Updates From Our New Home

Well, here I am in our new digs, that I share with Robert. I found the the key under the mat right where he said it would be. Lots of space, proabbly because there's only one piece of furniture, a big red couch. It doesn't matter, much.  Robert likes to sit on the floor a lot of the time. We need a shared space for this project so that our comments can be read sequentially, so that we stop tripping over each other with comments, and because too many of you who are following this project have commented that its a pain to jump around.

There are a couple of updates--yesterday, we spoke to a second publisher we like who is clearly interested and who showed some clear value.  We hope more will come.

The eBay bidding concept may not be able to happen.  They have announced, following Jermey's auction of his blogging expertise services, that they only wish to auction off hard good and we are not certain publishing rights are "hard services."  We've asked eBay and they emailed us back that they'd answer us within 24 hours.  That was about 72 hours ago.

Both publishers that we have spoken to have also indicated that they would prefer to do negotiating in greater privacy than the spotlight of an auction, and Robert and I need to pay attention.  More to come on that.

Finally, we've had a couple of comments saying that our posting are going slowly.  Well, the focus is to produce a book, with the Blogosphere being a major help.  We've spent time on revising the proposa, to incorporate nearly 50 excellent comments we received on our three former sites, and we are about half way through the Table of Contents, the second of three pieces that publishers will require before any of them actually offer us the money we will need in advance to write this book.

We hope to post the TOC and a revised book proposal before Christmas.  We hope to have the sample chapter written before February.

Comments

[Evan]

Congratulations on finally getting underway! I'm thrilled at what you guys are doing, as I've been for awhile now.

Some notes:

- If you really want to do this differently, then the ebay auction (or another auction service) would set you apart. -Of course- the publishers are going to want to do the deal privately. This is to keep the same cloak and dagger approach that people in the same company adhere to when speaking of salaries.

Now it's up to you guys, but with this project you're blowing the doors off what publishing/writing standards are in the new age, and this could definitely be something that sets you apart. Plus, it marks a great starting point (and motivation), along with a great hook for promotion when that time comes around (I can see morning talk shows boast about how the book came to be, etc). It could also give those who wish to be published an idea of what kind of deal could be attained for a book along these lines.

If you wish to negotiate privately, how about posting the details of such a deal? That could be a middle-of-the-road compromise that should apply to both crowds equally.

[Robert Scoble]

Shel, is there a middle ground? I think our process is interesting to people because it'll help them learn what to expect if they want to do a book too.

It's interesting that publishers are already interested in this, though. Certainly that's different than the last time I published a book (we had to chase the publishers and talk them into doing a book).

[Robert Scoble]

Evan, yeah, I agree with you. I'm gonna push the transparency on this project as far as I possibly can. It's an interesting fight between the new school and the old school. But, as Shel said, our purpose here is to get a book published. I've learned in my work at Microsoft that you can't change the world all at once cause sometimes the world doesn't want to change.

But, give us time and maybe even the publishers will come and see the value in doing things transparently.

[shel israel]

I'm feeling the tear here as well. I think we can get a little more transparent on this issue, but need to make certain that's okay with the two publishers that are talking with us. What we will need to hold back, I believe is (1) the price--what we get in advance of royalties and then what we get per book after a certain number. (2) What publishers say about each other. We are encouraging them to explain why they are better than the other guy.

T think what's of greatest interest is the process of negotiation and the issues: Who's going to edit your materials; under what category will the book be placed in Barnes & Noble; what about translations; how will their marketing departments help us get book reviews, radio interviews, signings etc. We'll circle back to this after we have our next conversations. If either of them wish to step in, identify themselves and post comments, Robert and certainly welcome it. We'll even let you author guest postings.

[shel israel]

And Robert, I don't think my cautions are new school vs. old school. It's more like knowing the difference between being kissed or sodomized.