#2 - Publishing and the Website
In May of 2026, as a result of some excellent input from David Morgan (Morgan James President) and last-minute changes in book contributors, there were a few additions and clarifications to make in the book before launching into the next stage of publication. As a result, the work on the book cover fell into June, followed by final design of the interior in July and then the back cover by early August and subsequent launching of this website in the mid-August timeframe. This post, however, is more about the interesting items learned during the process of publishing a book and a website.
So first, how did this work end up with Morgan James Publishing? That came down to two primary factors, the first that an earlier excellent book on Business Architecture had been published with this team (see the Resources tab, then the fifth reference on the left side), the second that they have an affiliation with the Habitat for Humanity, which provides a nice tie-in to the objective of the Blueprint for Humankind.
After Morgan James accepted the book based on the abstract and an on-line video call in Fall 2025, it was time for my education 🙂. I had co-authored many guides and papers, but someone else was always responsible for the publication process. David and later, other members of the team, explained the ~9 month cycle of the bookstores and major retailers, and that launches aren’t just at any time of the year. We set up an initial plan to complete the manuscript by the early April timeframe, to then support the stages of publication, early marketing, and by February 2026, a full publication date with the retail stores set for 10 November 2026. What I mean by “full publication” is the availability of a paperback version in stores and ebook (or paperback) through their websites as a retail product. I had thought of publication as meaning the point at which the book could be printed or available by ebook form even on an author’s website, but that’s not what the industry means by that term. So early orders of author copies of the paperback or ebook where available in August on this website, but not at retailers until November as a set date. Although the set-back is a bit frustrating, it’s a good thing to have some margin as there were early hiccups in the April timeframe, when the book manuscript should have been wrapped up, that led to a two month delay in finally getting to print.
On the website, I made a fairly common mistake among those who have been authors for a long time, trying to use my WordPress experience to expand into a full website for the book. To be fair, WordPress can provide a basic website. I see this site, however, as the start of the Blueprint for Humankind Ecosystem that must support many needs until a transition to a full team executing the blueprint development. Following an excellent webinar hosted by Morgan James and led by Jen Curinga, I started a SquareSpace account and had the domain transitioned. The user experience in designing the website here has been excellent, while transitioning the domain is more complicated than they claim (it takes a couple weeks and multiple certification steps). We’re here and growing a real ecosystem now, though 🙂.
