I spent a good chunk of the long drive home from Washington yesterday thinking about an idea that's been suggested to me so many times over the past year that I finally had to give it some consideration. No, it wasn't "Go screw yourself" (and c'mon, who among us hasn't thought about that one already, in the years since puberty?) but rather, "You should write a book on Agile."
That's not a topic that's ever appealed to me when it's come up in the past, but something about being in the midst of hundreds or thousands of fellow Agilists (at Agile 2007) put a more attractive spin on it. As the kilometres flew by on the way home, I imagined what I'd call such a mighty tome: The Real-Life Adventures of AgileMan: Lessons Learned in Going Agile. I couldn't help but start writing the opening few paragraphs in my head, as well as laying out some chapter headings and an overall arc to the book.
Whether anything comes of it, though, remains anyone's guess at this point. I suspect that, were I to actually write the damn thing, I'd still end up self-publishing, as I expect to have to do with any collection of short stories. That's not, in and of itself, a showstopper; but it's just not as likely to happen with a topic like Agile Adoption as it is with fictional short stories. The alternative, though - shopping it around to publishers in the hopes of striking gold without having the soul re-written out of my vision - leaves me completely cold.
As always, it's good to have dreams and aspirations.
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3 comments:
Some friendly advice:
1) Contact Gene Ha NOW and get a new sketch for the cover. Can't sell anything without a good presso!
2) Shorten the title a tad (more marketing instinct), or at least work to give a kitschy short-form. In other words, follow my wife's advice for naming a child - it has to sound dignified in full and have a short form you won't regret later. Of course looking at it now, I'm at a loss for a shorter version.
Anyway, if anything strikes me, or if I have an idea, I'll post here again.
I spent some time today laying out what I figure the 30 - 50 chapters/sections would be, and then tried my hand at writing the first couple. It's certainly much easier (for me) to write non-fiction than fiction, though I'm not sure how readable it is, by comparison. With my fiction, I put a lot of effort into choosing just the right words, and images, and subtexts... whereas with something like AgileMan's Adventures, I'm more inclined to just let it all flow out of me.
I seem to have more on the go right now (including three, count 'em, three different blogs to contribute to!) than I've ever had before.. and work hasn't even really started back up yet!!
So you're going to start selling the kool-aid, eh? Sounds like a possible retirement project ;)
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