Well, we sure as heck aren’t going to write a book on Getting Things Done (Chris couldn’t even get through the first chapter without getting distracted), but a couple of weeks ago, I received a totally surprising, but exciting email from a literary agent interested in helping us put a proposal together for a book.
Yep. A book. ( o_O ) … ( !!! )
Funny story about that…I was saying to Chris a mere week before, “I would really love to have more time for my research. I really need a way to get paid to do that.” And I put my silent call out to the universe and *poof*, Danielle’s email shows up in my inbox.
Well, now comes that part where we have to decide what exactly that research and that book looks like. What flavour of book? Will we lean more “simplified” or more “academic”? You know how I feel about “BLANK Steps to BLANK”, so it won’t be that simplified. How about audience? Do we write a book that serves the experts or the novices? I know if we write something that is too academic, it may become respected by our peers, but it won’t be able to reach people who don’t live this stuff day-to-day. But if we write something too fluffy, we couldn’t look ourselves in the mirror.
This ain’t a fluffy subject.
Oh…and what is the subject? Well, that’s a whole other problem. You see, we had lunch with Danielle (agent extraordinaire) and blah, blah, blah’d her poor ear off. We’re definitely “information brokers” rather than experts. We have DONE as well as observed, but more can be learnt from the observations. And we’ve observed a heckuvalot. The best of. The worst of. And, being that we decided to write it as a joint venture (Chris and myself), we also want to make certain that we bring in the full range of our experience. Chris’ open source and communications design background. My online and guerilla marketing background. Our current grassroots work. Our experience as ‘customers’/'users’/'community members’ as well as our experience on the other side of the fence, gathering people together around causes…
…ack…
So, we could write something like:
“Fostering Online Communities” (which has been the subject of our various workshops and, really, what people hire us for - and I know the title sucks, btw) (p.s. this is the one that, with a better title, would sell)
or
“Pinko Marketing” (which will probably never fly, but, hell, the Horrific “Punk Marketing” is supposedly flying off the shelves - but yes, mostly because this is a subject I’ve been working on for all of my career) (meh.)
or
“Everything I Needed to Know, I Learnt from Open Source” (which is Chris’ side of things) (meh.)
or
“F^%$* ROI: how to let go of numbers and focus on what’s really important” (’cause that is the research I want to do and I think is really important) (p.s. this is my favourite, mind you, with a less scrappy title, but might not sell)
or…or…
Ack. So, here I am looming over that proposal subject, awaiting the really big meeting with the head of the Agency, who is supposed to help us hone the proposal. Erm? Maybe this really busy guy will be super understanding when we come to him with a handful of ideas and no proposal? Maybe he’ll find us charming and marketable? Heh.
Talk about embracing the chaos! Most likely, the biggest thing that is holding me back right now is the thought:
“OMG OMG OMG…I have one single chance to make the perfect impression/proposal/book! OMG OMG OMG!”
However, in actuality, I really do think things happen for a reason and we’ve been approached for some reason. And what we need to do with this is: a. follow our hearts/guts/instincts; and b. think of it as a learning experience. We are, after all, the “Build something worth building and that is your success. Everything else is icing.” people. (why the heck did we go and say that? lol)
But (totally solicited…anyone?) advice is always nice, too. 
Gotta get back to reading that riveting How To guide…
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I’d love to help you brainstorm on titles/ideas/etc. I’ve written a lot of articles on various topics and I’m an expert at pinpointing the heart of the story. Drop me an e-mail if you want to chat.
Suggested title: “Community Happens!”
Themes I have noted you guys write passionately about in your blogs:
- higher purpose
- radical change/ improvement
- community
- open source
Must be something in there for a purlitzer!
No matter what you write, I’m sure it’s going to be awesome. So here’s a promise: I’ll buy it.
Hey, what about “Everything Else is Icing”?
Brainstorming within Colin’s theme, how about a title such as:
-Improvement Purpose
-The Radical Community
-A Higher Change
-An Open Source Purpose
I really liked the book- Founders At Work (which is similar to the work done by John Train on Money Masters.
Similarly, I think what would be really interesting is doing research/interviews on about 30 sites. 20 sites that took off and 10 that didn’t and why they did take off or why they didn’t take off.
I think you have done quite a bit of that already. It would be along the lines of what Start Up Review but much more deeper.
One suggestion for such a title could be - “Online Communities that Worked and DIDN’T”…
I have always found actual real examples of sites far more useful than general themes.
In any case, that is the essence- What makes a successful community is different for each one. However, there are few (very few) common themes across all of them.
You could have a small essay at the back after researching these 30 sites trying to tie common themes.
I’d go for the F^%$* ROI, as it is something I’d like to learn more about. The possibility of a paradigm that pairs stats/numbers and human ‘erratics’ seems attractive.
Good luck on the book, after seeing you presentation @ FOWA I am sure you’ll make it interesting.
(Chris couldn’t even get through the first chapter without getting distracted)
I had exactly the same problem, and I could really use the organisation!
As to the book, I like Nik’s idea tied to your Fostering Online Communities idea (and no, I can’t come up with a better title either).
I’m with Sameer though, whatever you write is bound to be great and I for one, will be adding it to my bookshelf.
- Neil.
I can definitely understand what you’re talking about. I’ve wanted to write a book for a few years and I have about 4 first chapters sitting in my documents folder along with another half dozen outlines for other books.
I think I may actually suffer from the same kind of distraction as Chris becuase I’ve been reading the first chapter of Getting Things Done for about 2 weeks now. When it comes to getting work done, I’ve always been the person that wants to start drawing sketches or writing code rather than reading a book about it. Needless to say, that leads to some fairly unorganized projects.
As far as theme goes, rather than focus solely on online communities maybe a book about building communities that function online and offline. I know that there has been a lot of focus on online communities, but I think that a lot of the work you and Chris have done with coworking and BarCamp points to the need for both types of community.
Best of luck on the book!
Propose something you both really want to do if you only get one shot at it… then let them know you have other ideas. They may ask you to work up one of the other ideas…. they may love your primary proposal. But… write the first one. THEN write the second one… THEN number 3… But I’d recommend doing the proposal for a book that you and Chris would want to do if you could only do one.
What is it about your work that most makes you come alive? Borrowing a bit from Howard Thurman: “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go write it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
Some people I know organize workshops around book themes they want to write about, where sessions are [loosely] coupled with chapters, and the interactions in and through the workshops influence the evolution of the writing. And, of course, some people write their books in the open on blogs (e.g., Naked Conversations).
Based on what I’ve read on your blog (and I admit I only “stop by” from time to time), I’d say you have more than one book in you, so I wouldn’t worry too much about getting everything into one book.
Writing a book is a ton of work, so pick the subject you are most apt to stay fascinated by over the long haul. I’ll read it.
Thanks Jessica! I might just do that!
LOL…Great!
Thanks…I think there should be components of that in there, of course.
Nice…
*blush*
u rock
All good…on the list!
I am loving Founders at Work myself…great interviews chock full of useful information!
I like the idea of doing loads of research/case studies for this. I’m actually looking very much forward to this part of things.
Yeah, this is my personal favourite. Chris suggested:
Not ROI…ROC! Measuring the Health of Your Online Community
…or something similar.
LOL…thanks Neil!
There should be a book on Getting GTD Read…LOL.
That’s a great suggestion, Ian. We think that the on/offline part is super important.
Thanks for putting it in perspective, Rick.
“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go write it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
That quote rocks.
Thanks Joe!
You are soooo right, Anna. Thanks.
Hey Tara –
Here’s your title: CITIZEN SOUL
Subtitle: Fostering the influence of online communities.
-or-
TRANSPARENT MARKETING
Giving your passion a purpose.
-or-
OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITY
Inspiring the masses through online community.
-or-
PURPOSE MINING
Harvest the power of online community.
-or- (tongue in cheek)
FACTORY JOE meets MISS ROGUE
A story of passion, power and intrigue, plus open-sourced community building and Pinko Marketing.
I think that FACTORY JOE meets MISS ROGUE would work as long as you got William Shatner to narrate the audio book version.
Hmmm…
William Shatner went on a date with my Mom once. She said he was nice, a bit dramatic, but nice.
But I think the Audio book should include Charlton Heston as the voice of Chris and Tara’s voice would be Fran Drescher? Do you hear it? I know, it’s amazing.
How strange…I read a blog post entitled “Radical Transparency” today — and I thought “Chris & Tara should write a book on this subject”.
So - go write it. I’m not as concerned with what you call it — as I am with the content. Just write about your experiences from the heart — and all will be dandy.
Forget whether or not you think a particular book would sell, because it doesn’t sound like you aimed toward writing a book as part of your grand plan to retire early. Instead, approach it this way: for the rest of your life (or at least until you write the next book), you’re going to be introduced at parties as, “They’re the ones who wrote _____.” What’s the book topic that’s going to make you two the proudest, make you puff up with joy?
For what little it’s worth, I think the F^%$* ROI concept has more legs than you think. Companies are starting to go private again because they “get” that the short-term, meet-the-street quarterly mentality doesn’t work for the long haul. People are investing in the environment, buying hybrids, thinking about the big picture, yadda yadda yadda. It’s coming, and it might be a lot closer by the time the book hits the virtual shelves.
Less an opinion about topic and more a bit of advice — don’t think of it as “The Book”, think of it as “the first book”. That way you don’t have to try and achieve everything in one package .. you can let yourselves focus. Even if you decide there will be no second book, it’ll still help the production of the first!
Good luck with it!!
Some great comments above and some great suggestions. Reading your post in my RSS reader I felt compelled to come to the site and lay this title suggestion on you:
Marketing that Matters: how to do something worth believing in and believe in what you’re doing.
And from my experience (1 book) writing is actually rewriting. A lot. And is totally different than all the things we do online. It’s one big thing that takes a long time to get done instead of tons of small things that take a little time to get done.
And lastly, the worst person to write the copy describing the book is the person writing the book. Unless they’re really exceptional, they’ll write about all the incredible things that the book is about but that no one but them will fully realize that the book is about. So see if you can get someone else to reduce your book for you, like a good au jus.
How about
Be.Long.Ing
On community, tools of the times and Being.
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