A book about Glue - the Cover Story
/Someone once said “you should never judge a book by its cover.” Which is, of course, wise advice, and at the same time, complete nonsense. I once bought an unreadable tome on the basis of a cover that looked like a gorgeous Roger Dean album cover, but the book had all the spark and imagination of the reverse of a box of cornflakes. Then I read The World for Sale, by Javier Blas and Jack Farchy, which has a great enigmatic, intriguing cover and the book was fascinating, gripping and I learnt much from diving in and staying with it. It looks great on the shelf too. The new novel by RF Huang, called Babel, looks just fantastic. Even the title is cool. It’s now a Sunday Times and NYT global bestseller. Getting the cover right for online scrolling, or bookshop browsing is an imprecise science and a strange kind of artistry. So, for my humble attempt at a new business book called GLUE: Transforming Leadership in a Hybrid World, I have agonised over how to get it right. Do we go quirky, playful and eccentric, or ballsy, serious and high-minded? In the end, we decided to simply double-down on Glue. Not everyone I spoke to loved the title Glue when I first pitched the idea, but if they read two pages, they said it made perfect sense. If they get 150 pages further then, hopefully, the Glue idea will be found addictive, and will even “stick in the mind” afterwards. Anyway, Glue is coming out later this year. There will doubtless be a few bumps in the road, possible delays, and inevitable tweaks to be made, but I am delighted that Glue has come this far. I can’t wait to be able to share more sometime soon.
