Writing a Book, 2.0

Scott Scheper is only 23 years old, but he may be single-handedly showing the book-publishing world its future.

How?  He’s writing a book, day-by-day, using WordPress.  The “chapters” he publishes are shipped in real-time and open to revisions from his readers.  Scott’s dubbed it “Writing 2.0”, and I’m starting to believe him.

The book is How to Get Focused and you can follow along at http://howtogetfocused.com.  It’s a worthy topic for any entrepreneur, as we live in an age of unyielding distraction:

I believe we all have the responsibility to break away from society’s “teet” of distraction. The responsibility to wake up earlier than others.  The responsibility to get focused. And that’s what this book is about: Fighting our dopamine-driven age of distraction and getting your focus back.

After being introduced to Scott’s work by another entrepreneur I work with, Nathaniel Broughton of GrowthPartner.com, I was definitely intrigued by the idea of writing a book starting with a blog.

Did he intend to publish it afterward?  Did this kid have any chops as a writer?  It’s hard not to be a little skeptical.  After all, there’s been numerous examples of leading blogs landing book deals as of late (Gary V. and Crush It!, Stuff White People Like come to mind). But those guys built a following long before the idea of a book ever came to be.  With How to Get Focused, Scott was doing it all at once.

In his own words:

I’m outsourcing this book’s editor. It’s you. This will help make this book better. Think about it. If I wrote a crappy chapter, I’d have to wait until the book was published to see what you thought.

And this kid can write.  I think it’s worth noting because while there are a ton of smart, hard-working young entrepreneurs online, not many I’ve come across are great writers.

Give How to Get Focused a read some time.  See if you agree.  And if you think it’s no good . . . well then leave your edits in the comments!

That’s Writing 2.0.

Rob Stretch is a marketing major from the University of Missouri. Apart from school, he is a blogger and search engine marketer for VA Mortgage Center.com.