Case Studies
Mark Greaney charmed us immediately, despite a few low blows about the state of Australian cricket. He knew he wanted to get his book written, and needed the help of the great Stick of Accountability. Or so he said. As it turned out, every writing or research task given to Mark was done to a level of thoroughness we've rarely seen before, with little need for ear or shin bashing from Hambone. We provided structural guidance to ensure consistency through the chapters, and our copy editor Steph rounded out the project. We also enjoyed collaborating with his designer Rachel on the cover.
Callum McKirdy holds the record for the fastest final sprint in the Great Book Marathon. Contacting us in late December with plans to finish his book by February, we suggested that a date of May would probably be more achievable. After all, he had about two thirds of his writing to go, a family holiday to take, and a successful practice in workplace leadership to keep ticking over! In fourteen days, Callum wrote over 20,000 words to complete the rough manuscript. With dedication like that, how could we do anything except work equally hard to get the cover design, editing and typesetting done in time? Presenting Callum his finished book as a surprise at his February event will remain one of our favourite moments.
Dr Dan Diamond, the man with the most gloriously alliterative title of all time, came to us needing his book published by the time he stood on stage for his TED talk. The greatest strength of his manuscript was that he had based it around his strongest ‘How’ model, so moving through the structure felt like a relaxing walk, arm in arm with your sweetheart amidst the soft scent of summer roses and the gentle buzzing of bumbling bees. But the most generous givers are often the humblest among us, and Dr Dan Diamond's weakness was that he positioned himself too softly as the expert in his field. We introduced more of his green sheet content early on in the piece, and used stories to highlight the incredible lessons from his work as the head of the medical triage unit when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. His finished book, Beyond Resilience, was both entertaining and informative, finished in time to accompany his appearance at TED, and cemented his positioning as a Speaker and Author.
Neuroleadership expert Kristen Hansen was looking to produce a book as a companion to the training programs that she was already running in her black belt practice. She had a decent starting word count, as she had put in the hard yards when getting her thoughts onto paper/screen. It was in the later chapters that her manuscript showed one of the hallmarks of huge initial enthusiasm running into the brick wall of a busy life. Like a gym junkie who skips leg day, writing and rewriting the beginning of your book again and again leaves you out of balance and top heavy. The bulk of our work was in adding weight to the final chapters, and filling out the words where they were needed most. Some final polishing, and Kristen launched her book in front of a crowd of friends and colleagues in Sydney.
In 2016 an amazing annual event was run just outside Melbourne, Australia, by The Hush Foundation. This event brought together hundreds of creative minds from a wide range of areas to discuss kindness. After the event, the participants were asked to submit a piece of creativity that defines kindness for them. It could be an essay, a story, a photo, a poem, a diagram, or something else. The Hush Foundation sent these submissions to Hambone Publishing, and we edited, designed, created and printed the masterpiece that is the Gathering of Kindness Anthology.
