Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Aren't Sequels All The Rage?

Today, on the bike ride home, I gave some serious thought to the idea of writing a sequel to The Real-Life Adventures of AgileMan (Lessons Learned in Going Agile) for the very first time.

Oh, sure, I've joked about it in the past - even in the book itself - but I'd never really allowed myself to truly consider the possibility in any depth. One reason for that is simple: I now know how much work is involved, not just in writing the material but also in getting it into printed form! Another argument against writing a sequel is that I'd never intended for it to be a series, so why turn it into one?

But here's where my mind wandered, as I pedaled the nearly-10 kilometres home this afternoon:
  • wouldn't a second book logically chronicle our second year of Agile, which will end in about two months' time, and thus help shape the content of any such mythical work?
  • as someone had suggested to me awhile back, I could have a couple different editions: one that's just the sequel, and one that includes the contents of both AgileMan 'years' in one big package called The Adventures of AgileMan (Volumes I & II) (with different prices)
  • I could recap the first book, at the start of the second, by providing a brief paragraph for each of the 32 Issues in the original
  • since significant changes are happening within our Agile world at work right now, wouldn't that make for compelling material to anyone who enjoyed the first book?
  • mightn't it be fun deciding what cover to use for the sequel to convey the right balance of "related to the first book" and "something new"?
  • ditto for the Vol I & II offering?
  • AgileBoy had wanted to provide some artwork to the first book once he saw it (too late!), so maybe this would be his chance?
  • would I limit the comp copies this time to just the editors/reviewers, and require that everyone else buy their own (meaning that I might actually make money off this sucker)?
Those are just some of the thoughts rattling around in my noggin right now. Who knows what, if anything, will ever come of them!

1 comment:

Mike Marsman said...

sequels are so 1990 - it's all about prequels and spin-offs now. wait, first you need a trilogy, then publish a prequel, followed by a spin-off, closing with a book written from the alternate pov, and maybe a memoir or two!