I’ve been writing one of the Five Simple Steps series of Pocket Guides.
Working with Emma Boulton and the team, albeit very briefly so far, has been really enjoyable and they clearly have this publishing thing down. They provided clear contracts, writing styleguides and simple, lean, processes to follow through from writing, editing to publishing.
I imagined writing a book would be a very enjoyable self-indulgent process, sketching out my ideas on post-its and typing away in the luxury of iA Writer using markdown to write huge passages of meaningful prose.
The reality was I instantly transformed into a Woodey Allen-esque cliche, the best writing I did was scrawled on the back of an envelope whilst on the train or somewhere in the back of one of my sketchbooks… which I couldn’t remember where I last placed. The subject matter of what I was writing floated around in a world of constantly changing technology and methodologies. I was trying to write about principles not rules, but it was very easy to be swayed by new alluring things. This was all enjoyable in its own way but not at all what I imagined.
I did a huge amount of research which has really benefitted me, made good ground and had a solid structure pinned down for the book.
However, recently Mark Boulton Design was acquired by Monotype and the Five Simple Steps brand took a new direction but at this point I decided to not pursue the book with another publisher or self-publish.
I have used the content and my research for a series of workshops I may do sometime in the future. I might get it published one day and Emma kindly provided some suggestions for others who may be interested in publishing (as well as some really useful resources for self-publishing), but I’m not sure how relevant it would be in a few months or even if I’d want to write about the same thing again.