Oh it’s been damn hard to keep this a secret for so long! Anyone that knows me and that has followed the progression of the Think Like a Rock Star concept over the past 3 years knows that Kathy has had a bigger impact on my thinking than anyone else. She’s just unbelievably brilliant when it comes to teaching brands how to create passionate users/fans/customers and what’s so awesome about Kathy is that she makes everyone else feel like they are smarter. There are so many people that you read their writings and think ‘Wow that guy/gal is pretty smart!’ With Kathy’s writings, you read them and think ‘OMG she just connected the dots for me and now it all makes sense!‘ I am over the moon excited and cannot tell you how proud I am that Kathy will be involved with this book.
So when I asked Kathy if she would write the foreword and she told me she would be happy to review my manuscript and give me some advice, I was thinking that she had no idea what she was getting into 😉 It turns out *I* was the one that was in for a surprise. Over the next month, Kathy must have written me 20 emails, each one probably 2,000 or so words with insanely helpful advice on how to structure the book. In short, it all went back to this bit of advice: On every single page, ask yourself ‘Is this going to help the reader kick ass?‘ Classic Kathy Sierra 😉
Before talking to Kathy, I thought Think Like a Rock Star could be a very good book. Thanks in large part to Kathy’s tremendous help and advice over the last month, I now know Think Like a Rock Star is going to be a great book. And Kathy deserves a lot of the credit for that because she’s really helped me flesh out and structure my ideas, and present them in a way that will help the reader grasp the core lessons…and help them kick ass.
BTW if you aren’t familiar with how awesome Kathy is, here’s some of my favorite posts that she’s written:
How your product can inspire The Nod
Inspiring your user-evangelists
Conversational writing kicks formal writing’s ass
Reverse-engineering user reviews
Changing the user-experience without changing the product
And finally…here’s the cover design for Think Like a Rock Star! What do you think?
The official on-sale date is April 19th, 2013, and Think Like a Rock Star is slated to be available for pre-order on sites like Amazon and Barnes and Noble later this month!
Pic of Kathy via Flickr user dottavi
PS: Kathy I apologize for the amount of !!!s in this post, but as I said, I overuse them when I am excited about something 😉
BONUS! Here’s a talk Kathy gave last year on how to write a book that helps readers kick ass. If you are considering writing a book PLEASE watch this.
If you are getting this post in a feed reader, click here to watch the video.
Yeah, Mack, so what did I tell you about those exclamation points? 🙂
What you did NOT tell everyone (and only partly know yourself) is that I was about 75% certain I would not end up doing this because despite my respect for you, the whole rock star thing *appears* to go against much that I believe in.
But then I actually read your early early stuff. And I saw that what you were doing was much deeper and far more useful than I would have imagined given the title/theme. I found myself getting right into the heart of the stories, and the big thing I felt was missing was what you eventually addressed: helping us put it to work more quickly, on behalf of the *users* (aka “fans”).
Although I now feel that the title of your book really *does* match the message in the book, I do hope people don’t make the same mistake I did and assume you are using “rock star” as a metaphor for “awesome marketer”. What you offer in the book is nearly the opposite… it is, in the end, about making the fans/users become more “awesome” in a meaningful, more sustainable way. I might have told this “story” quite differently myself, yet I could not possibly believe more in the heart and soul of this point of view. And you are a far better teller of this “story” than I would ever be.
I put “story” in quotes because while you do HAVE stories in the book — and some amazingly helpful and interesting ones — there is also the overarching narrative of what fans/users experience, and the impact of our actions and inactions on their experiences and lives.
Go you!
Honored to be part of it.
Mack,
What a great opp for you to have Kathy write the forward. Couldn’t be happier for you and so looking forward to reading the book.
Keep Rockin it brother.
@TomMartin
Thanks Tom, everyone warned me that I would reach a point where I was officially sick of working on the book.
I am *almost* there 😉 Good thing the manuscript is due in 17 days!
Almost there Mack! Make sure you update us on deadline day so we can celebrate.
Hope we here in Canada will be able to get it on Kindle. I can’t wait to read it! 🙂
Jennifer I asked my publisher about this a few weeks ago and she said the book should be available on Kindle in Canada on the day it goes on sale, which is April 19th, 2013. So good news, and thanks!
Love the book cover! I just talk about writing a book. You did it! I bookmarked this blog post to my GooglePlus +1’s tab to make sure I keep track of this project.
Thank you Linda!
You *know* I’m excited to read this. I love the cover, but I promise not to judge the book by it.
Thanks Ian! It’s been a very interesting and rewarding experience. Looking forward to reading your book as well!
I’m so excited to see the book coming along – and all the more that you found an expert to provide constructive feedback. It looks like so long as you enhance the reader’s life, you’ve got a guaranteed best seller. I’m looking forward to it!
Thanks Steve, Kathy is amazing, if you haven’t already check out some of her posts I link to above. It goes to the publisher in 9 days, and hopefully we’ll have it edited and off to the printers by the end of the month!