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March 20, 2008

The Trustable Attitude

I've always been an ideas guy.  I collect ideas, invent ideas, and (I try to) share ideas.  That's what my book is - a collection of ideas, wrapped up in a story.

Just today I've realised that there is one more thing in my book which is even more important than the ideas.  It's the book's attitude.

I'm going to call it The Trustable Attitude.  It's an attitude that says, "There are few things more important to me than being worthy or trust, therefore I must act in a trust worthy way".   It's an attitude that says, "It is easy to say TRUST ME, but it's hard work to be TRUSTED".  I don't say anything explicit in the book about this attitude ... but I've just realized that it is ingrained within the fabric of the book.  The second book, Rocks Into Gold, is more explicit about trust because I've treated it more like an idea  or a concept, rather than an attitude.

Two things happened yesterday which made me think about The Trustable Attitude.

The first was Charles Green's latest post on Trust Based Selling.  Read it.  You'll see what I mean.  And while you are at it, buy his book Trust Based Selling.  Sure, it is a book about selling, but don't let that put you off; it's really a book about being successful by being Trustable.  That book, and subsequent email conversations with Charles changed my attitude, my beliefs, my thinking more than I can describe.  I can't recommend the book highly enough.

The second thing that happened yesterday was that I received a note from Mark, my copy-editor.  Let me give you some background first. 

Over the last few years I've talked with plenty of published authors who've said that they didn't get all that much from their publishers and several recommended looking into self-publishing my book.  The more I've looked into it, the more I like the idea.  One of my key drivers is that I really don't want to give up ownership of my book.  For instance, I want to podcast my entire book for free but I suspect that most publishers would struggle with that.  I want to leave a scrappy draft of my book on line so that people who can't afford it can read it for free.  I'm also considering syndicating the book so that it can be published chapter-by-chapter.  Those ideas currently give publishers the heebiegeebies (that word, btw, confused my spell checker - it suggested that maybe I meant "freebies").  Plus, the economics of print-on-demand publishing are quite compelling too, especially given that few whatever way I produce the book, I still need to promote it myself - something, it turns out,  I am reasonably good at.

(That said, Jarred Richardson and Johanna Rothman, both had very kind and well considered opinions of the pragmatic programmers).

The only obvious downside for me is that I have had to find and pay for my own copy editor.  That' not as easy as you think.  Why?  Well, when you consider that I've worked on this book for 3.5 years; that every one of the 120,000 words in RRD cost me at least five drips of intellectual sweat; that the book sets the stage for the rest of my career ... well, you get the point:  I don't just want some monkey off the street hacking away at my manuscript. 

How could I judge whether a freelance copy editor is trustable or not?

Easy: I went looking for someone with good recommendations.  The crazy thing: I only found 3 or 4.  Luckily one of them stood out from the rest because, even though their web presence wasn't nearly as professional as their virtual competitor, I found their reviews, on lulu.com, compelling.  The reviews were from about 6 or so very grateful sounding published authors.  They sounded like ordinary folk, just like me, who'd sweated away, hacking at their keyboard whenever they could, until their book finally made it onto paper.  So I contact them, Mark got back to me, we emailed backwards and forward a little before I felt confident to hand my wee darling baby over to them.

i haven't seen any of their work just yet, but yesterday I sent Mark, my copy-editor, this note: 

You know you've got a great way of dealing with people and managing your commitments. Once I've put this book to bed then I'd like to talk to you about how you work. You're a great model so far for the topic of my second book. But I'm getting ahead of myself ...

And Mark replied:

Thank you for your kind words; compliments are always welcome. Seriously though, we always maintain a good relationship with our authors, it helps make the process easier for everyone. We are also always aware that some people are a little wary of Internet-based businesses - it comes from the no direct personal contact aspect - so we always try to make sure authors have confidence in us. Reputation is everything in this business and it's something we always keep in mind. I'd be delighted to talk more about it, and I'd be honoured to be a topic for a manuscript. A good relationship always works both ways of course and it's a lot easier for me when speaking to friendly and open people like yourself.

That's what I mean by having The Trustable Attitude.  I've still got my fingers crossed a little  - the proof is in the pudding, after all.  If they don't do a good job, I chuck their work, and go find another editor.  I really, really, really want them to do a good job, partly for me, but mostly because I want them to live up to the warm feelings I have for them right now.  They've earned my trust so far and I will be devastated more by the loss of trust than I will by having to start again ...

March 19, 2008

RollingRocksDownhill 1.0 - Agile and Lean software development for ordinary people with extra-ordinary ambitions

I guess that most of you know that for the last 3.5 years I've been working on a Goldrattesque business novel about the use of TOC in software development.  It's called "RollingRocksDownhill 1.0 - Agile and Lean software development for ordinary people with extra-ordinary ambitions"*.

Well ... earlier today I sent it my manuscript off to my copy editors.

I should have it back in a month and just a few weeks after that I should have it on paper.

I'm having a beer tonight in celebration.

If you would like a copy then email my book's hero - Steve.Abernethy@CCXCO.com - and I (not Steve, he doesn't exist) will send you a link to the pdf.  I expect this will be the last time I put the book out for free.

Thanks everyone, for bearing with me during these years!

Clarke

March 18, 2008

testing typepad

Please ignore. I'm testing typepad's new mobile blogging website.

The perfect diet - 100% reliable

I had a vasectomy about 6 months ago.  The doctor was very, very, very skinny.  I'm not surprised - he did his operations in the late afternoon / early evening.  All he had to do to suppress his appetite was look down.  And who could eat dinner after that?

I've lost about 12 pounds recently ... and it didn't take a career change. 

It all started with a shocking blood test - my triglyceride reading was 22.6; a lower score a year ago put me in hospital critically ill with pancreititis - and I'm strongly motivated to not end up in hospital again or to suffer that pain (it's worse than Childbirth, apparantly). 

I've also been using www.joesgoals.com to (and reward) track my behaviour changes from day to day.  Plus I've put a contract out on myself using the ingenious stickk.com where I actually have to pay a small amount of my money to a "charity" I despise if I break my contract.  Both are wonderfully, free, little reinforcers.

Take a look at the news articles about stickk.

Warning from the Slush Pile

I've subscribe to a few writing blogs and - as a soon to be published author - I feel like I'm almost one of the gang. 

I like this story, from Candy at "Notes from the Slush Pile":

You've got your publisher.

You've got the trilogy deal.

Your first book is out to brilliant reviews.

And yet the fat lady still begins to sing.

Ann Giles, blogging in the Guardian today, tells the story of Nick Green, who found himself dumped by Faber after poor sales of his book The Cat Kin.

The dumping happened after Nick had already written the second book of the trilogy, Cat's Paw. So Nick has now published the book via print-on-demand company Lulu.

Giles, also known for her popular blog BookWitch, writes:

Poor sales? With a book as good as The Cat Kin, you've got to ask what kind of marketing support the publisher had given it.

Indeed, Cat Kin is short-listed for Bolton children's Book Award and the Sefton Super-Reads Book Award – ironically trumpeted on Faber's Awards and Prizes page.

Nick first published Cat Kin as a print-on-demand novel, before Faber decided to take it on. It was one of those rare POD titles that garnered warm praise from reviewers. Amanda Craig of the Times called it "an excellent debut".

Okay. How about we all go out and buy Nick Green's book and see what happens next in this saga?

I'm not sure I'm going to buy the book - I'm sure it's good, but it's not really me - but I'm going to encourage you to and I'm going to take a look at it  here.  You should buy it.

March 13, 2008

Scurvy

In 1601 the crew of one ship (out of four) during an East India Company voyage were each given 3 teaspoons of lemon juice daily. The crew on the other 3 boats weren't. At the Cape of Good Hope 110 out of 278 had died mostly from scurvy. The crew receiving lemon juice remained largely healthy.

In 1795 the British Royal Navy bgins using citrus on a regular basis, wiping out scury.

In 1865 British merchant marine sailors were finally given citrus juice and scurvy was eliminated.

(From the systems thiking bible Business Dynamics)

In the 1970s the space shuttle onboard software was built using an incremental approach. In the late 1980s the US DoD staryed using evolutionary/incremental methods. In the 2000s some commercial organizations are discovering increental development.

Elated

I'm currently sitting in a very cold train station waiting for a train that is running late. Who cares though because 30 minutes ago I typed the last word in my book. Three and a half years later and I am damned near done.

True, I've got a little bit - perhaps 10 hours worth - of rewriting to do but then it is on its way to my editor. But who cares? I've bought the house, the furniture is moved in and all I have to do now is ...

Okay. So all I have to do now is get it copy-edited, packaged up, loaded onto amazon and then start spreading the word. I've also got to get myself "billable" again, but who cares? I've damned near finished my book!

Monkey business

It's fairly common, I think, to refer to programmers as "code monkeys".  It's not entirely complimentary.

Don't you think it was a little careless then for the IEEE - "the world's leading professional association for the advancement of technology" - to include the Eee Eee Eee sound in their name? 

Eee Eee Eee - is EXACTLY the sound I make when I imitate a monkey.

March 12, 2008

He's alive

(This blog post is dedicated to my good friend Andrew)

My eldest daughter - the 5 year old - came home this evening, burst in the door and sung out "he's alive!" at the top of her voice.

My wife asked "Who's alive Ash?"

"I don't know ...", said the wee one, "I think it's the Easter bunny".

It turns out they've been practising songs for the school's Easter celebrations.

March 11, 2008

You wouldn't read about it ... really, you wouldn't.

Do you wanna know what the biggest problem with writing a business novel is?

It's that I have to tame down the real life stories I've collected (some are mine, many are other peoples) so that they don't sound like I've made them up.  Last week I had a nice lunch with a very clever friend who told me all sorts of stories ... none of which are remotely believable in fiction.  This evening my wife told me something that I can't even put on my blog (it involves lots of wasted tax payers money) because you'd say "he's just made that up".

Real life is a whole lot crazier than fiction.