Why has everyone written a book? A call for action.

The back story
I listen to a set of talks and interviews that feed the part of me that is not a mobile geek: The Long Now Seminars, Ira Flatow’s Science Friday, Larry Magid’s Larry’s World, and Moira Gunn’s Biotech Nation (all highly recommended). One thing I have noticed is that practically everyone who is invited to speak has written a book.

Now, you would think that in the early 21st century, an online presence would have some sort of command. But, no, the atoms of a book still reign in determining who’s a pundit. Even über-bloggers like Robert Scoble and Loïc Le Meur have written books that were printed.

Last week, I had the good fortune (thanks, Stephen) to be invited to dinner with Susan Crawford, a law professor who is a leader in Internet policy activities and the spark behind OneWebDay, a kinda Earth Day for the Web. As an aside, Susan is sharp, funny, and very enthusiastic about what she does. It was a pleasure to meet her, and I look forward to further chats with her about the Internet, academia, East Coast, and other sundry topics.

Well, I was mentioning how every pundit has a book and asked if Susan had one. Like me, she has other writing channels – she has written many law articles – but, no, she hasn’t written a book yet. She did mention a book that is brewing and that she hopes to work on it this summer (I hope I’m not putting her on the spot). Then, quick as ever, she turned the tables on me and asked if I had written a book.

Heh, heh.

My story
I was a professional writer before I joined Nokia. I was a columnist, managing editor, and editor for various print and online publications. And, yes, just before I joined Nokia, I did write, with some friends, a book on advanced phone systems (mostly computer telephony).* It was a minor book with a decent run at a decent telecomms publisher, and it led to another book deal with the publisher that I had to turn down due to my move to Finland and what not (such is my life).

Since then, I have been hankering to publish one of my own. My writing in the past few years has belonged to someone else (and all of it marketing-related, ugh)** and I have been relegated to jotting down ideas and plots and snippets that may some day be rolled into a story or a book.

I did hope I would have been the first to write a how-to book for Series 60, since I was at the right place, at the right time, with the right access to info, and had written some of the first short guides. But, no, never could work out the time. I then was thinking of a book on Lifeblog and Digital Memories. But, no. I also had a few opportunities to write other books for Nokia, but it didn’t work out.

The only book-related thing I have ever done since joining Nokia was to write a chapter in the Nokia MITA books back in 2002. Really doesn’t count.***

Sigh.

The action
Well, thanks to Susan, and aided by a few recent whacks of the cosmic 2×4, I have revisited all my notes and such to see what book I’d like to work on. The funny thing is that I found almost 30 book ideas, ranging from geeky non-fiction, such as a book on the mobile lifestyle, to general non-fiction, such as the history of bananas, to science fiction and fantasy, such as, well, I won’t say, and general fiction, such as about a guy who does karaoke.

Oy vey.

I did pick one particular topic to write a book on, related to some burning issues I see in the mobile life. I’ve worked up a rough outline and such and have started to collect info, much of it already collected on this site or in my emails. Some of you who read this site will even get called up for an interview or for some interesting details of things you have told me over the past year or so.

 

It’s been great to focus on this book and get back to my obsessive writer roots. Now, it would be great to land a publisher already this early, or, better yet, get some sort of advance that would allow me to take some time off to write the book. Even better than that, I would love to get a huge chunk of money so that I could write all the books I have lined up to write. And, yes, even though I was faculty at Harvard (Medical School), I promise that if you give me a half-million, I, still, won’t plagiarize. 🙂

Are there any books you are burning to write? Do you have one that needs editing or publishing? Is there any book you’d like me to write? Let me know.

Or, if you are a publisher (hey, Ajit!) and are looking for books, give me a ping and let’s see what we could do.

 

As for Susan, we are going to keep an eye on each other and cheer each other on to complete our books. Kinda fun.

*Also prior to joining Nokia, I wrote a novel (unpublished, still) and compiled an anthology of my short-stories. I have them in a pretty pdf, but I have never put them online.

**Hey, this site is mine and has been a sanity saver. I subscribe to Hugh’s idea on how to be a creative person: have a paying job and do your passion on the side. I just haven’t been so good about the side passion, though. 🙁

***I also review relevant books here on this site, so feel free to offer some for me to review. For example, I wouldn’t mind reviewing Tomi Ahonen’s latest on communities, Mark Curtis’ book on culture, or Loïc’s book on blogging (yes, I can read French).