Why Don't You Write A Book?


  Stop this day and night with me 
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I was meeting with someone who reads this blog on a regular basis. Someone I have great respect for who is an important person in the world of Internet business. And he said to me, "why don’t you write a book?"

I hear that a lot. The Gotham Gal asks me that question too.

I am writing a book. It’s called avc.blogs.com. I write a chapter a day and it is available for free for anyone who wants to read it. It has a beginning and I suspect it will have an ending as long as I can still type on my deathbed.

I don’t mean to diss the art of writing a book. I realize that it’s a different thing than blogging. I have friends who write books like Steven, Kurt, and Seth to name a few. I have no idea how they do it. I can’t focus on a single story for more than about an hour.

I wasn’t born to write a book in the traditional sense. I, for some reason, was born to tell my story bit by bit, day after day, year after year.

And so that’s what I am doing.

#VC & Technology

Comments (Archived):

  1. Mo

    Thank You!

  2. Robert Seidman

    I hope you keep doing it too! But is there any opportunity/interest to publish periodic “best of” avc.blogs.com in book format?

  3. Rich Skrenta

    Amen Fred. Blogs have replaced books for nearly all of the nonfiction data I consume. Even for deep technical stuff, it’s either online documentation or research papers, as opposed to books. The books lag their online counterparts and aren’t as convenient.Also, the blog format feels more ‘alive’ — it can track and respond to events as they unfold, instead of trying to summarize a checkpoint of history…As a daily reader, I’m glad to hear you’re going to keep blogging until your deathbed. I dropped my sjmerc and wsj subs and am considering dropping nyt. avc is a column in my new personal daily newspaper. 🙂

  4. obscurelyfamous

    Future children of the world are going to have historical research reports with footnotes referencing some archived blog posts of the actual famous person. Who needs autobiographies anymore? Gotta love the Internet!

  5. simon

    amen to that …and what robert said “”best of” avc.blogs.com in book format?” ive thought about this may times. maybe 10 yrs down the track when i have enough truly best of’s – maybe a coffee table book can come out …

  6. Jason Preston

    I feel the same way about sitting down to write something as long as a book. The problem is that I have some deep-seated desire to write one anyway, so I’m always stuck wanted to write a full-on book, and never (yet) having the discipline to get more than a third of the way through.I seem to have no problem blogging, however. For some reason little bits every day works just fine for me.ps. I hope you found that Fish Taco.

  7. Tony Alva

    Dude,Your ADD would make a book editor/publisher jump out a window. Save the idea for retirement.

  8. andy m

    Fred,you are a “daily bestseller’ in my book…..which to many is FAR more important and noteworthy to our daily growth….thanks,andy m

  9. Vijay Veerachandran

    The only reason I still read blogs. Fred is an amazing person to talk with even though I met him only once. He is a great listener which is too much to ask for a person of his caliber. I read this blog because its a mix technology, thoughts, and I always feel it very personal.

  10. Brooks Jordan

    . . . and an excellent book it is.

  11. Jeff

    I have come across a few bloggers who have planned their postings around a book outline – is that something you intend to do with your blog – eventually publish it as a book or do you see blogging as an alternative publishing vehicle?

  12. medyum

    Thanks…