The Muse & True Force of UnMarketing

I have to tell you a story. When I signed the first book deal for UnMarketing in 2009 I was excited and scared. I didn't consider myself a writer (still don't).

The 60,000-word manuscript was due in January 2010. I started writing, and writing and made it to about 38,000 words. When I say 38,000 words, it was a written mess of vomiting proportions. No order, no logic, terrible speech-to-text transcriptions. I was so screwed. This was my chance to show the world what UnMarketing was meant to be, and the starting point to a hopefully successful speaking career. Instead, this would hurt it, not help it. 

Then Alison, a wonderful person I met on Twitter, asked if she could give me a hand. She said she liked to write and maybe she could help sort out the pile of words. She went through it patiently and painstakingly. Asking me to explain certain things, expand on things and filling in the blanks, where only blanks would come for me.

By the deadline, I submitted a 60,000-word manuscript to Wiley that was unrecognizable from its previous form. It was wonderful, concise, written in my exact tone and temperament and matched my dream of what that original UnMarketing book would be.

It came back from Wiley, barely edited or touched, because it was already perfectly edited by Alison. The book went on to be a best-seller, selling tens of thousands of copies, and it still sells today.

It launched my keynote speaking career, one that I haven't stopped speaking since the day the book came out. 350+ keynotes and still going strong.

My name was on the cover, but Alison wrote the book worth buying.

Then it was time for book #2, The Business Book of Awesome/UnAwesome. Alison drove the train from the get go on this one, tirelessly working on another 60,000 words, that I would say one sentence or one paragraph or even just a title, and she would mold it into a book worth reading. 

Then QR Codes Kills Kittens.

Three books, selling thousands of copies each, and none would have seen the light of day without her. Books that should have had her name on the cover alongside mine. She wasn't a ghost writer, she was the writer. I contacted the publisher and requested her name be added to the ISBN information to give her author credit. 

UnSelling was then written and released, this time with the proper co-author byline.

Did I mention in the middle of this we also got married? 

Yesterday, she submitted the manuscript for our 5th book, UnBranding: 100 Branding Lessons For The Age Of Disruption and I couldn't be more proud. She worked her ass off, while I get to live my dream of speaking on stage and get applause every time, and sometimes a standing ovation.

I write all of this to let the world know that a lot of the world knows UnMarketing as me, Scott. Alison is the one that deserves the standing ovation. She's written over a quarter of a million words for our company. It's a simple fact that without her, UnMarketing isn't here. 

So I stand and applaud. Alison, I love you. You are my everything and everything to UnMarketing Inc.

Take a bow.