I am writing an Elon Musk biography
leanpub.com
leanpub.com
That said, the idea of Leanpub is to let authors write lean. Writing lean isn't an excuse for half-baked scholarship, but it is an opportunity to publish an "MVP" book and iterate from there. To me, that's what the author is trying to do here, and he should be applauded for that effort and gumption.
This is a huge undertaking, and for that reason alone, I'm intrigued. I wish the minimum price weren't as high as it is (probably another big blip on the skepticism radar), but I would love to check it out.
The only real way to do that is by interviewing people and drawing out interesting details that haven't been published yet (for a dead person, you might draw from a recently-discovered journal) In this case, the author did neither. Which is not to say this biography is bad, but the price should reflect that
@alanctgardner2 I meant questions that will improve the material I have. You can always ask more questions, but I didn't want the book to be too long either. Well, I wrote it because he's an engineer and it's hard to find engineers that are role models, and I wrote it because he cares about peak oil and not so many others do.
That being said...the book looks interesting! Grattis for shipping.
> The book was based on over forty interviews with Jobs over a two-year period right up until shortly before his death. Isaacson also drew on conversations with friends, family members, and business rivals of the entrepreneur whose vision revolutionized computing, music, phones, animated films, and publishing
It also was published shortly after his death (AFAICT Musk is still alive)
Columbus was a religious extremist who thought the world was egg shaped and that he had landed in India rather than the Bahamas, even after it became increasingly clear that he hadn't, and who thought that his own travels were to do with the bringing about of the end times according to Christian prophecy. I am not sure he is necessarily the best person to use as a comparison.
There are plenty of other people who are comparable to Musk, obviously not the same in every way, but similar in certain respects. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates come to mind, Jobs more than Gates. Henry Ford. Andrew Carnegie. In an odd way, Ray Jardine. Nikola Tesla.
Regardless, awesome idea. I plan on reading it through.
I do wish the pdf contained a few more anecdotes about Mr. Musk himself, instead of so much about his ancestors.
I think the sample might actually do better if you snipped out the "Lost Cities" chapter, even if you didn't replace it with anything else.
Just my opinion - I'm certainly no expert in book writing or book selling. Again, congratulations on this!
However, the one thing that I'm after, and the only thing I would be willing to buy it for, is answer to the question - "How did surmount his challenges?" He must have faced a thousand naysayers, both at the business level and at the technical level. People who he had to convince to make his successes happen. What is it that he has that enables him to overcome these challenges and succeed? It's probably not any one thing, but whatever it is, he has it in spades.
I would like to know if/how this book addresses that. Thanks.
One paragraph from the book:
After the meetings ended, the conclusion was that it would be possible to build better rockets than had been made before. The experts were now convinced that SpaceX was different and wouldn't be yet another failed rocket company. "I essentially led them to a conclusion that they created," Elon said. "It was sort of a Socratic dialogue on a technical level. The essence of a Socratic dialogue is that people wind up convincing themselves. People are much more willing to change their opinion if you're not forcing it."
1. Is this biography in any way vetted by Elon Musk or anyone who has first-hand knowledge of events described here?
2. If not, then how is this anything more than anec-data, wikipedia and googling thrown together in a fantasy narrative?
3. If it is not vouchsafed by the principal, real, living person about whom this book claims to be about, then perhaps a disclaimer about it being a work of fiction should be on the cover itself...
Which is not to say that all unauthorized biographies are automatically great, just that you should evaluate them based on the quality of the author's research rather than just on whether or not they've been authorized by the subject.
Basically, it looks like you're implying the author is making stuff up. If that's indeed what you're trying to say, it's fine. But please state it outright.
Can you disclose how many people bought the book or what price they picked(median price)?
Will definitely read this biography.