October 2015

Here’s one of the last updates on the How on Earth book before we publish.

First things first, we will not be able to get the book out in early November, as we had hoped. Some unexpected things came up in our personal lives and, as a result, we need more time before we can publish. We are now looking at a publishing date in February, to be on the safe side. This will give us plenty of time to do what we need to do, and to launch the book after people have returned from their end of year holidays.

Despite some set-backs, we are making great progress. We are finishing up the second complete draft and starting on the third. We have been getting important feedback on the second draft from our first pre-readers, Theoharis Tziovaras, Lisa Mead and Linda Hinton. Their feedback and insights have already helped us greatly improve the flow of the book and better explain certain points. Thank you so much Theo, Lisa and Linda!

In response to feedback, we decided to move a section of chapter four up, to become its own chapter, called Capability. This new second chapter will give readers a more in-depth understanding of not-for-profit enterprise, with lots of real-world examples to illustrate the NFP way of doing business. We’ve found that it is critical to equip readers with this understanding before going into the crises of the current for-profit economy, so they will have a basis for comparison.

The updated chapter structure is:

1. Profit-ability
Profit can be more generative than you might imagine
2. Capability
Not-for-profit enterprise offers the sustainable business model we’ve been seeking
3. Instability
Our for-profit world is leading to collapse
4. Inability
We can’t solve the for-profit problem with a for-profit approach
5. Possibility
The seeds for a not-for-profit economy are being sewn
6. Preferability
The shift to not-for-profit business is accelerating
7. Viability
A not-for-profit market economy can work
8. Vulnerability
A not-for-profit world is not a utopia
9. Ability
We can co-create a not-for-profit world by 2050

You might also notice that order of the names on the book cover has changed. We decided to do this because Donnie has been fully occupied with his work as the Executive Director of the Post Growth Institute and so Jen has led the writing process, with Donnie taking more of a supportive role. He has been heading up a small team to do a final literature review, to make sure we’re not missing any critical ideas, data, references or examples. Thanks to Simon Spire, Dorothy Filiotis and Sarah Reibstein for their hard work on this front! In the preface, we will explain that the NFP World model was Donnie’s brainchild that he and Jen then developed over the space of five years, with Jen writing most of the book with Donnie's guidance and support. It has been a very beautiful collaboration!

After we get two more rounds of feedback, we think the text will probably be ready to be published. We anticipate having a complete final manuscript in early or mid-December. Then Chiara will need a couple of weeks to do the formatting and lay-out. With the holidays approaching, we’ll surely run into delays and that’s why we’re planning on getting the book out in February, rather than pushing for December/January.

The important thing to remember is that we are in the final stages. We have a complete manuscript and we’re very close to being ready to publish.

We apologize again for missing yet another planned publishing date and we thank you for your patience, understanding and support!

We look forward to getting the book to you quite soon!

Warmly,

Jen, Donnie and the PGI team