10 Books in a Blender

If you threw these 10 books in a blender and poured the results into a PowerPoint file, you might start getting close to what my new book Beyond Bullet Points is about:

1. The Elements of Style, by William Strunk Jr. & E.B. White
2. Screenplay, by Syd Field
3. Story, by Robert McKee
4. Stealing Fire from the Gods, by Jim Bonnet
5. Moving Mountains, by Henry Boettinger
6. The Minto Pyramid Principle, by Barbara Minto
7. Understanding Comics, by Scott McCloud
8. Multimedia Learning, by Richard E. Mayer
9. Eloquence in an Electronic Age, by Kathleen Hall Jamieson
10. The Rhetoric and the Poetics of Aristotle

Each of these books added a particular substance or flavor to the blend, enhanced by a tasty topping in form of the 17 interviews I conducted this year about PowerPoint with experts, luminaries, and plain nice folks including Don Norman, Guy Kawasaki, Seth Godin, Rich Mayer, Larry Lessig, John Seely Brown, and others.

If any of this is tempting your intellectual and creative taste buds, the main course arrives in February 2005 - a larger version of the cover is on my website.

I'm looking forward to hearing what you think about it, and especially to continuing a dialog with you about using media to open up dialog with other people. Someone made a comment to me the other day that one of the things they enjoy most about this blog is seeing how creative other people are. I don't know that we always get the chance to properly express ourselves in organizational cultures that are sometimes paralyzed by the bullet point paradigm. Maybe if we mix things up a bit in 2005, we can look forward to presenting our authentic selves, well beyond bullet points.

P.S. You may have noticed that the title of the book was originally Beyond Bullets, like this weblog, but someone in the marketing department thought that some potential readers might think the book had something to do with guns. So we changed it to Beyond Bullet Points. In case you've been reading the Beyond Bullets weblog hoping for some advice about whether to buy an M-16 or an AK-47, you're in the wrong blog. You're welcome to hang around, though, if you're ready to lay down your arms and aim instead for clear communication and engaging conversation.

Comments

[Luis Arias]

Hi Cliff !

I'm glad to read that your work on the book is going along ! Don't like the name change too much though... Beyond Bullets makes you think a bit, Beyond Bullet Points is just too obvious...

I had told my French language entrepreneurial community about what you are up to a while back and I'll be glad to announce the availability of your book when it's published.

http://www.innover-entreprendre.net/item/137.html

[Naotake]

Welcome back! I'll be looking forward to your book. "Beyond Bullet Points" - I agree it's a bit obvious, but in the absence of a better, catchy title (I'm sure you guys toyed around with many ideas...), it'll do.

Happy Holidays,

[Pat Peterson]

Glad to see you're back! Can't wait for the book--I have a list of folks who will certainly get copies. . . .

[Angus McDonald]

Fantastic to see you back and the book in production!

I think this will be one of the first must have books for me in 2005.

[NP]

Cliff... glad to see that you are back. I agree that the name change really isn't all that hot.

Thats marketing for you.

Looking forward to picking it up.. Keep us posted.

[cliff]

Thanks for the kind words - I missed writing the blog, and am glad to be back!

[Mike]

Original title was better and would have resulted in more sales as those in a altogether different area (US 2nd Amendment supporters) would have run across it. Many of these folks are employed in positions where they engage professionals and have to sell their ideas. Obviously the corporate types all know what bullets are as that's all that's mentioned in meeting prep: "Give me two bullets for the review meeting."

Marketing weenies overplayed here.