Announcing Strong Towns: The Book
I’m pretty excited, so I’m going to cut right to the chase. Today, I’m excited to announce that I’ve signed a book deal with the publishing house of Wiley & Sons, and soon, I’ll be publishing my first work as a sole author. The book—Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity —is available for pre-order now and will be released on October 1st, 2019. Yes, that’s just a few months away.
Many times over the past few years I’ve had conversations with agents and publishers about undertaking a project like this. But it was never quite the right time, the right partner, or the right way to tell the story.
Well, the stars have finally aligned. Wiley & Sons is a great group of people that also happens to be one of the largest publishing companies in the world, and they are fully committed to getting the book in front of as many eyes as possible. That’s our goal as a movement, and that’s our goal for this book. And if everything goes according to plan, it’ll introduce a whole new audience to the Strong Towns approach—and, I think, it’ll give even the most dedicated readers a new level of depth and nuance.
Here’s how my publisher describes the project:
”Strong Towns.: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity is a book of forward-thinking ideas that breaks with modern wisdom to present a new vision of urban development in the United States.
Presenting the foundational ideas of the Strong Towns movement he co-founded, Charles Marohn explains why cities of all sizes continue to struggle to meet their basic needs, and reveals the new paradigm that can solve this longstanding problem. Inside, you’ll learn:
why inducing growth and development has been the conventional response to urban financial struggles—and why it just doesn’t work.
why new development and high-risk investing don’t generate enough wealth to support itself, and cities continue to struggle.
how cities large and small can focus on bottom-up investments to minimize risk and maximize their ability to strengthen the community financially and improve citizens’ quality of life.”
I like it. And I think you’ll like the book, too.
You’ll find links to pre-order here—and if you email us your proof of purchase, we’ll send you some cool, behind-the-scenes stuff. (Seriously, the team came up with some pretty neat ideas. We’ll be rolling out the incentives slowly, but I think you’ll like what you see.)
But that’s not all I want to tell you about today.
Strong America Book Tour
Along with announcing the book, we’re doing something that we’ve never done before. We’re hosting a tour across the country to celebrate the book’s release—and we’d really love to come to your town.
Sure, I travel around the country all the time when communities and organizations bring me in to share the Strong Towns message; I’m very lucky. But this will be a little different. Starting in September, I’ll be on the road almost every week for what we’re calling the Strong America Tour.
We’re talking about a brand new, groundbreaking presentation that won’t be quite like anything I’ve done before. We’re talking book signings, and media appearances, all preceded by a coordinated campaign to raise awareness and follow by an effort to connect attendees and expand the reach of our movement. And in every place we stop, a member of our staff will write an essay about the stories we find there—and when you put them all together, those essays will become a powerful new book that paints a portrait of what a Strong America looks like today.
We’re targeting a broad range of regions, with the goal of reaching, in person, at least 1,500 people per week, and tens of thousands more through media attention around each event.
If this sounds big, it is. And that means we need your help.
If you are interested in making a stop on the Strong America Tour happen in your area, please let me know. We’re putting pins in the map and will spend the next few months identifying where opportunities align with our goals. If we end up with more demand than time—and we’re anticipating that we will—we’re prepared to roll the tour format over into 2020 with many more stops.
If you think your town belongs on the Strong America Tour—and I hope you do—visit the Strong America page right now to get more information.
Friend, I’m so humbled to have you in our movement. If you had told me ten years ago, when I first started writing the blog that became Strong Towns, that someday I’d be writing a book and embarking on a cross-country trip to share it with the world, I wouldn’t have believed you. But because of you, it’s happening. I couldn’t be more grateful.
-Chuck