Gotham Books Locks Book Deal With Jeremy Gutsche (Trend Hunter)

I’m ecstatic to announce that I’ve locked down a book deal with famed publisher William Shinker at Gotham Books, a Penguin imprint. The book centers around EXPLOITING CHAOS, a Trend Hunter’s guide to filtering through all the noise to generate breakthrough innovation.

Here’s how describe the concept on my speaking site: "Micro-trends and viral innovations surround us. But if you layer on our customers, competitors and corporate strategies, it becomes difficult to focus. Inspiration has become distracting. So how do we make sense of all the noise? Exploiting Chaos is about cutting edge frameworks and powerful ideas that will empower your organization to filter through the noise and exploit uncertainty."

Over the last month, my rockstar book agent, Gillian MacKenzie has been courting dozens of publishers to negotiate this deal. We were delighted to receive interest from New York’s best publishers. Throughout the process, it was William Shinker at Gotham that excited me the most.

In the publishing world, William Shinker is a legend. His list of published authors includes Tom Peters, Cindy Crawford, Willie Nelson and Margaret Thatcher. After years of running the corporate divisions of Broadway, HarperCollins and Warner Books, Penguin backed him to start Gotham Books, an elite imprint with a mission for creating best sellers. 

Plus, how cool is the word ‘Gotham’?

Regarding his brand, Shinker noted, "I have chosen Gotham Books as the name for this enterprise because the word conveys the energy and excitement that I want this list to have. I was delighted to learn that the use of the word has literary roots. The word Gotham was first used as a synonym for New York by Washington Irving in 1807 in his satirical literary journal Salmagundi. He used the word because it conveyed the sense of New Yorkers as know-it-alls and cunning fools with ‘method in their madness.’ And what is a publisher but a wise fool?"

Sweet.

In short, I’m thrilled and can’t wait to get crackin’!