Transition Culture

7 May 2013

Announcing ‘The Power of Just Doing Stuff’

There are now just over six weeks until the publication of The Power of Just Doing Stuff: how local action can change the world. I thought this would be a good opportunity to tell you a bit more about it and why you might want to start building into a fever pitch of excitement.  It will be published second week of June, will have 160 pages, will sell for £7.95, will be a thing of great beauty, and an inspiring introduction to what Transition is and the ‘Big Idea’ that it represents.  Here’s a longer introduction:

“Something is stirring. People around the world are deciding that the well-being of their local community and its economy lies with them. They’re people like you. They’ve had enough, and, rather than waiting for permission, they’re rolling up their sleeves, getting together with friends and neighbours, and doing something about it. Whether they start small or big, they’re finding that just doing stuff can transform their neighbourhoods and their lives.

The Power of Just Doing Stuff argues that this shift represents the seeds of a new economy – the answer to our desperate search for a new way forward – and at its heart is people deciding that change starts with them. Communities worldwide are already modelling a more local economy rooted in place, in well-being, in entrepreneurship and in creativity. And it works”.

In a couple of weeks you will be able to pre-order your copy here.  The aim of ‘The Power of Just Doing Stuff’ is to take Transition mainstream, to reach out to more people, and to make it famous.  Now is very much the time to be doing that.  It aims to share the ideas that the Transition movement has defined over the last 8 years in a way that connects with people both within it and outside, and to share the experience and thrill of working as a community and taking power back into our own hands.  We feel this really represents a landmark publication for Transition, a real push to scale up these ideas and their impacts.    It is also much more international than previous Transition books, with stories from around the world.

Here’s the contents:

Introduction

Chapter 1: Why we need to do something

Chapter 2: Opening the door to new possibilities

Chapter 3: The power of just getting on with it

Chapter 4: Daring to dream: where we could end up

Resources

Notes

We are really hoping that you will be able to help us to get it out into the world with a splash.  Here are a few ways that you will be able to help (this is a heads-up at this stage, more details will follow on Transition Culture over the coming weeks, and in the June Transition Network newsletter):

• Social networking: We are formulating plans for using Facebook and Twitter, and hope that you will join us in using social media to give the book a real push.  It will be launched on June 13, at the first of the Transition Thursdays (location to be announced) and we’d like to give it a big push on social media.  The hashtag for the book will be announced shortly. And contrary to ridiculous April Fools jokes (sorry), it will NOT be published only on Twitter as three and a half years worth of daily tweets
• Giving it profile on your website: Over the next few weeks I will be posting a couple of podcasts of my reading different sections from the book (Audio Book-style).  These will be embeddable, so if you were able to put them on your websites that would be great, along with information about the book’s publication and a link to ????
• Review it online:  once you have seen it, we hope you will want to tell other people about it.  In the current day and age, one of the drivers for this is online reviews, especially on Amazon.  Having a good number of positive reviews for a book really helps to raise its profile
• Buy copies to give to friends and family: we have deliberately aimed to keep the cost of this book down, and if you buy in bulk, Green Books are offering excellent discounts to Transition groups.  Please get a boxful and distribute them to those people: friends, family, local dignitaries, teachers, developers, whoever, who have always wondered what it was that you were up to.  Details of this offer will follow in due course.

We’ll be keeping you up to date with developments and are really excited about the possibilities around this book’s publication.  We want it to make a big splash, so any thoughts you might have in terms of how we do that will be much appreciated.