One year ago today, Morespace was officially launched. Today only, in honor of that anniversary, you can get a free copy. It's an interesting book, containing 9 different essays by 9 different bloggers. Get your copy, because you are sure to find a story you like.

Todd Sattersten, the originator of the More Space project, has posted a short video, on how the book was made. For those of you not reading this blog last year, More Space is a business book written by 9 business bloggers including yours truly. The project was fascinating, and I think the book is great in the sense that with 9 different authors on 9 different topics, everyone can find at least one chapter that they love.

This would be a good time to discuss something about the book I've wanted to address for awhile. We've had problems getting the word out about MoreSpace, since we don't really have a marketing budget. The thought was that with all of our combined blog readership we would sell a few thousand books pretty easily, but I think we were less than 200 last count. So what can we do? Seriously, if you have any good marketing ideas, the MoreSpace writers would love to hear them.

I think in large part we were guilty of overvaluing the blogosphere, which is common these days. Blogs talk about things and we all get excited and bloggers are changing the world, and all the time middle America is asking what's a blog and why should they care. The only idea I have for selling more books is to put some cash behind a big marketing campaign, since that seems to be how books get sold. The funny thing is that 80% of the top selling business books probably don't belong there, but they were marketed well.

I've not finished the book yet I am:

* More excited about what we are doing here at The Church after reading rob_business May's piece on "Why Business Matters"

* Trying to be more personal and less business-y (or more authentic and less plastic) as Jory Des Jardins suggests in "The Inevitability of Authenticity"

* More organized by following the advice of Marc Orchant in "Work is Broken — Here's How We Fix It." Marc, you'll be glad to know that my email inbox is EMPTY as I write this.

And the HBS piece notes that:

There is a passion for work and business that comes through in each essay. And the stories are often highly personal. The writers talk about such varied subjects as how to resolve conflicting personal and business values, retooling business meetings to be more productive, and the importance of breakthrough experiences in ratcheting up personal performance.

What is so unique about MoreSpace is the personal nature of the essays, and the variety of topics and writing styles contained in the book. Go snag a copy or two for the business junkies on your Christmas List. They will thank you for it.

The variety of both topics and writing styles provides for a great read…

….This book shows that there are some excellent writers in the blogosphere (a great place to obtain free, well-written pieces). "More Space" allows them to stretch their collective wings and fly. It's the really good stuff.

The book has something for everyone.

Marc begins by pointing out how work is broken. My favorite example is the email heading he provides that says FW: FW: RE: Your last message regarding… What does that mean? Nothing. It conveys no information without opening it and reading the main body (which may be buried in forwards). Marc has included a list of tags (shown below) that his company uses to help people deal with email information by informing them in the subject line of the action required. They use them on every email they send.

• RR: Reply Requested
• RRAL: Reply Requested At Leisure
• URG: Urgent
• NRN: No Reply Necessary
• RAL: Read at Leisure
• IMP: Important (but not requiring action)
• INT: Internal (policy and procedure announcements)
• SAI: Strategic Awareness Info (industry news, etc.)
• FYI: For Your Information (no action required)

Marc also discusses brainstorming, mindmapping, "six thinking hats", GTD, how to fix meetings, and lots of other cool useful stuff. He includes as an appendix the "Contract for Communications" that his company uses.

This is one reason that Morespace is such a good book. It mixes philosophical big picture essays with practical use-it-tomorrow kinds of stuff. It's a total solution to business complacency. Go to the site and download your copy, or pick up a handful or the bound paper version to distribute at your company. Your co-workers will love it.

Also, check out Jory's analysis of the essay I wrote.

Her essay is about authenticity, and it is impressive. She weaves back and forth between events in her own life and events in her company, showing how at times she and the company she worked for were inauthentic. It's no way to live life, and it no way to run a company.

People can smell a fake. If you are inauthentic, sooner or later it will show. Your customers and employees and other stakeholders will all know it. Jory gives an example in the book when she says

To me, getting jobs was tantamount to having a bag of tricks. I could pull any combination of delightful qualifications, based on the hiring manager's mood and what I'd read about the company's culture.

That's not authenticity, and the only place that behavior will get you is to a state of unhappiness with your work.

People and companies tend to shy away from being authentic because it means exposing the bad right along with the good. That's hard to do because we live in a society that likes to sit in glass houses and throw stones. We are afraid of being called out for our mistakes, but read what Jory has to say in her post about her essay.

One of the messages from BlogOn that stuck with me was this: if you want to truly engage with customers, give up control. Quit trying to look perfect, like you know more than they do about your product, because these days that's impossible. And even if you did you would bore people. Tell us what you did wrong, what you learned, and how you fixed it. Remind us that there are people under the hood.

It no longer pays to be the Best; it pays to be the most authentic.

I sensed some frustration from the PR Industry people in attendance at BlogOn, who had the best of intentions, but were tired of Utopian, self-employed people like myself telling them to be themselves. I understand that this is like having your picture taken by some annoying schmoe who insists that you loosen up. Just the act of trying to loosen up is fake. If you were in your most natural state you'd tell the photographer to shut the hell up.

This essay is an unusual one for a business book, but that is why it is so important – you won't find many others writing about this. Hop over to Jory's place and let her know what you think about her essay. Or even better, pick up your own copy of Morespace.

Maybe what I will write about is why I love business so much. I have a couple of post ideas to explore along these lines, but first I'll throw this out to anyone who wants to opine. What is it that attracted you to business instead of some other field? And as an addition to that, is a love of business an important characteristic for a businessperson to possess?