Twitterville Notebook: My Book-Writing Process

I've had a few recent inquiries about the process that I am using to write Twitterville. Each is from someone who is considering writing a book and is curious about the process in general, as well as why and how I'm using social media. This post is more for them than most of you. So, if you are not interested in writing a book, you might skip this post. Have a Happy New Year and I hope we all survive 2009.

Here's my process for both books:

• Start with two sentences. The first says what the book is about and the second says who would want to read it. The trick is to do it in two sentences. For me this is about the most difficult part of the process.
• Book proposal. This is essentially a marketing document. Your proposal is designed to persuade a publisher that this is a work worthy of their financial investment. It is not that different from submitting a business plan to a VC or a bank. Your book will be their product.
• Table of Contents. I include my TOC in the book proposal. This is your roadmap. You need to be confident that you can produce what you propose in the TOC, because that is what the publisher is buying. In my case, a publisher needs flexibility because blogging and twitter for business are highly dynamic processes. New events happen and old ons become irrelevant. For example, in August when I began writing my Twitterville proposal, I had a chapter called "Why Twitter breaks." It had a great story about blaming Scoble for the breaking. But by the time I began writing the chapter, Twitter stopped breaking and the chapter got spiked. Likewise, I did not know how the Obama campaign would use Twitter, or about the Mumbai terror attacks or about the Israel-Gaza conflict. Not only do I need to keep thinking about Twitter incidents that will be relevant from 1-3 years from now, I needed a publisher that is flexible enough to allow me to keep changing my TOC.
• Using blogs and Twitter. I'm surprised that no one who remembers what Scoble and I did for Naked Conversations has not pointed out that this time I am not publishing early drafts of each chapter. Doing that last time, got a lot of attention. But the fact is that very few people actually read the draft chapters because they are just too long to read on a blog. Posting early drafts makes publishers nervous. So this time, I'm posting my notes in this blog and I am giving an almost ongoing play-by-play of what I'm doing on Twitter. In both cases, what is most valuable to me have been the feedback and lead generation. In Naked Conversations, blog Comments told us what worked and what did not. I would guess one in five leads for content came from the blog. When the book was published people who read the blog bought the book. More important, they urged others to buy the book and that continues to be the #1 way Naked Conversations sells. I would guess that one in three content suggestions from the blog ended up in the book

Twitter is the next generation of social media from blogs. It is amazingly fast. New newsworthy companies and events break about once daily. I have already received more than 300 suggestions for a book that will probably cover 100 cases, and I am less than 1/3 through the writing portion. The number of people following this book-writing experience through Twitter already vastly exceeds the number who followed the Naked Conversations blog and is growing at a very fast rate.

This increased noise level also has downsides. Twitter is distracting. Every day, people send me to look at something. New people arrive who want t know what I'm writing about. I have had more than 50 suggestions each to check out Comcast, Dell and Starbucks. I do my best to reply to each suggestion and to look at each company, but time constraints are making that a challenge.

• Moving parts. A book has a lot of moving parts. Using social media to write it is worthwhile, but it adds to the complexity. It has taken me over a month to get a process in order. It goes something like this:
1. Announce on Twitter the next chapter. Say what I already have. Ask for more content. In fact, I seem to work concurrently on three chapters simultaneously. When a new lead comes in, spend a few minutes checking it out and drop the lead into a Word document for that chapter. Take the name of the person who suggested it first (there are often duplications) and add it to my acknowledgments page.
2. Pick 5-7 possible stories that support-or contradict- the key point of the chapter and do some deep research that includes, Google, Wikipedia and asking on Twitter for user experiences with that company or person. Send email questionnaires to most people. I would prefer phone or face time interviews, but I am working on a tight timeline and the asynchronous nature of email Q&A lets me cover more ground in a shorter time frame.
3. Post a Twitterville Notebook on selected interviews. Look for feedback. If the interview draws big discussion it gets elevated. If it produces a yawn, I consider deleting.
4. Chapter writing. You'll see me go dark for periods of time on Twitterville as I actually write up each chapter. This part is not social. It is solitary. I stop looking at email, social media, answering the phone or petting the dog.
5. Wife test. Paula is a key component. She reads each chapter one step removed. She is removed because she is not a social media insider and her interests are not business oriented. She has to understand what I am saying or I must rewrite. She is tough on me and that makes it very helpful.
6. I send a chunk of 10,000-15,000 words to my agent and publishers which they review and edit. I go on to the next book chunk. When I finish it, I go back and review the agent/publisher changes. In all, I submit two drafts to the publisher, but each chapter goes through 5-6 times.
• Galleys. When all these working parts are accepted the publisher sinks it into book form on a computer. I go through and check the copy, updating numbers and correcting details. But rewriting is minimal at this point. At the very last moment I sink in any numbers on market, users, etc., so that the numbers I use are the most current at publication. Example: I do not bother saying there are about 5 million Tweeters worldwide now, because I assume that number will be much larger in September when the book goes to market.
• Galley Copies. The publisher creates an inexpensive plain paper copy of the book and circulates it to a small circle of people that they and I select. These are the folk who will give third party testimony on the jacket or inside the book. I assume also that selected book retailers get to see it as well as certain reviewers.
• Fact check About the last pre-publication activity for the author is fact-checking. For Naked Conversations, this was about the most annoying part. My fact checker wanted documentation on EVERY statement in the book, including my assertion that Scoble (at the time) was Microsoft's most popular blogger, a contention that had no third-party source for me to point to. I understand and respect the need for a publisher--as well as the author-- to get every fact right. The credibility of the book depends upon it.

• Miscellaneous.There's an almost endless barrage of details after the book is actually written. Book, age, cover design, your bio, your photo, miscellaneous permissions and so on.

Writing a book is a lot of work. It is a huge investment of time. Every author puts his own reputation on the line. Extremely few authors can make a full living writing. What you do the day after your book goes on the shelf may mystify you. I remember waking up the day after Naked Conversations, the first day in many months that I had slept past 8 am.

I lay there wondering, "what do I do now." This time around I think I know the answer. I'm going to write another book.

Comments

[Justin Thorp]

Shel, thanks for writing this post and sharing your processes and experiences. The notion of writing a book has always intrigued me. It's something that I want to do someday.

Happy New Year!

[shel Israel]

I left out one point. Retweets are very important. They tell me what other people want to share.

[Eric Matas]

Shel - this info on your process is awesome. Certain learners (here comes the designer in me) comprehend best when you draw back the curtain and reveal the steps of the process.

Thanks and have a wonderful new year.

~Eric http://twitter.com/tweric

[Jared Young]

Thanks for the insight. I've been been working on my first book on growing a business from the inside out on a budget. I have the proposal and one chapter done. I haven't found a publisher yet. I'm hoping to continue generating interest for the book on Twitter and turn that interest into a contract. Your tips and insights here give me more ideas and I thank you for it.

All the best!
Jared
twitter.com/originalquill

[Jocelyn]

Thank you for sharing this information.

Jocelyn

[Connie Bensen]

Thank you for sharing your process Shel. It sounds like a big project that you've broken into smaller parts.

I look forward to the published work!