Ann Handley - TA #113: 😎 Some big news!

Hey, you. You're doing great. Click here to read this on the web.

Source: Me having fun with a Sharpie.
Do you think this should be the actual cover?

Welcome to the 113th issue of Total Annarchy, a fortnightly newsletter by me, Ann Handley, with a focus on writing, marketing, living your best life. I'm glad you're here. If this newsletter was forwarded to you, you need your own: Subscribe here.

Boston, Sunday, May 22, 2022

Writing here. Writing words. They go here.

Sentences of words to say more. Writing they go here. Okay.

* * *

Hi, Boo.

Today's letter is a little different from my usual writing and marketing ideas. Because it's been a BIG! WEEK!

I finished writing the 2nd edition of Everybody Writes this past week.

If writing can feel like birthing a Honda Civic, then writing a book is like birthing a car dealership full of them.

It's not pretty. You sweat a lot. Most of the work is done while crying.

The crying is more like the sound a wild animal makes when cornered. Like a wolverine scream: a mix of begging to everyone/no one and flat-out anger at myself for getting cornered at all.

>> Begging: make-this-be-over
>> Anger: frak this sux!!!

And now—post birth—I feel used up. Emptied out. I left all my words on the dance floor… they partied HARD! Today I have nothing left to give.

Writing they go here. Okay.

* * *

"Why are you writing a second edition of a bestseller?" my friend Mitch asked me on the phone months ago.

He'd read about it here in this newsletter, when I'd mentioned the 2nd edition in passing.

We were talking on a Sunday afternoon in January. Outside my window the tall birch looked cold, like it wanted to come inside. It stands alone at the side of the yard, that birch, excommunicated by the clump of pines huddled to its left.

The birch's lower trunk was buried in snow, as if the very bottom of it was insulated with snow pants while the rest of the tree was left to sort itself out and just get through the long winter madness.

Birch, same.

"The world wants something new from you," Mitch was saying. "A new book—not a second edition."

At the time we talked I was already roots-deep in the writing. (Make-this-be-over; frak-this-sux.)

But here's the deal.

In so many ways, the Everybody Writes 2nd edition IS a new book. To be honest, that surprises even me.

I went into this thinking I'd take the 2014 original and add a chapter or two.

Fix some outdated things. Edit some words. Run the vacuum and puff the throw pillows and spritz some Febreze around the pages and… THERE! DONE! So fresh! So clean!

I thought it would take maybe 10 minutes.

* * *

It did not take 10 minutes. It took six months.*
*plus several months of elaborate procrastinating

Sure, there was some pillow-puffing and refreshing and Febreze-spritzing. The bones of the original are good.

But I also built an addition on the back. Replaced the draftiest windows. Installed a bouncy house in the yard because Writing...! <boing!> Needs...! <boing!> Joy...!!!

Why am I doing this I kept asking, channeling the mini-Mitch now living inside my head. Because I'm crazy? Because I'm a tinkering perfectionist?

No, that's not why. I expanded, rewrote, renovated the 2nd edition because:

👉 This book is needed more now than ever.

👉 Writing has never been more important to you, me, and the companies we work for. Fast Company quotes my take.

👉 Ideas in this book have evolved. I have new ways to help you be a better writer. I have new approaches to storytelling. I have fresh examples. I have a lot to say on brand voice—which I faintly whispered about in the first edition.

👉 Writing online has changed.

👉 I've changed. I am a much better writer now than I was 8 years ago.

(That ^^ is not a flex, by the way. I'm proving the point I make in Everybody Writes: You get better when you work that muscle. When you practice. I have you to thank for that—because showing up here every two weeks has made me a better and more confident writer.)

Also:

👉 I cut the boring parts.

👉 It's now 10% funnier.

👉 Our writing always (ALWAYS!) gets better with a rewrite: Everybody (Re-)Writes.

* * *

Well well well, Boo. I guess words did come this week—fueled by my joy and excitement over this new edition, I guess. I can't wait to show it to you!

The new, expanded, 10% funnier Everybody Writes 2nd edition will be out five months from now, in October 2022.

If you have ever gotten anything out of my work and you can afford it, I ask you to consider buying this 2nd edition.

It's available on Amazon already (the new listing looks spare and sad—not even a jacket image. It's like looking at the 2x4 frame of a house before anyone moves in). (I kind of like the minimalist, anti-marketing vibe of it TBH.)

>>> Here's the Amazon link. <<<

Or you can wait until it's available from the bookseller of your choice. (It's not on Bookshop.org yet.)

If you can't afford to buy it, ask your local library to pre-order it.

* * *

Thank you so much for your support. Thank you for your help putting this 2nd edition together.

I get as much out of writing this newsletter as I hope you do from reading it. I literally couldn't have done it without you.

And Mitch, I love you. Thanks for pushing me to do my best work.

* * *

Next time we'll be back to our regularly scheduled programming!

EVENTS
Select events

📅 June 1, 2 Webinar Days [online, free] I'm delivering a State of the Union on webinars and content marketing. Possibly from an Oval Office? We'll see.
📅 June 8, 9 Digital Marketing for Financial Services Summit [Online & in-person; I'll be joining virtually]
📅 July 19, 20 Digital Summit Atlanta [In person]
📅 August 3-5 ACAM-CEO [In person]

FEATURED EVENT >> MarketingProfs B2B Forum BACK IN PERSON, October 13-14 (I'll also be doing a book signing here. Thank you, Pierce and Team Knak!)

* * *

Stay sane. Stay healthy. See you again on June 5.

P.S. If you like this newsletter and want to support it, you can:

1) buy the new book. Or get the OG while you still can.
2) Get yourself some $WORD coin. (Read more about creator coins here.)
3) Forward this newsletter to a friend with an invitation to subscribe right here: www.annhandley.com/newsletter.

SPECIAL THANKS to AWeber for being the provider of choice for Total Annarchy. If you are looking to up your email game, I highly recommend.