Written by Jenny Blake If you haven't yet heard from my post at JennyBlake.me, we got a book deal! This post will catch you up on all the highlights: recent announcements, piv0t-related resources, book deal behind-the-scenes, and a NaNoBlogMo group that I'm hosting in Novemeber. Let's dig in!
About the Book
The Pivot Method will be published in hardcover by Portfolio/Penguin in early 2016, one of the top business and career imprints, and I could not be more thrilled.
(View from the Portfolio/Penguin Lobby before my big meeting . . . I pretty much died and went to Heaven . . . and yes, this is exactly what my view of Heaven looks like!)
Portfolio/Penguin is home to books by Seth Godin, Richard Branson, Ryan Holiday, Pamela Slim, and many other "new media" authors like me. Now I've gotta get cookin' on writing! A solid first draft is due in April.
I will be documenting my writing process and systems to share with you along the way, and more importantly, I want to write this book WITH you and FOR you. It's critical that I write what you actually want and need, so I'll be sending surveys, holding phone calls, and creating a course in the new year to help "prototype" and pilot the ideas in the book with your feedback (fitting in with my Pivot Method process too, as it were!).
Make sure you’re subscribed to my behind-the-business updates and following my blog at JennyBlake.me to get all the insider news.
Pithy description is still a work in progress (especially since the book isn’t written yet!), but here’s a quick overview:
In The Pivot Method, The Lean Startup meets a personal playbook for change.
Borrowing from the Silicon Valley mindset of building lean, agile companies that thrive under conditions of risk and uncertainty, so too can we become more fluid in our own lives. The Pivot Method is a blueprint for becoming more resilient in a rapidly-evolving economy, and includes a three-step process for methodically navigating major career changes by starting from a foundation of what is already working.
This book is geared toward anyone who values growth and impact. Individuals will learn how to take calculated risks to pivot within and outside of organizations, and leaders will walk away with strategies to engage and retain top talent.
Plan Your Next Pivot
I'm also thrilled to be a part of General Assembly's Find Your Fit series. It features 7 experts who share everything from job hunting, to personal branding, to pivoting your career (hey, that's me!). Don't miss my video series on how to stay competitive in your field and make your next career transition a success by starting with small experiments.
General Assembly is also offering newcomers a one month free trial of Front Row, their unlimited all-access service to both live and on-demand streaming classes for a number of topics in tech, business, and design.
Book Deal Behind-the-Scenes
For those curious about the deal-making process, check out this newsletter recap and two very scrappy "podcast" calls I recorded recently:
Part One: Behind the Scenes of the Proposal and Book Deal
Part Two: Behind the Scenes of Organizing, Writing and Gremlin-Taming
*Transcripts and referenced images coming soon!
Do you have questions about the process? If so, include them in the comments below! I may not be able to respond to each individually, but I will continue recording pseudo-podcasts that answer anything and everything you're curious about. So often big things like this are hidden in a black box . . . and that's not what I'm about!
You're Invited: A NaNoBlogMo Group!
November marks National Novel Writing Month (abbreviated as NaNoWriMo), which started in 1999. The goal is to produce 50,000 words of a novel in one month. I've never been insane enough to attempt it, but this year feels worth a shot given that I've got a book to write anyway.
Since most of you reading are bloggers not novel writers, I'm setting up a very informal group called NaNoBlogMo via Google Spreadsheet to keep us all motivated for daily whatever writing, while still aiming for 1,000 words a day.
I've been tracking daily writing routines with my good friend Alexis Grant in another spreadsheet, and it has been a big boost so far.
If you're interested in joining the NaNoBlogMo Crew, add your name to a blank row of this spreadsheet. Each day we'll all input the number of words we've written, and I'll likely hold a cheerleading/Q&A Calls during the month as well. Mostly, I'm doing this to hold myself accountable for writing every day, no matter how busy or tired I feel. No excuses! I know it will be more fun with all of you there too :)
[Tweet This] Signed up for @jenny_blake's NaNoBlogMo group—join the crazy train to attempt 50,000 bloggable words in November: http://bit.ly/nanoblogmo
About Jenny
Jenny Blake is the author of Life After College and the forthcoming book The Pivot Method. She is a career and business strategist and an international speaker who helps smart people organize their brain, move beyond burnout, and build sustainable, dynamic careers they love. Jenny combines her love of technology with her superpower of simplifying complexity to help clients through big transitions — often to pivot in their career or launch a book, blog or business.
Today you can find her here on this blog (in it's seventh year!) and at JennyBlake.me, where she explores the intersection of mind, body and business. Follow her on Twitter @jenny_blake.