Book Publication Date

We have a publication date for the book!

I met with my co-author Silvia Cambie and our editor, Annie Knight, from Kogan Page earlier this week to discuss the next phase for the book now that we were nearing the end of the writing process. I’ve got one more substantive chapter and then I need to go through my manuscript and prepare a smooth second draft. Silvia has a couple more case studies and a chunk of final writing to do and we then both need to get together to write a concluding final chapter. We are due to submit the finished manuscript at the end of November. Based on that timescale, the publication date for the book is set for 3rd July 2009.

It was exciting to sit down together for the first time in several months with Annie and Silvia and really talk through the detail of the book. The last time we did so was back in the autumn of last year when the project first came together and our book proposal was accepted. At that stage, we had an outline of our ideas and argument for the book. Now, 9 months later, we’ve done a lot of research and interviewed many business people and communicators internationally as well as putting it all together into a coherent narrative and I think we have something that’s going to be really fresh and thought-provoking.

So what’s the book about? Well, the working title has so far been New Trends in International Public Relations. Silvia puts the case for the rise of the till now non-dominant cultures in global business and the need for cross-cultural engagement to be at the forefront of any enterprise that wants to make waves internationally. Her experience as a business communicator means that she has drawn together a range of case studies on leadership communication, corporate social responsibility and cross-cultural communications from all over the world. My sections on the rise of social media as a recognised communications tool complement her part of the book, taking the reader on an in-depth guided tour of the virtual cultural landscape of the interactive web. The web is another country - to misquote H. E. Bates - with a culture and etiquette of its own and to engage succesfully in that landscape, communicators need to do so understanding those “rules” of engagement.

We may be tweaking the title of the book to New Trends in International Communications, which reflects more accurately the breadth of the content. If we do, it’ll play havoc with all my links and the URL for my research wiki - rats! But it’s important to get the title right so it’s a small price to pay to have to go back and reset my links etc… Stay tuned and I’ll let you know.

In the couple of months leading up to publication, we’ll be getting review and advance copies to send out to reviewers and also to take with us on speaking engagements at conferences etc. We’ll also be talking to the Marketing Executive in more detail about opportunities for promoting the book in the traditional real world way. We also hope to be able to offer additional online resources to our readers, perhaps via this blog and/ or the Kogan Page website eg links to the source material for my social media chapters, verbatim text from interviews, background research materials etc.

So, starting next week, my “honeymoon” is over and it’s back to hard work on the book to write the last chapter….

Do you have any ideas or suggestions for us about promoting the book? If you’re a writer or publisher, has there been a particular strategy that has worked well - or not so well? If you’re a reader, what kinds of activities would invite you take notice of our book - and even buy a copy…