Blog Book

Some quick book-writing research turned up

• A blog about books and publishing
• A book design blog
• Dear blog, I worked on my book today
• With Covers, Publishers Take More Than Page From Rivals

And the best of the worst writing is recognized in an annual contest.

The Blog Book Blog (say it a few times it’s catchy, like, Museum of Online Museums) is up. It’s a companion site for the practical book about business blogging we’re writing. Much of what we talk about at the Blog Business Summit will be in the book, as well as, “concrete advice, no-nonsense research, warnings about common pitfalls, and real-world examples of business-blog successes—and failures.”

In the first post, I write about how writing a book is like walking down the aisle and how, “I always knew I’d write a book some day, but I didn’t know that it would be a book about blogging!”

Having dinner with Michael Nolan, our acquisition editor, a few weeks ago, I remarked that I always knew I’d write a book some day, but I didn’t know that it would be a book about blogging!

Who would? In my career, I’ve never seen a technology grow faster or change business more quickly. About a year ago, I was in meetings evangelizing blogging to clients who had no idea what I was talking about. Just now, when lecturing, I see more hands raise for “I’m blogging,” than, “I don’t know what a blog is.” And that’s what brought us to this book. The marketing part of blogging is easy. People get that. What’s more difficult is the actual how and why. The blogopshere talks to itself a lot about blogging theory. There are rules, etiquette, pre-requisites, and even manifestos. What we’re going to do is turn that blogging theory into business reality and write about business blogging success—and failures.

Getting back to dinner with Michael, I also told him that writing a book was like walking down the aisle. I was nervous, anticipating the commitment, and jittery about the details. It’s a long-term relationship and I hope I do it right.

Reflecting on the book, a few lyrical quotes

• “Ain’t gonna work for no soul-sucking jerk” — Beck
• “I’ve Got Depth Of Perception In My Text Y’all … So What’cha want” — B-Boys
• “Pressure’s gonna drop on you”
  
  “Speaking King’s English in quotation”
  
  “Overpowered by funk? Funk out! ”
  — Clash

We’re writing a “practical book about business blogging: a book that offers concrete advice, no-nonsense research, warnings about common pitfalls, and real-world examples of business-blog successes—and failures.” It’s coming out in the Spring of 2006. We’ll blog about it here, on the Blog Book Blog.

Our goal is to write a book that readers will reach for when they’re ready to bridge the gap between blogging theory and business reality.

I have a Nutella Snack and Drink container that Pam brought back from Europe. She bought it at a euro-store called PAM. It includes dipping sticks and a straw with the Nutella in one compartment and iced tea in another. It’ll make a nice little snack and I told the children, we’d open it and celebrate when the book deal was signed.

Weeks ago my daughter said, “hey, when are you ever going to open this and get the book deal? I want to try it.” “Good point. I’ll fire off more emails.” Today, finally, the contracts are signed and mailed.

When the kids get back from Grandmas, we’ll open that container, celebrate, be part of the MyNutella Euro Community, and start writing on Monday.

The title of the book is being determined. The thesis is, “if you’re not blogging now, you should be. Here’s how and why.”

Echo Less & Write More

As I commented on Dave Taylor’s Why Authors Shouldn’t Be So Quick To Blog Their Books, the companion site will be much like the Longtail or Zeldman and not a post for every draft chapter. While some may find my stream-of-consciousness writing style for the chapters fascinating, I suspect, most (especially my coauthors) will not.

Another goal with the book is to echo less and write more. By that I mean, just because a blogger writes a manifesto or says other bloggers “must” do things, that doesn’t mean that’s what we should do for the book or what business should do with their blogs. I talk about that in my lectures. Suit your blog, or book, to yourself or business and not what everyone else is doing.

I announced during the keynote in Colorado this week that New Riders has agreed to publish a blog book I’m writing with Erin Kissane and Steve Broback. The New Riders imprint is published by Peachpit Press and the book will be part of the Voices that Matter series. Michael Nolan acquired the book and worked with us to close the deal. Props to Molly, Zeldman, and Jason Fried for talking me through the book process and recommending, repeatedly, that I write it.

We’ve got lots of work ahead, a companion site to published, and more. The working title, “Byron’s Best Ever Blog Book,” was rejected (I thought it ruled!) and we’ve got a another one being finalized.

In an interview about Clip-n-Seal and blogging posted yesterday on the The Red Couch blog, I stated that “It’s not about the blog. It’s about the product.” I talked about that with clients this week as well. The blog itself isn’t the means, it’s just the medium, it’s the snowball that can grow or melt.

There isn’t a secret formula to build traffic, get noticed, and have your voice matter in the galaxy of weblogs. Instead, as Scoble noted during his keynote at the last BBS 05, you have to have passion for your topic, a story, a killer app or product. It’s also a ton of work, not just being “damn lucky.” You can’t just launch that blog, you have to write it as well and figure out what you’re going to say.

Finally, as business blogs rush to fill niche markets, I think more businesses will ask themselves, “should our blog have a business?”