There's really nothing like a book—they are portable, intimate, useful, influential and the good ones tend to go "viral" in the sense that you share them with people you know. And of course today we have new ways to digest them: from audio to Kindles to iPads etc. A question I've been getting a lot lately is:
"When are you writing a book"?
I've had some interest—from publishers you've heard of. But the answer is:
"Not right now".
My logic is simple. One cannot serve two masters—and serve them well. Either my full time job or the book would suffer. So the time is not now. I've got things to accomplish before considering writing a book on any topic even though there's the temptation to ride the social media wave. At Edelman, there's a lot to be done both with clients and with our own manifestation of being part of the community (more to come on that later). There's still much for me to learn. There's still much knowledge to put into practice. And fortunately, being a very active participant in this medium has afforded me some of the benefits that published authors enjoy. A platform, influence, and the privilege of being sought after to speak on topics I am passionate about. I'm lucky to have this and to have you along for the ride (it's no fun driving this bus alone).
There's not shortage of excellent authors out there to choose from (Godin, Kawasaki, Anderson, Gladwell etc.)—and if you are interested in some aggregated forms of content I've produced, you can visit my visual thinking set on Flickr, view my presentations on slideshare , read articles I've written on Harvard Business or just browse the archive of this blog which I've curated since 2006.
There may be a time for a book—hopefully on a topic even broader than what we currently label "social media". I'd probably want it to be visual, succinct, memorable, and something that stuck to your brain like peanut butter. But for now, there's too much to do. Until then, I look forward to accomplishing other goals with your help. See you on the bus—next stop, make things happen.
