Techy Stuff

So, the book I mentioned yesterday is being done by yours truly.

Seems that someone else has realised this is a great idea as well.

There’s some history to this whole blogging books business (or business blogging books).

2 years ago more than 30 authors pitched books on blogging. Publishers didn’t want them. 6 months later they wanted to them and so they signed all the authors. So there was a raft of books on blogging.

But most of them were all hype, philosophical, “this’ll change the world”, “you need to get into this” types of things.

No practical. No real world. No lasting value for C-level folks, nevermind the people who’d actually have to do the work.

So, Robert Scoble and Shel Israel are looking to do a blogging book too. Same subject matter, same types of ideas. But they are looking to sell the book rights on eBay. I love Scoble. That’s awesome and is a great way to kind of refuel the wave that was started a week or so ago. Well done mate, luvin’ it!

Should I be concerned about two books? Hell no. In fact, if I do this book I’ll be promoting Robert’s just as much as mine. I’d love to be a chapter reviewer on Robert’s actually. Not so I can steal ideas but so I can tell him what a good job he’s doing.

The more the merrier on something like this, and if we can both come out with a fantastic book which benefits people in different ways… Well that’ll only raise the profile of blogging all the more. Plus, having two fantastic books out on a subject (same release date guys, you game for that?) it will also lend even more validity to the idea.

Really, really great stuff happening here.

I was going to take this weekend off to rest from the last week of craziness, but I’m too excited to do that now. I think I’ll probably throw a few hours into some brainstorming on the book. A blog and a wiki is a must. Community participation is key. If Shel and Robert are interested I’d love to bounce things off them as we go through this.

Community. Participation. Openness. Sharing. Transparency. Those are key tenets of some of the things that will really help companies. And what better way to make do a book on blogging (sorry, two books) than to do the same amongst the teams?

Obviously neither of us has signed a deal yet, but that’s never stopped me (or Shel and Robert I’m sure) from pushing ahead.

Robert, feel free to hop on MSN or to Skype me (jeremy_wright) so we can have a quick 5-10 minute chat. Obviously I’m blogging this because its more likely to get read than something in your email. But, feel free to email me if you want to set up a time (oh, and feel free to invite Shel too).

Am I excited? Damn skippy. And that’s saying something considering it’s -12F here right now.