I’m Writing My Next Book in Public (And I Want You in the Margins)

I am writing my next book out in the open. Also known as Book Serialisation. Chapter by chapter, month by month, with all of you watching (and hopefully, contributing).

There is no safety net here. There is no finished manuscript hiding in a drawer waiting for a launch date. There is just the raw work, the research, and the inevitable moments where I realise I have taken a wrong turn and need to start again.

This is an experiment in creative bravery, and I am inviting you to be part of it.

From Analogic to Be Kind, Rewind

When I started this project in mid 2025, the working title was Analogic.

It felt smart. It felt like a book about creative systems and technical shifts. But the more I wrote, the more I realised that the title was too cold. It didn’t capture the heart of what we have actually lost.

Sure, of course, we are dealing with a shift in technology, but we are, in reality, dealing with a shift in humanity.

So, the book feels different; it has a new name: Be Kind, Rewind (and there's a good chance that could change, too).

It is named after the sticker on the VHS tapes we used to rent on Friday nights. That sticker was more than an instruction to a machine. It was a request for courtesy. It was a reminder that we were stewards of a story and had a responsibility to the next person in line.

This is a book about “The Invisible Trade”

Be Kind, Rewind is a book about the Invisible Trades we made when we moved from the physical world to the digital one.

It explores the quiet exchange we make when technology gives us speed, access, and convenience while taking things we didn’t realise were currency. A few examples that spring to mind are:

We traded friction for convenience. We forgot that the effort of going to the video store or the record shop was what created the value of the experience.
We traded boredom for stimulation. We filled every gap in our day with content, designing out the very conditions that allow creativity to happen.
We traded agency for algorithms. We stopped exploring the territory and started following the blue line on the screen.

I am working with universities to conduct research on what is actually happening to our brains during these shifts. We are looking at the trade so we can negotiate a better deal.

Why I Need You (The Co-Author Promise)

Writing a book about the loss of community, only to lock myself away in isolation to write it, felt like a contradiction.

The medium is the message.

This book needs to be written slowly. It needs to be written in public. And it needs to be written with you.

This is not a rhetorical trick. I am looking for actual collaborators.

If you share a story in the comments that perfectly illustrates a point, I want to include it.
If you push back on a theory and change my mind, I want to give you credit.
I may even interview you to explore your experiences with these shifts in more depth.

Every contributor who helps shape the final manuscript will be acknowledged in the book. We are building this village together.

The Schedule

This is for paid subscribers and anyone who has purchased the Creator Kit book bundle. If you are already supporting the work here, you are automatically in.

Here is the rhythm we will follow:

First Sunday of the Month: A full, new Chapter. This is the deep work.
Third Sunday of the Month: Field Notes. This is the raw research. It might be a study I’m reading, a paradox I can’t solve, or a question I need you to answer.

You read it, you respond, and the book shifts based on the conversation.

Eventually, I will take this collaborative manuscript, refine it, and work with my publisher to make it into something beautiful, a physical object with the tactile goodness this book is actually about.

But right now, it lives here. With you in progress.