May 23, 2005
book proposal (rewrite #471)
“How To Be Creative”
A book by by Hugh MacLeod
[As regular gapingvoid readers will know, I’m hoping to turn "How To Be Creative" into a book. This is my latest attempt to write the book proposal, as I see it in its finished form. Apologies in advance if you've already seen a lot of this before.]
In 2004 I wrote a post on my blog called "How To Be Creative". Its premise was very simple:
"So you want to be more creative, in art, in business, whatever. Here are some tips that have worked for me over the years."
It really wasn't so much a How-To laundry list, "The 7 Steps Of Highly Effective Creatives" etc. It was more of a series of meditations on the lessons I had learned the hard way over the years, as I tried to bridge the nearly impossible gap of making an OK living without letting my soul die from the inside out.
Somehow it ended up striking a chord with a lot of people. Lots of people ended up reading it (my best estimate is around half a million to the million mark). It went viral, to put it mildly. Later it ended up as a PDF file on Seth Godin's ChangeThis.com. At last count it was the third most downloaded PDF on the site, topping manifestos written by people far more famous and talented than me, like Tom Peters or Guy Kawasaki.
Like I said, it hit a nerve.
Most of the Change This manifestos were written by people to be read by their peers. People in their thirties and forties, interested in the same kind of business-orientated subjects, whatever. Mine wasn't. Mine was written for people far more younger than me- kids just leaving college, or folk who haven't been in the real world very long, just looking to figure things out for the first time. Kids who want to do the same as me when I too was just starting out- stay alive spiritually while still being able to function in an adult world, without being eaten alive or turned into robots.
A few months later I started getting people from the publishing world asking me if I would be interested in turning it into a book. Of course I would, who wouldn't? So they asked me to write a book proposal. This is what you're reading now.
[RSS READERS: CLICK HERE TO READ THE WHOLE THING.]
The Book Idea.
The book is an informed meditation on "creativity" and how to live with it. It is not a book on how to become "more creative". It is a book about understanding it more, so a person can manage it better without it ruining their life. It's a book about how to deal with being bitten by the creative bug. The world we live in is not geared up for "the creative life" very well and it's damn hard to know what to do at first. By sharing my perspective and experience, I hope to make it a lot easier for people.
Like a friend of mine said, "You didn't write it for your friends, you wrote it as a gift." Exactly.
As I am primarily known as a cartoonist, there will be lots of cartoons- 300 or so- interspersed randomly throughout the text. They will take up a sizeable part of the book. Some cartoons will be directly related to the written text, and some won't. This format already works very well on my blog. The random juxtaposition between text and cartoon enhances the reading experience of both- creating a "third experience", as it were. This isn't rocket science- The New Yorker inserts cartoons in its magazine in the same fashion for precisely the same reason.
Why I think the book will be commercially successful.
I think the book will be successful simply because I consider the work already successful. In its rough, online form, it's already been seen by a large number of people (again, my estimates vary between half a million and one million folk, though it may well be more than that), if you include both its HTML and PDF versions. It's already been at the top of the most-linked-to lists in the blogosphere. Seth Godin, no book-slack himself deemed it good enough to publish it on ChangeThis, where in terms of eyeballs and downloads it's topped many already-bestselling authors including Mr. Godin himself.
What gives me even more confidence in this regard is not just all the eyeballs, the blogs talking about it, all the people linking to it, and the hundreds of pieces of “fan mail” I’ve received. What really does it for me is, every couple of days or so, I get an e-mail from a reader basically saying, “I read it, loved it, and I have forwarded to my son/daughter/nephew/favorite 22 year old” etc. People aren’t just reading it, liking it and telling their friends about it. They’re passing it on to the next generation. I think that says something.
Why I’m The Guy To Write It.
I’m the person to write it for three reasons:
1. Because I’ve already written it (obviously).
2. For all my many faults, I’m considered an authority on “Creativity”. Besides cartooning, I’ve worked as an advertising creative for 15 years, I’ve written TV shows, and my blog is in the Top 200 of the Technorati rankings, which is the primary measure these days. In blogging terms, I’m about as well known as anyone.
3. Because of my very non-linear, haphazard background I’ve had a lot of experiences that a lot of “creativity” gurus have simply not had. Besides my cartooning, I’ve done a lot of other things. Worked offshore in the oil business. Made TV commericals. Started businesses. Embraced the internet. Worked in ERP software markets. I’ve been all over, a loose cannon, living in cities in England, the USA, Scotland, France, Africa etc and its givem me a very wide perspective.
My Back Story.
I had always drawn cartoons, but never really wanted to do it professionally. Cartooning as a day job meant chaining yourself to your table, scratching out a living in silence, interrupted only by frequent trips to the coffee shop. I wanted to see more of the world than that. I wanted to get out, have adventures, travel, make money, live in the adult world. I wanted to be part of the noisy, hustle n’ bustle, big city life. I wanted to look out my bedroom window in the morning and see skyscrapers. Cartooning was too
Robert Scoble in London
Robert Scoble in London
The Artist Anti Defamation League
We Want You…
http://artistadl.org
You went from a million potential readers early on in the text to two million just a little further on. This might incline a publisher to think your claims of readership are exaggerated, which would not be useful since it creates doubt where there need be none.
Also, you speak of being invited by friends in publishing to write a proposal, yet this proposal is on the web and open for all. Does this imply anything? Those who initially approached you in this regard, are they interested or not? Your wording seems to beg a question it might be better to ignore.
Good luck.
Two suggestions and a question:
1. While your book is perfect for college grads, the market are people who care about them, buy books for them, are their mentors. I’ve sent your manifesto to many of them. It is one of those things that you don’t know you need or are looking for, until it is presented to you, and then you know that it is what you need.
2. If you could develop this as a three book project, it might prove to be more interesting.
3. If I was to walk into a bookstore looking for this book, where would I find it? Answering this might help focus the proposal even better. If this was primarily a cartoon book, if would be very attractive to young people. If it is a self-development book, then it has a different market.
JB, I see what you’re saying. Thanks for pointing it out.
I went back and clarified it with a more conservative estimate:
“My best estimate is around half a million to the million mark.”
Although if it ever turns out to be higher than that, I won’t be that surprised, either.
What’s more interesting to me is it’s still being linked to and talked about on a quite regular basis, a year after it first came out. Most blog posts have a shelf life of a few days. This one seems to have a life of its own.
Ergo, the publisher can doubt all he wants. Heh.
Ed: Good point. To answer your question, I’d rather see the book on the same shelf as, for example, Seth Godin and Tom Peters than Gary Larson or Doonesbury. When I’m in a bookstore, I spend very little time in the humor section.
But one might argue, “but it’s not a business book”. I would disagree.
3 books would be good. If I could do a book a year for a while, that would be even better.
Oh, and to address your other point, JB:
“Also, you speak of being invited by friends in publishing to write a proposal, yet this proposal is on the web and open for all. Does this imply anything? Those who initially approached you in this regard, are they interested or not? Your wording seems to beg a question it might be better to ignore.”
By what you’re inferring, I would say it implies one of two things.
1. I actually do not have, or no longer have publishing interest. I just made it up to spice up the story.
2. I actually do have publishing interest, but I defied convention by putting the proposal up on the blog for all to see, instead of keeping it as a private Word document.
Is there a third one I don’t know about?
Nothing wrong with defying convention. And most proposals are a kind of fiction. Personally, I see nothing wrong in that.
Some publishers might want exclusivity, though, and ignore on that basis. Hard to say, I’d be quite happy for you to break the mould, if there is a mould. Sometimes though I think it’s better to “conduct business” in private and announce the publishing deal when it’s done. But as I say, great to try a different way. But are you intending to send your proposal to publishers as well, or hoping for them to find it? I tend to feel that the web is a big place and has a wannabe feel, so most publishers don’t go looking there. And it’s a pride thing too, they like and expect to be approached, they don’t do the approaching.
Actually, what am I talking about, publishers do sometimes approach. I’ve been approached to write a book three times. But my point was it’s a good idea to single out publishers you think would be good for your book and send them your proposal, which you may have done. Just underscoring that, in case you were sitting and waiting.
JB, you’re beginning to lose me…
Please remind me what your point was again.
Still, I know what you mean… which is why I have an agent. He handles all the publishing minutiae for me.
At my local Barnes & Noble, Seth is on the marketing shelf, TP on the management shelf. They are not even on the same aisle. If you look what is on the management shelf, it seems that most of it is personality driven publications. So, if your book was more autobiographical, it meant fit better into that niche. Of course this flies in the face of Seth’s Purple Cow thesis. But then you have to be a purple COW in the midst of other COWS.
A last thought…well not the last one, but at least he last one for the moment… the book you describe is the ideal impulse purchase book. And the ideal place for this is in the book stalls of airports. Visualize, a business traveler picking up your book and by the time he walks off the plane, he is looking for a book store to purchase another copy to give his client or take how to his son or daughter. Would this affect the design and content? It may.
Ed, I do imagine which Barnes & Noble section the book is planned for will affect the content and design. But that’s all part of the fun.
Hugh–
you wrote the book as a manifesto, it was creative leave it alone; move forward. If you just want a cash cow milk the cartoons.
all the best,
alex
Too late, Alex, the cancer has already spread
“At last count it was the third most downloaded PDF on the site, topping manifestos written by people far more famous and talented than me, like Tom Peters or Guy Kawasaki.”
Nice pitch. But I’d say downloading a manifesto is much due to the interesting Title you’ve thought up for the book. Much like somebody picking up a book from a shelf because the title is interesting. It certainly is no indication of “buyer behavior”. So I don’t agree with the line that you follow it up with — “Like I said, it hit a nerve.”
A book sells because of it’s author or perhaps the cover. YOu already have an interesting title.
Interesting point, RG. Then again, two counterpoints:
1. A lot of the manifestos have interesting titles– ergo to say mine was the only one to benefit from that would probably be incorrect.
2. If it were just a question of “having an interesting title”, I doubt it’s e-mail rank would’ve made it up to #4, where it now stands.
But granted, there were factors I had no control over, which worked in my favor. Can’t say I’m complaining.
Have people already lined up for the translation into Turkish?
Say no.
Say yes.
If I were a publisher, I’d be interested. (I actually have family in the biz but they don’t publish this sort of thing, at least not yet; I give them a couple years.)
Here’s how I would look at it:
I (the publisher) need to provide:
1) A good editor. (No offense, everyone needs one, that’s not your focus etc)
2) A good designer.
3) Connections, mojo, bribes, whatever one uses to get prominent placement in BN, Amazon, etc.
4) The printing
And I know I get at least this much:
1) A book whose rough draft has already proven popular in a harder-to-read format.
2) An author eager to do frenzied cutting-edge marketing for me at no extra cost.
3) A fairly large audience that will want to see the book succeed and probably help with #2 even if they don’t buy the book.
4) A foot in the door for the cartoon franchise.
Seems like a no-brainer. I get tons of publicity just for the blog-crossover angle anyway.
I’d offer you a very modest advance — just enough to keep you from doing too many other things at the same time — and a generous royalty structure. I’d give you a very tight deadline, ready for print in under six months. I’d make the first printing small, gorgeous and hardcover — maybe a thousand copies. All signed and numbered. Sell that outside the normal channels, blogger exclusive advance copy etc. I’d have the paperback ready to hit the printing press right after that — let some buzz about the exclusivity develop, then push the larger printing out to keep it going. No large hardcover printing in the interim, that’s not what your market wants.
I’d have the whole thing published on your blog as well, all of it, the final edited version, but broken out in sections, not a complete PDF download. “Search inside this book?” Try Google.
Book tour and all that if it takes off, if not sit back and see what you can do to make it take off.
I’d also have a plan to launch a separate imprint specifically for this kind of thing — writing that originated in the web context, blogger (etc) crossovers in both directions. The Hugh book would be the test case, and I’d have a plan and writers lined up, if it works then I’m the first one in as the publisher who “gets it” about blogging.
If not, what have I lost? I’ll recover my costs off sales inside blogand, and go on home to revise my plan.
Anyway, that’s what I’d do. In a thinking-out-loud sort of way.
Oh yeah, and the aisles: I’d test market it under marketing, management, cartoons/humor, self-help, Internet General Interest (or whatever they have for that), modern philosophy, whatever. Place it where it performs best. People who know about it will most likely order it online anyway; in the store, you want it to be where folks like to find it, not next to your favorite authors per se.
E&OE, it’s late.
Oh, and I forgot the most important bit: how I sit on my yacht “HMS Blogbook” somewhere near Tenerife, sipping cocktails and watching the money-tide come in.
Everybody wants to be more creative
At the end of a rough day, it’s worth a link to point out that nobody says it better than Hugh. …