Final Version Situation

I’ve got to the point with the Final Version that I am ready to start writing the book in which the system will be described. I intend to do this over the next six weeks while I am on holiday. The book will only be as long as is necessary to give a full description of the system and the principles behind it.

During this period I will also be deciding what format the book will be published in. It is not my intention at the moment to have the book published by a conventional publisher. But I’ve made no further decisions.

Comments

[Mauricio]

An ebook that we can buy would be really great!

[Seraphim]

Looking forward to it!!

I don't know if you are looking for ideas for how to publish, but if you are, please give consideration to this method of publishing:
http://wiki.mises.org/wiki/Without_Intellectual_Property#Books_for_free_leading_to_increased_sales

Have a safe trip!

[Mark Forster]

Thanks, Seraphim. That's an interesting link.

[sabre23t]

I'm also looking forward to an ebook version, for my side of the Indian Ocean.

Andrew Updegrove latest blog post summarising his experience in "Adventures in Self-Publishing, Chap. 12: What I Learned Along the Way" is a good read too.
http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?story=20120224062837355

[Mauricio]

If there is a writer to emulate, it's Paulo Coelho, he's a Marketing Genius!

You should follow him on twitter Mark and see how he does it, a lot to be learned from that ;)

[Massimo]

E-book (preferably EPUB) would be perfect. I would also buy your other books if they were available as e-books. I just don't have space for more paper books!

[sindikat]

Mark, that you intent to write a book now, does that mean that you get consistent results from the system, and it will not go through any changes again?

[Mark Forster]

sindikat:

<< Mark, that you intent to write a book now, does that mean that you get consistent results from the system, and it will not go through any changes again? >>

I've been getting consistent results for a long time now. The changes have been fine-tuning, particularly of the exact criteria I use to select tasks.

[Alan Baljeu]

<<as long as is necessary to give a full description of the system and the principles behind it.>>

Sounds good. I hope in your full description you take into account the slowness of people like me to grasp and understand how to apply principles like Urgency and how to apply it.

[Mauricio]

Yes, I agree with Massimo that it would make sense and be really great if Mark offered all of his books for sale online through this site, preferably in the 3 popular formats of PDF, EPUB and MOBI.

Then we can easily, through paypal, simply get them right away, and save some trees along the way.

[Mark]

Any thoughts on how Final Version might work in conjunction with GTD? (getting things done)

[Margaret1]

That's great Mark - My first thought was, what a shame Mark's having to spend his holiday writing a book, but I expect you'll be using the Final Version system on a daily basis to ensure that you have a great holiday AND finish the book. If I remember correctly, when you wrote 'How to Make Your Dreams Come True', you actually used the 'Dreams' method to write the book, and explained your thought processes and subsequent actions as you went along; it was a fantastic insight, and really 'walked the talk'. It will be interesting to see whether the Final Version unrolls the same way, though I suspect it might not lend itself so readily to that kind of treatment. This is more exciting than waiting for Christmas!

[Stever Robbins]

If you haven't checked out Apple's ebook authoring application, it may be worth a try. It lets you embed multimedia which could include videos of you working the system or discussing fine points that elaborate on details in the text.

Of course personally, I'll take *any* format. I'm quite excited to try the new system!

[jFenter]

If you decide to do an electronic version, there's a pretty good free epub creator called sigil ( http://code.google.com/p/sigil/ ) which I've played with and liked. If the online distributors get cranky for their own proprietary formats, calibre ( http://calibre-ebook.com/ ) does a decent job converting to other formats. I don't know if calibre will convert copyrighted books nor do I know if sigil will mark an epub as copyrighted. That might be the publishers' job anyway.

[Marc (from Brussels)]

I for one like paper books (even though I have way too many lying around;). So maybe some "print on demand" service could come into the picture?

[Mauricio]

It would be great if you offered your book in all of the popular formats : PDF, MOBI and ePUB.

You might even look into offering all of your books that way, and market them online through iTunes market. It's the way of the future, and it's way less overhead!

[Asim Jalis]

At this point I would be willing to pay to read FV described in scribbles on the back of a napkin.

[Chadrick]

I'm really looking forward to reading and applying the book Mark. Enjoy your holiday.

[MHW]

Ebooks and print on demand seem like the best choice, to make only as many print copies as needed. And so that people can get it immediately if they choose via the ebook option.

[michael]

Mark: Does FV still yield what you had wanted for AF in respect of acting on the \"naturally best focus\" at the time? i.e. the best and appropriate thing to do at that moment via \"standing out\".

Has FV created a thread of pleasure or \"merely\" amplified busyness and outer attainment?

[Austin]

I'm excited. I don't care if it's hardcopy or e-book or both; I intend to buy it and enjoy it.

[Cricket]

I've heard good things about SmashWords. It spreads copies to all the big distributors like Kindle. I've also heard a few less-good things, mostly about pricing policy, something about if one big company put it on sale (without telling you), it reduces price for all of them. But I think that was fixed.

Whichever you choose, make very sure you don't unwittingly sign away your copyright, or any part of it. Also, some say that if you use their services, you can't use any other.

Selling a copy cheaper than you expected isn't great, but losing the rights is much worse.

[Alison Reeves]

My advice would be to sell it exclusively on this website as an ebook (which means you retain control and get all of the proceeds) and then market it heavily online and using social media/ebay and even on Amazon as a reseller. You have some built in fans on this forum who I am sure would be very willing to tweet and post about it on your behalf. Also there may be opportunities to build reciprocal links which would benefit both parties. I'd certainly be very happy to put a link to you on my website.

If it is priced sensibly most people will buy a copy just to read about it - it's getting the price point right so you get the best revenue, but it's not a barrier to people who don't know you taking a chance and buying the book.

I've downloaded some really rubbish ebooks recently (admittedly free - but used as a carrot to buy more) and I am appalled by how useless they are. Why don't people realise that anything you put into the general domain reflects back on you? I certainly wouldn't buy anything from those sources. If they had honed in on a small area as a teaser - and it was really good - then I would have paid to buy the rest.

[ubi]

I think you will end up with the most income from the book if it becomes available on all the major reading *devices* – Apple iPad, iPod, iPhone; Amazon Kindle; Barnes&Noble Nook – and is easy to download from the corresponding online stores in multiple countries. I don't know anything about publishing, but this approach probably means working first with a major publisher, who will take a cut, as will Apple and Amazon and BN. But the latter two would probably make paperback "dead tree" versions available for purchase a well.

[Theo]

<< At this point I would be willing to pay to read FV described in scribbles
on the back of a napkin. >>

Me too...
me too...
me too...

Desperate Karl

[Laurent]

<<Any thoughts on how Final Version might work in conjunction with GTD? (getting things done) >>

@Mark : extract a short list every time you change contexts, and process it with FV.

[Mauricio]

It has been a while, any new blog post to keep us current on your progress Mark? :)

[Steve Schapel]

Thanks a lot, Mark. I am very much looking forward to your book, and putting your ideas into practice. Personally, I would much prefer a "real" book, paper & ink, so hope there will be a way to do that.

[Mark Forster]

Mauricio:

<< It has been a while, any new blog post to keep us current on your progress Mark? :) >>

I've been travelling constantly since I last wrote so nothing to report. Also my laptop broke, which has made writing and accessing the internet very difficult. Now I'm going to be static for a month in a remote part of Queensland, so things will be better. But my priority will be writing the book, not this blog.