I favor the 5 Ws of journalism, so we’ll use that as a rubric:
WHO
My name is Michael Boezi—I’m a writer and advisor. You can read my qualifications here. My experience is certainly salient to the project, but who cares about a list of self-reported accomplishments? I believe that you are what you do—not what you say you do.
So regarding this project, why me? What makes me qualified to help you?
- I know about publishing. I was a publisher over a long career in the industry. As an editor, I built hundreds of instructional products and helped tons of writers become authors. I know all aspects of the process, from concept to completion, from planning to publication to propagation. I’ve been at large traditional publishers and small upstarts, so I’ve seen it from both sides.
- I know about entrepreneurship. I was an early enlistee of two entrepreneurial ventures, and I know what what goes into building a business from the ground up. I learned by doing—by making real mistakes and iterating quickly. I discovered something about myself, and more importantly, committed to it: mission over money.
- I know about writing. Aside from keeping a regular blog for the past few years, I have written hundreds of songs, many of which you can find here. I know about the creative process from the artist’s side of the table too.
WHAT
I am writing a book that will help writers become authors.
It will focus on non-fiction authors, because 1) my whole career has been in non-fiction, and 2) non-fiction authors “get” the idea of entrepreneurship. It’s not that fiction authors don’t, but there are a different set of considerations.
The book is intended to inspire and inform. It will lean more towards strategy than operational issues. Guy Kawasaki has the functional aspect covered in Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur (APE). I highly recommend that book; there is no better “user’s manual” for authors.
HOW
Here’s how the project will unfold:
- I will construct an outline of the book and build a project plan.
- I will be publishing regular content—in fact, I have already started.
- As I publish in pieces, I will be building a first draft in real time.
- Along the way, I will comment on the process, raising issues and decision points as they come up.
- I am going to be asking for your input. Get ready to participate.
- Once I have a critical mass of content, I am going to apply a development process to the first draft. I am going to hire professional help, just like you should too.
- I am going to complete the book and self-publish it.
With the content (the book itself) and the meta-content (the process commentary), you are going to have a model for how to write and publish your book too.
WHERE
You can find the Glass Box Project at http://glassboxproject.com. Please share this if you like the concept, or if you know of a writer who could use the free help and advice. All the action will be happening on my blog, but I figured that it couldn’t hurt to have an easy-to-remember (and easy-to-share!) address. I don’t know what the book’s title will be yet, but I always liked the concept of a working title. The Glass Book Project seems descriptive enough.
WHY
Why am I doing this? Here’s my basic business model. I am going to share my expertise with you. No cost, no obligation. You are going to get general help and advice on your book project. There may never be a transaction between us beyond that, and that’s just fine with me. I am motivated to make a small difference to you and (hopefully) a ton of other writers. But what I’m banking on is that sometimes general help is not enough. If you feel like you need specific help with the specific issues around your project, then perhaps you will hire my company, Control Mouse Consulting, to give you hands-on coaching and advice.
WHEN
The project starts on 4/14/14, because I’m a secretly a numbers geek. I intend to give myself 7 months to complete the first draft (11/14/14), and have the book perfected, produced, and published by 1/15/15. Yes, I’m an alliteration geek too.
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You can follow the Glass Box Project here: http://glassboxproject.com.
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