material he had gathered while preparing workshops and courses for his various employers. We continued talking after the conference, when he sent me what he had written. It was reviewed within SAS. The SAS team loved the material. We sent it to Wiley and Sons for review and inclusion in the Wiley and SAS Business Series. They liked the idea as much as we did. So, a book was born.
Now a mere 12 months after that first tweet, Retail Analytics: The Secret Weapon is on the shelf. Read about Emmet's book in our catalog or stop by Analytics 2011 and check it out. We’re offering a 20% discount on conference purchases for this and all other SAS books. And if you see one of my tweets, give it a read. You, too, could become a SAS author!
Learn more about Retail Analytics here and tell us how you think this book can help YOU.
5 Comments
I met Emmett at Analytics 2011. I was impressed by the story of how the book came about and how he learned that he could be a SAS Press author. Cool guy. Neat story. Great book. Thanks for sharing the story here, Shelley.
I've used SAS & R extensively in the past regarding bioinformatics solutions, but I'd love to see what kind of questions can be approached in a retail setting using similar methods.
Hi Michael, thank you for sharing why you're interested in Emmett Cox' new Retail Analytics book! Because you're our 2nd person to post within the US, you win a free copy. :)
By posting this comment do I get a free copy of the book from the SAS Publishing tweet?
Hi Glen, if you live in the U.S. you do indeed! Thank you for commenting. What makes you interested in this particular title?