Anatomy of a book: Part 1 — inspiration
I’ve been thinking quite a bit about the format and structure for our book about open business models made with Creative Commons. As we have explained in other posts, the basic idea is to profile 24 companies, creators, and organizations who use Creative Commons and analyze and dissect how they sustain themselves. But we don’t want our book to simply be a collection of case studies. On the other hand, as much as we would love to write one, we don’t have the time or resources to write a 300-page work of nonfiction by our July 2016 deadline.
Instead, we want the book we write to show examples of larger trends, drawing together analysis of business models from all different domains and creating some actionable guidance for those interested in sustainable ways to involve CC licensing in what they do.
Ultimately, I see us doing something inspired by the format and structure of Austin Kleon’s books like this one:
Kleon’s book is built around 10 fundamental principles for creators. Similarly, I’d like us to come up with a manageable number of main points based on everything we learn through our research. I think bringing ideas back up to 10,000 feet after digging into the weeds with analysis and research is exactly what can make the book resonate for people.
As I’ve written in the past, Kleon’s points are simple, straightforward, and elegant. Like this:
Of course, the big challenge for us will be creating key takeaways that not only speak to creators, but also to platforms who compile and share content created by others. I’ll be writing more about this difference soon, but it’s an important to recognize up-front that the interests of creators and platforms often diverge, which means writing a book that addresses both will be a unique challenge.
For each of Kleon’s main points, he writes up a short summary. Like this:
This is where I see our company and creator profiles coming into play. For our various key points, we’ll have profiles to use as examples and evidence. We’ll also have some analysis and recommendations connected with each.
And finally, Kleon intersperses his text with visuals that explain his concepts like this one…
I love the way he can break down advice into bite-size visuals. I hope we can find creative ways to communicate our ideas visually to spice up our book.
To me, this format seems to hit the right blend of the practical and theoretical to fit our goals. It will help us put the 24 profiles we’re doing into a larger context that will be more meaningful to people across domains, all in a visually-interesting way. For those who are more interested in specifics about particular business models, we may want to include the full profiles with more details in an index at the end of the book. That way, we give the big picture while retaining the specifics for those who really want to dig in.
What do you think — will this format be effective?
