I have reached a milestone of sorts in the writing of the crowdsourcing book. A few hours ago I turned in the last real chapter of the book (I still need to write an appendix), and am moving on to editing the existing manuscript. I have a publication date now. It's July 8 of this year.
The bad news is: I only have a few more months in which to revise the book. The good news is: I only have a few more months in which to revise the book. I kid—sort of. I'm very happy with what's on the page, but still have an enormous amount of work to do. Being a fussy writer type, I'd gladly revise and re-revise the book for another year if they'd let me. And while I'll be happy to finish the work, it'll be a bittersweet moment. Though the last year has been arduous (Having a second kid during the final sprint didn't make it easier), it's also been illuminating—in more ways than I can count—and, weird as it sounds, a whole lot of fun.
As you'll see in the coming weeks, we have big plans for this blog. On the edit side (excuse the antiquated MSM terms), I'll be crowdsourcing the revision process by posting some select excerpts of the book. I fully hope you'll mince no words and spare no criticism in reviewing those sections. On the business side, I'll be formalizing my relationship to Wired.com by joining their incipient blog network. This won't mean much to you, except that there will be more ads on the site. But there are variations on how many ads I run, and what placement I give them. I get a cut of the revenues, but in the spirit of community—an ethos I've come to greatly respect this year—I'm planning on giving it to a charity of our choice. I like Doctors Without Borders, but I'm open to suggestions and, ultimately, a vote. At any rate, expect to see (okay read), much more of me in the coming months.
For those of you interested in how the sausage is made, here are some pics:
(Above: The manuscript: 250-plus pages of uncorrected grammatical mistakes and sentence run-ons.)
(above: Is it raining? Snowing? Spring? Fall? In my windowless cube, weather doesn't exist.)
(above: When I started work on the book a friend told me to buy magazine holders for each chapter in the book. Best. Advice. Ever.)
Congratulations Jeff. Big day!
Posted by: Candice-Leigh | January 10, 2008 at 12:04 AM
Hey Jeff! Happy new year! It's been a while. I have to offer you my services. For free ofcourse. Heh. If you would like, I could follow up on the last few months to the book on my blog. Just a thought. I would love to, honestly. Take care!
Posted by: Tabish Bhimani | January 10, 2008 at 01:26 AM
Great! I can't wait to criticize your work ;)
Posted by: Carl | January 10, 2008 at 03:24 AM
Sounds like you have been on an incredible, albeit weather-less, journey. Congrats on the milestone reached and the anticipated move to the Wired blog network Jeff.
I can’t even begin to imagine what the process must have been like thus far, but I am sure that the related experiences and insights will form, once assimilated, the foundation for even greater deeds!
I did check back with Goethe’s sayings and the first words to appear, “Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one's thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world,” appear to fit the bill!
I was fortunate enough to get an early copy of Carr’s new book, “The Big Switch, Rewiring The World, from Edison To Google. Very prophetic content framed in the context of cheap, utility-supplied computing, a great read to boot. The main thrust maintains that a huge shift, service’s being provided from massive server farms, is in the cards. Highly recommended!
Warm Regards, Alan
Posted by: Alan | January 10, 2008 at 07:54 AM
Jeff You rock!!!!!
I can't believe you just finished the last chapter. I feel like a poopy-head research assistant. I think it should be publicly said: From what I understand a lot of books are ghost-written by the research assistant. Not this one: Jeff put in a serious amount of labor and love into this book. I did light sweeping, if anything.
Posted by: David Cohn | January 10, 2008 at 11:31 PM
Good work Jeff! I am looking very much forward to read the book. I enjoyed the conversations we had in advance of the Danish Customermade conference in 2006 and am proud to have acted as a (very) minor source in the initial phase ;-)
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