On Buildings and Books
A post on the parallels between the two.
I am a big fan of metaphors. Used correctly, they illustrate points in ways that make your audience your point. In this post, I'll use one of my faves analogies to illustrate the process of planning, researching, writing, publishing, and promoting a book.
Hotels
Say that you decide to build a new hotel. Yours is a greenfield project, not a makeover or fixer-upper. You wouldn't just head to the local Home Depot, buy supplies, and roll up to some ostensibly available land.
It behooves you to first do a little prior research on the competitive landscape. Are there other hotels in the area? How are they doing? What do they charge? Is the crime rate high? What are the laws around renting out homes via Airbnb?
No red flags yet? Good. Next, you'd want to purchase a lot, deal with any local zoning laws, and the like. What restrictions exist? Which ones are likely to come? I suspect that you'd hire an attorney to ensure that you've dotted your i's and crossed your t's.
