The Road to Hell: pre-orders open

My book about purpose is coming out May 13th. It would mean a lot if you could pre-order copies for yourself, friends and/or sworn enemies.

On 13 May, I have a book coming out, and much of the thinking behind it has taken place in public on this Substack. It’s called The Road to Hell and you can pre-order it here.

That’s the Amazon link, but you can also search for it in other places.

In this case, I’ve been advised that hitting the Amazon pre-order link will give my book a particularly helpful algorithmic boost, which would help me greatly in the absence of a Sinekian profile or Finkian PR budget.

Please also order copies for your many friends, or send the link to someone at work to make a passive-aggressive point.

Would you like to see the back cover of the book?

Here it is.

I’m seriously grateful to the quote contributors, who include Eliza Williams (editor of Creative Review, which published my first writings about purpose in 2017); Byron Sharp (brilliantly rigorous thinker and marketing scientist); Paul Feldwick (writer of the best advertising books in recent years); Michael Johnson (brander, designer, strategist, writer, national treasure); and Andrew Kelly (CEO of an actually purposeful organisation who discovered me through this Substack).

I’m equally grateful for the involvement of the single greatest book cover designer of our times (no hyperbole). You may know David Pearson best from his Orwell 1984 cover, or Penguin Great Ideas series. I love the simplicity he’s brought to this cover, where I like to think the brightness offsets the dark and foreboding title. The money/halo symbols capture the two sides of the do well / do good subject I’m discussing—and the division between them is what I hope the book helps to reassert and clarify.

I’ll be banging on about the book in the coming weeks, and looking for any opportunities to write, talk and podcast about it. Any leads appreciated.

And finally, every subscriber to this Substack has given me the motivation to develop these arguments, question them, and refine them. Thanks for being part of that journey. This is the one time I’ll ask for money from it, so (if it helps) consider this the part where being a principled supporter actually costs you something (not that much though).

Pre-order here. And pre-thanks if you do.

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For anyone new here, I’m a writer of poetry, downbeat diaries, branding and advertising projects, articles for Creative Review and The Guardian, books about design, and occasional songs. My book The Road to Hell is out May 13th and did I mention you can pre-order it here?