First, great news for me at least. CRM at the Speed of Light, 4th Edition was approved by McGraw-Hill on Tuesday for their 2008 publication calendar. That means a complete new book on CRM - close to 600 pages projected - with all the new 2.0 stuff baked directly in along with the more operational and the case studies, and also this time best and worst vendor, technology, business model, etc. lists at the end of the book. I'm supposed to be done writing in March or April 2008 and publication will be September 2008.
Already, getting a bit o' press from literary giant and wordsmith, and damned eloquent columnist First Coffee's (TMCNet) David Sims which is nice news. Get's me going in the morning when I see something like this which, I suppose is the purpose of a column entitled "First Coffee."
Okay. I'd like some serious reader input for this book. I'm going to put up the chapter list when I'm done negotiating with McGraw-Hill (unless they REALLY don't want me to - which they might not) on advances and placement and international rights, and book club royalties and all the incredibly arcane things that book contracts have and that I don't pretend to fully understand and then solicit case studies, input, quotes from the blog readers, etc. Also I'm looking to make available some exclusive content posted on something that I can't talk about but is upcoming that I think you're all gonna REALLY like.
But before I go off and YAHOOOO it up a little bit, (I've also just managed to pour a scalding cup of tea on my arm and it HURTS! Mommy...), I have an apology to one reader of this blog who did offer me a chapter idea that while I'm not using it per se, I didn't respond in kind to him and that's just not right. I've been feeling bad about it ever since and still haven't rectified it, so I'm doing it publicly. His name is John Burton and not only is he a good guy, he's a smart guy. So while I'm not including the chapter he suggested per se, I'm going to interview him at some point where its appropriate for the book and include his insights. He also is a very good writer, though he, curiously seems to be a Tiger's fan. I didn't know it was possible to be both.
So, even though he said a non-answer wouldn't be taken personally, I would have and I apologize to him. But I'm not including him in the book because I feel bad. I'm including him because although I can't really use the suggestion, he's smart, a good writer and has insight and he cared enough to make a very good suggestion. If he lets me, I'll reprint the entirety of what he did write as a separate blog entry.
Hey man, I'm sorry.
Hey Paul,
Thanks so much for the kind words! I've actually been "off the grid" for the past couple months as my wife and I just had our first baby. I've been on full-time dirty-diaper duty and my wife even cut off my Internet access ;)
I'm back at work now and just finishing a world-wide tour of India, Singapore, Dallas, Germany, and London where I was rolling out some new product information to our company's field organization.
I finally found a little time to read some of my favorite Blogs again. And imagine my surprise when I saw my name mentioned on your site! It definitely made me smile. Thanks again! By the way, shoot me an email anytime at burton.john@gmail.com to talk about your book.
Warm regards,
John
P.S. Looks like I might be also be getting a book deal to write a boring technical book for work. The Editor already threatened to edit out all my jokes ;) Anyway, I'll keep everyone posted on my new Blog: http://johnburton.typepad.com
Posted by: John Burton | October 21, 2007 at 11:56 AM