As we start diving into this wacky idea we had over the weekend, we're finding that it's impossible to be totally transparent about the book. For instance, Dana Epp is staying at my house and we're talking a lot about the book on and off. Not every conversation we have about the book will be able to be blogged here. Just to set expections properly.

Plus, Shel and I are finding that we're still doing some back channel communications that aren't in the blog. Why? Because we're still building our relationship and figuring this all out. Just wanted to let you know that it's just really hard to do everything in public eye.

Figuring this out will be an important part of the book, though. Lots of people ask me questions about how to figure out what to write about. This stuff is hard. If it were easy, every company would already have a blog.

Some other things:

1) We're going to do a book. That's our goal. You know, the kind of thing printed on paper. Limited in size (we're aiming for about 400 pages). You'll get to see most of the process and learn from it.

2) We are going to own the copyrights to the book and everything on the site. No one other than Shel and me will be able to redistribute the content. Why is that important? Because our goal is to sell the book and publishers want to know who owns the rights. If this is a problem for you, don't leave a comment here on our blog/site or email us content for the book. Instead, just write about us on your blog. We'll see that, but content on your own blog is yours. Content left on our blog is ours. Just want to be clear. Hopefully that isn't too legalistic.

3) Our #1 goal is to ship a book. Unfortunately that means making tough decisions about what goes in the book. This won't be a democracy. It's Shel and me writing a book. At the end of the day our two names are going on it. So, we may ignore your suggestions. The book might suck because of our decisions, but at the end of the day, it's Shel and me writing a book.

4) We're going to be straight up with you. Always. We'll tell you when we aren't gonna listen. We'll tell you if we ever need to change from being transparent to something less than transparent. You'll know all conflicts of interest or other things. That's our pact with you.

Anything else we should get on the table?