Publish what they want

A few weeks ago a Chinese friend passed my first book, "Wearing Chinese Glasses: How (not) to Go Broke in Chinese Asia," to the Taiwan office of a huge Western publisher. Surprisingly, my book was passed up to an editor, who then contacted me. Fine, except he was more interested in my next book than in the first (existing) one. All he knew of Book 2 was the title, "Wearing Western Glasses."

I wrote a very long email, basically explaining that while I did plan Book 2, and that it would be for Chinese to help them understand Western people and companies, I wanted to discuss Book 1 first, that Book 2 only existed on "scraps of paper and ideas in my head." My point was that while I was flattered with his/their interest, for cash flow reasons I wanted to settle Book 1 first. A key lesson in any small business (any business) is "sell what you have."

His answer: that he needed to push this case to a higher level, and thus he was sending the emails and book to his boss in Asia Region HQ, Singapore. Very nice I thought. Opening my email the next day I was quite surprised to find an email from the Singapore, and even more surprised to read that she wanted to know if I had any sample chapters, outline or Table of Contents for Book 2.

Excuse me? Didn't the 2-days previous email clearly say all I had for Book 2 was the aforementioned paper scraps and ideas? Did she think that I had suddenly create an outline, write a sample chapter? I wrote a quick, and a bit sarcastic, email, but had the good fortune to stop and think before sending it.

I was doing it again, deciding what customers 'should' want rather than giving them what they 'did' want. It was obvious they quite liked the idea of Book 2, so why didn't I give them that? I could see no reason, so I cleared my desk, bought a package of cigarettes and started a Book 2 outline/TOC. Fourteen hours, 15 smokes and a handful of aspirin later (oh, and a couple beer) I had an 8-page outline, probably the most detailed outline I've ever created for anything! (I normally write just from the scraps of paper.)

Now I wait. Until I hear something it's back to using Book 1 to put bums in workshop or speech seats. Writing the outline was more fun, but won't pay the bills ... unless ... an advance ... fame ... riches ... celebrity.

Ha