Don’t write a book.

Yeah, we’ve written a book.

In fact, two books, but the second one’s not out for a few months yet.

This first one is a guide to the advertising industry, for those who are starting out, or just looking on enviously from the outside wondering how it all works.

It does have a few interesting perspectives and pearls of wisdom for those of you who have been in the industry for a little while, but don’t sue us if you buy it and then think it’s a bit too basic.

We have self-published which turns out to be a joyous process if you choose the right people (thanks to Steve Harrison for the recommendation).

Anything we lost in proof reading and publicity, we gained in speed and freedom.

That bit of this process was great.

And then you get the book itself and it looks like a proper book!

With your name on the spine!

Amazing.

But the bit before all that?

Months of pure torture.

There must be some people who enjoy writing books.

Who skip to the Mac with a spring in their step and tap away on the keys, having the time of their life.

But that wasn’t our experience.

No, in our experience, writing a book is like digging a deep hole with a teaspoon. You know you’re making some progress, because you can see the soil on the spoon, but when you look back at the hole, it seems to be no deeper than it was a few hours ago.

It’s soul destroying.

You may feel you have loads of ideas, but once you get them on to the page, you realise you have written just five pages and you still have over a hundred more to go.

If you really enjoy eating lovely food, you might be tempted to open a restaurant (not now obviously, but in the before times), and then you discover that you just have sore feet and no appetite.

So don’t write a book.

It’s really hard work and at times quite spectacularly dispiriting.

It takes months to create and just a couple of hours for someone to read.

And if you self publish, then you’re actually paying for the privilege (and even then very best writers who sell lots of books will be quick to tell you that only JK Rowling’s making any money out of this).

But maybe, just maybe, someone will enjoy it.

Our book might even be useful.

Have we perhaps “given something back”?

No, we can’t recommend the process of writing a book.

But we do recommend reading books.

Ours is out on the 12th of March if you’re interested.