Opting In: Lessons in Social Business from a Fortune 500 Product Manager - the manuscript draft is complete

September 26 2012

Opting In: Book cover I wrote a book!

Last night, I finished the draft of the concluding chapter for my forthcoming book, which I announced in July.

Opting In: Lessons in Social Business from a Fortune 500 Product Manager now moves from authoring to editing.

Having never written a book before, I had no real expectations of how the process of drafting would proceed, especially as a nights-and-weekends project. The first few chapters unfolded slowly. I had to adjust to writing in book style and voice, rather than blog style and voice. Once I was able to turn that corner, the subsequent chapters unfolded rather quickly.

Scott Good, an IBM business partner, blogged last week that his first book was complete and now available. Scott has labored over the book for years. I said to Scott that having completed this draft of my non-fiction book, he had earned my respect, as the creative writing for a novel must surely be harder work. Scott responded that at least he didn't have to worry about being factually accurate. Touché.

I love the creative process that has brought me this far in this journey. The book's title, along with the cover art you see here, was a collaborative effort between the publisher, myself, and some friends and family. I have to say that the book first felt real the day that IBM Press sent over some sample artwork. They say you can't judge a book by its cover, but the cover can do a heck of a motivational job.

The table of contents for the book appears below. It's a draft, of course, so things could change, but this is the general outline. The audience, as I've stated previously, are product and brand managers, marketing professionals, line-of-business managers, and IT leaders. I hope to have something for all of them, though the primary focus is on product management.

Here's a paragraph describing the intent of the book:

You can increase your individual potential and success by incorporating the methods and tools discussed in Opting In on your product/brand management journey. You will influence more authoritatively and lead more effectively. You will increase awareness of your product or service and make it more successful. You will have more fun, and find new contacts and friends. And you will remind yourself why you got into product management in the first place -- to make a difference.
I am sure I will say this more than once, however, as these volunteers came exclusively through edbrill.com readership and connection, it's worth starting the gratitude right away. First and foremost, to family and friends who have enthusiastically supported this project since the start, and especially my wife and children who have put up with some late nights and a little distraction. As we move into editing, I am sure there will still be moments of apology and interruption...

Thank you to the following star individuals who volunteered to contribute and were so easy to work with. It was great to have your participation. Thank you for your timely contributions:
  • Bruce Elgort
  • Amy Hoerle
  • Paul Withers
  • Michael Sampson
  • Joyce Davis
  • Brian O'Neill

Opting In table of contents:
Introduction
Chapter 1 Why social business?
Chapter 2 The social product manager
Chapter 3 Self, product, or company
Chapter 4 Offense or defense
Chapter 5 Picking a fight
Chapter 6 Activate your advocates
Chapter 7 Tools of the trade
Chapter 8 In real life
Chapter 9 Social inside the organization
Chapter 10 Risk management in social business
Chapter 11 Putting Opting In into practice


It was important for me to finish the manuscript this week, both because of the timeline to get the book in print -- in Q1 of 2013 -- and because of my appearance at Social Media Week in Chicago tomorrow, September 27, on a panel called, "The New Leadership Imperative: A Social CEO". There are five spots left to attend, as of this morning...

More updates on the book in the weeks ahead as the editing and production process take over from here.

Ed Brill | Highland Park, IL USA Category:  book  Add/View Comments [27]

Post a Comment

  1. 1  Darren Duke http://blog.darrenduke.net | 9/26/2012 9:14:05 AM

    Many, many congratulations. I can't even imagine what it takes but I'm always in awe of first time authors.

  1. 2  Christian Tillmanns  | 9/26/2012 9:35:45 AM

    Congratulations!

    Looking forward reading it.

  1. 3  Simon Vaughan  | 9/26/2012 9:36:02 AM

    Congratulations on completing the book in 3 months! I hope my small contribution was not cut out :-)

  1. 4  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 9/26/2012 9:40:34 AM

    @3 oh right, there are many others who provided quotes or context. It's there Simon, don't worry :-)

  1. 5  Mike McGarel http://www.bleedyellow.com/blogs/McGarelGramming/ | 9/26/2012 10:50:24 AM

    Congratulations! I really like the title.

  1. 6  Lorraine Ludwicki  | 9/26/2012 12:19:25 PM

    Awesome! Congratulations Ed.

  1. 7  Luis Benitez http://www.lbenitez.com | 9/26/2012 1:30:41 PM

    That's awesome! Congratulations Ed!!

  1. 8  Michael Sampson http://www.michaelsampson.net | 9/26/2012 1:45:00 PM

    Congrats on getting the first draft done. What an outstanding achievement. Look forward to reading in Q1 2013.

  1. 9  Stuart McIntyre http://collaborationmatters.com | 9/26/2012 1:51:17 PM

    Kudos Ed, amazing to get this done so quickly given your work and travel schedule! Can't wait to read it...

  1. 10  Eric Mack http://www.EricMackOnline.com | 9/26/2012 2:20:04 PM

    Ed, as I commented recently on Bruce's facebook post, I have great respect for what you have modeled and shared in the area of social business. At a time when businesses were trying to find out how to prevent users from getting social you were out front leading IBM in the business blogging revolution. While you have shared many insights on your blog, I look forward to buying you book and learning even more from your organized collective experience.

    I wish you the best of success!

    Eric Mack

  1. 11  Laurent Boes  | 9/26/2012 2:53:37 PM

    Respect Ed!

  1. 12  Steve Mullen  | 9/26/2012 3:09:52 PM

    Congratulations Ed. Looking forward to reading the book.

  1. 13  Rob Ingram  | 9/26/2012 3:44:14 PM

    Judging the book strictly by the cover ,I'm already opting IN.... Like :)

  1. 14  Henry Ferlauto http://zabkab.com/ | 9/26/2012 6:23:20 PM

    Ed,

    Congratulations on the manuscript. Looking forward to reading your book. Great choice of title.

  1. 15  Anthony Holmes http://www.workingcollaboration.com | 9/26/2012 7:32:46 PM

    I love the title. "Opting in" is something I choose to do, so I'm empowered. And whenever I opt in to something, it's in the expectation that I'm going to get something worthwhile.

  1. 16  Jan Kenney  | 9/27/2012 7:33:06 AM

    Fantastic, Ed. Love the cover... Can't wait to read it. Congratulations!

  1. 17  Irv Schor  | 9/27/2012 8:51:12 AM

    Congrats.. Sounds very much like it also has some potential to be great supplement for college course curriculum (Case Studies, etc.). That would be a good thing since there's probably not a lot out there on it yet. Good luck!

  1. 18  Tony Lee  | 9/27/2012 11:53:27 AM

    I will buy it...

  1. 19  Ravi Ranjan  | 9/28/2012 5:30:37 AM

    Like the table of content, seems very relevant and real life. Will buy it!

  1. 20  Vaughan Rivett http://www.socialbizguy.com | 9/28/2012 4:14:55 PM

    You've completed something which is a dream of mine. I'm not sure if I have what it takes to turn the stream into a reality. I am really happy for you and I hope that it sells well and that people get a lot out of it.

  1. 21  Sjaak Ursinus http://Www.socialsoftwareblog.nl | 9/29/2012 11:10:13 AM

    Congats ... I guess this is something you have worked hard on as completing i within 3 months seems fast to me (if i may refer to some red books taking much longer than that :-) )

  1. 22  Peter O’Kelly http://pbokelly.blogspot.com | 9/29/2012 3:00:29 PM

    Congrats! I look forward to reading the book.

  1. 23  Alan Lepofsky http://www.alanlepofsky.net | 9/30/2012 2:06:45 PM

    Congrats J.R.R Brillkien

  1. 24  Tony Lee  | 10/1/2012 6:17:57 AM

    @23 - Only if it is a trilogy.

  1. 25  Alan Forbes http://www.rprwyatt.com/vitalsigns.html | 10/1/2012 8:53:10 AM

    Hi Ed,

    Congrats on that huge accomplishment!

    I was wondering if you could share information about some of the technology you used to create it? Did you write the book using Symphony? Did you create a custom style sheet? Can a book be published directly from an ODT file or does it go into some proprietary markup language first. Can you post a sample chapter or small subset in editable format so we can learn how you did it? Are you going to self publish or not and how did you choose which way to go?

  1. 26  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 10/2/2012 6:51:25 AM

    @25 the book will be published by IBM Press (an imprint of Addison-Wesley/Prentice Hall/Pearson), and I'm not sure what my contract with them says about sharing details of their process. To answer the direct question, yes, I wrote the book using Lotus Symphony in a template, with only minor markup modifications to how I would normally write anything. What happens from here is magic, I think. :-)

    The book will be copyright IBM, so it made the choice of going with IBM Press fairly obvious :-)

  1. 27  Vinny Del Signore  | 1/11/2013 3:27:29 PM

    Congratulations, Ed. Looking forward to reading the hard copy when it's available.