‘BUSTED – The failed Cannabis Ban’ is a large book written (but never published) by Brodie Andrews, a long-term Marijuana proponent, and dope user, now an addict in denial.
The author sought feedback and assistance from Writing the Wrong but failed to take the advice given. It is a testimony to multiple failures, some due to the author’s substance abuse; some due to his personality, style and independence.
Note in the attached image the plain appearance of the capitalised text. Most of the world uses visual clues to measure the value to them – “a picture is worth a thousand words”, is the appropriate saying. “We hear and forget but see and remember”, is another. While some writers use the written word only to convey a concept, graphics & presentation are important.
This is why Writing the Wrong generally completes even a draft front cover as early as possible when a marketing exercise is required.
How many colour graphics do you see in this book for example? There is good reason for this.
The author engaged professional advice but then did not apply the advice given mainly because he used the subject research and book writing experience for his personal growth and development. He found the subject fascinating for him personally, and his text grew and grew and grew over-scope, over-budget, and over-time. As a result he missed the huge opportunity that existed in the New Zealand marketplace with legalisation a topic of public interest with possible law changes.
An investigation; or a writing project; especially a book publishing event is a hugely challenging exercise and it is essential to scope a project at the outset. It need not be a detailed, end product with a finite budget and clear participants (indeed this is often not possible at the preliminary stages) but it MUST have clearly identified goals by the project lead.
TIP 19:
You can easily change a timeframe, budget, words, pictures & even people involved in a particular project but changing the objectives, goals or purpose mid-stream will create chaos, pain & loss!
‘BUSTED – The failed Cannabis Ban’ failed to materialise itself (certainly as a commercial project) and then didn’t achieve any of its goals because they were not well defined at the outset and the principal changed them frequently when they were identified.
As they say, “If you aim at nothing, you are sure to hit it!”
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