I first suggested that I had an idea for a new book on this blog on 3 September. At the time, the book outline was only a day or so old.
Yesterday, just six weeks later, I signed a contract with Wiley, a major publisher, to bring that book into being.
I am delighted to confirm that Wiley will publish the book as part of its trade programme. In other words, it will be available in bookshops and on all the usual online distribution platforms.
Publication is planned by Easter 2027, so the timetable is tight. I have agreed to deliver the completed manuscript by the end of this month. Fortunately, I have now written ten of the twelve planned chapters in first draft, and some have already been copyread. I still have work to do, though, before I am satisfied with it.
The book will be deliberately short, at a little over 30,000 words. That is not because there is little to say. Quite the opposite is true. The book is short because I want to make the arguments as clear, direct, and accessible as possible, without unnecessary complication or repetition.
There is another reason for keeping the book short. I want it to be affordable. The plan n is to price it so it is accessible to as many people as possible. I do not want the cost of the book to be a barrier to people reading it. I hope the price will be around £12 (but I stress that this is only a current estimate), and it might be lower in some places.
The book will also include more than 20 new infographics. These are being specially prepared to accompany the text, and they will play an important role in how the book explains its arguments. Anyone who has followed the development of the infographics on this blog over recent months will know how important I think it is to make economic ideas understandable this way. It seems Wiley were impressed. I think they will make a real difference to the book's accessibility.
The working title remains How to Govern: Creating the Courageous State, as I suggested in September. The draft cover I shared then remains a starting point for discussion, though the final design will, of course, be agreed with the publisher.
This was my draft back cover blurb when I submitted the proposal:
The book's purpose has not changed since September. I want to explain how government could be done better in the UK and elsewhere if those responsible for it properly understood how money, taxation, government spending, debt and the wider economy actually work.
I have long argued that much of what passes for economic debate in this country and elsewhere rests on misunderstandings about these issues. Those misunderstandings have consequences. They constrain political choices, justify unnecessary austerity, prevent essential investment and leave politicians claiming that they cannot do things that are entirely possible.
This book challenges those assumptions and behaviours and explains what could be done instead.
That is why I am deliberately writing this book in a non-technical style. I want people interested in politics and economics but who have never studied either subject formally to read it. I also want politicians, their advisers, journalists, and others who influence public debate to read it.
In particular, I hope it will reach people who are beginning to appreciate that the economic thinking that has dominated politics in much of the so-called Western world for decades has failed, but who are not yet sure what might replace it. The book is intended to help them answer that question.
I also hope the combination of a relatively low price, a short, accessible text, and new infographics will make the book attractive to people who might not normally buy a book about economics. That matters to me because I want these ideas to reach well beyond this blog's and my YouTube channel's existing readership.
There is still considerable work to do before publication. I must complete the manuscript, finalise the infographics, add a glossary, and then help edit and prepare the whole book for printing. However, with the contract now signed, that process is formally under way.
As soon as Wiley is ready to accept advance orders, I will share the details here. I hope that will be possible soon.
I admit to being quite excited about this project. Seeing a book you have written in print is always rewarding, but this book is about much more than that.
Quite deliberately, it brings together ideas that I have been developing and discussing on this blog for many years. It puts them in one place, in a form that I hope will make sense to people who have never previously encountered them.
Above all, I want this book to make a difference.
We need better government in this country and around the neoliberal world.
We need better macroeconomic management.
And we need a politics of care.
I hope that this book will help bring about those three things.
Thanks for reading this post.
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Wow!!
How totally fabulous Richard – I am looking forward to reading it.
Thank you
The first bit of good news in a long while. Thank you and good luck!
Thank you
I have yet to tell Wiley that the sequel is already being planned, but they have optioned it.
Could you do a book signing tour?
Its interesting to see who Mrs B’s on Bath gets
https://mrbsemporium.com/
There are all sorts of Literary Festivals etc over the summer where you could plug it, might be instead of more ‘Funding The Future’ events in 2027
I could, but not too many. The trade-off is travel and content – and we need seven videos a week, and book sales would definitely not compensate, so I will be very selective
I quite understand
Seriously though there might be some towns worth doing
And some will be done…
Brilliant! Just what’s needed. When you started producing the infographics I thought: what we need is a book built around these. Thanks Richard, you’re really giving me hope!
I am trying….
Three cheers!
Well done Richard – I look forward to reading it. I like the red strap line at the bottom about taking ‘responsibility’ for change. Ouch!
Is part of the deal delivering two or three boxes of the books to Westminster – you know, to help them out?
Some sponsorship for that might be good….
Great news! Will place advance order when available!
Thank you
Great news. I am starting a list of people who will get the book as an Easter present.
Thank you
If I had the money I would order 650 copies for the House of Commons.
And a hundred for top civil servants
And for the IFS and major media outlets.
But I don’t. Unless I win the lottery which I don’t do.
It would be great if a kind donor came forward to do just that.
I think we will do crowdfunding for this. An idea?
Happy to chip in if you crowdfund.
Rather than just landing 650 copies on MPs all at once, it might be more effective to send early copies to some of the more influential/sympathetic in each party (mixture of MPs and party policy-influencers), in the hope they’ll be onside when all their colleagues get it? Happy to suggest some targets within the Lib Dems if that helps.
Thanks.
good idea
I’m in
Let’s see what we can do.
you are awesome
and so is your ‘behind the scenes’ team
thank you all
Thank you
They all seem to be beavering away right now…
Video editing
Book editing
New project creation
And I am now moving from book writing to video script creation….
This stuff takes a lot of work
Very much looking forward to this.
Thanks to you and everyone commenting.
Chapter 11 is now complete in draft.
Yippee! Thank you, will read and promote
Brilliant news. Cant wait to read it!!
I have to finish it.
Another half chapter today.
I will buy and supply a copy to my MP, whom I have found open to discussion in the past.
Thank you.
Perhaps leave a copy or two at your local library…
Fast work, Richard!
I am reading The Courageous State at the moment. I like the clear and explicit Solutions (part 3) but I am completely bemused as to why none of our politicians adopts even the simplest of these or why none of the media even discusses how after the war we coped with a debt ratio of 250% while funding free dentistry and health, 300,000 houses a year and free university education. It is as if they don’t want to help neets, house people and make the nation healthy and happy. I hope the new book has a section on how to get the message across.
This one is a short intro.
But the whole book is the message
It is a lot clearer than the original Courageous State
Thats welcome news. A book published by a well-established publisher should certainly reach parts that your present work does not. As a slight side note I recently saw a clip with Jamie Discoll ex-Labour and North Tyne Mayor and on the bookshelf directly behind his head was the Joy Of Tax! The other titles were not easily readable, a small lesson there perhaps?
Thank you.
Jamie and I do speak.
Jamie Driscoll is now a Green Party councillor in Newcastle.
Looks like your economic message has reached the Ukraine
https://www.lvivherald.com/post/print-the-money-and-build-the-ships-how-britain-might-become-a-great-naval-power-once-again
The obvious question arises: why not simply print the money? Britain possesses her own currency, her own central bank, a sophisticated financial system, substantial remaining shipbuilding expertise, and a population containing significant numbers of people who feel excluded from the productive economy.
I am sure you will endorse the economics even though you do not – I assume support the use to which it will be put.
Congratulations, Richard! This will be GREAT
I hope so
Richard, this is wonderful news.
Thank you: I believe this will indeed make a big difference in countering the neoliberal ‘conventional wisdom’ by which the UK electorate has been gaslit for so long.
Thanks, Stewart
Don’t forget government framing of ideas.
Economic freedom does not mean freedom for the population, but the freedom for companies to exploit (by circumventing regulations, etc).
There is no “taxpayers’ money”, nor a government credit card to max out.
Efficiency, competition, liberty and homo economicus are all nice ideas.
Who benefits?
I think you’ll find all these ideas addressed in it.
Great idea to include infographics. Text + Infographics = Double Entry Bookwriting?!
🙂
Fantastic news.
Others have suggested copies should be made available to MPs (& members of Lords)
Can I suggest it is translated in American.
The infographics are great but may need to be even simpler for current POTUS!
The book is being written on the assumption the audience will include US, and other, readers.
The text is not U.K. centric.
Wow!! Sounds great. I will buy it.
Hopefully, it will get out to Joe and Jane Public, many politicians and the media both those working in the economic sphere and outside of it (though I doubt Freeview Channel 236, same goes for their viewers).
Do you think there is a chance that the radio shows you do appear on currently may get you on to talk about it?
Craig
I will try, of course.
Great news and well done Richard. I’d happily sponsor a copy for my MP and one for a suggested Minister…
Thank you