In August 2009, my book, [The Art of Community](https://www.artofcommunityonline.org/) was published. After a rigorous writing schedule I was delighted to see it finally hit the (real and e-) bookshelves.
As part of the agreement with O’Reilly, I was keen for the book to be released in both print form and under a free Creative Commons license, and O’Reilly happily agreed (they have been releasing many of their books for free for many years). I believe that community management and best practice should be *available to all*, and not just those with a wallet full of notes, and I can’t think of a better publisher to support this ethos.
If trying to write a great book about your profession was not worrying enough, the really worrying period came next. Would people like it, and would it help them build communities? I wanted to ensure everyone who believed in the book were satisfied when it finally came out.
I worried myself senseless.
This guy got it and likes to read it in front of webcams,
Fortunately, the reception was really quite positive. It was rated #2 in the Top 10 must-have social media books by Mashable, received favourable reviews in the press, and has netted 4 1/2 stars on [Amazon USA](https://www.amazon.com/Art-Community-Building-Participation-Practice/dp/0596156715) and [Amazon UK](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Community-Building-Participation-Practice/dp/0596156715), and 4 stars on [Amazon Canada](https://www.amazon.ca/Art-Community-Building-Participation-Practice/dp/0596156715). It started being referred to as the leading book on community management and spawned translated editions in Japanese and other languages.
Naturally I was stoked with the reception. Fortunately, the book has sold decently, showing O’Reilly that the Creative Commons approach is good for business, and also that people will indeed buy print copies of media they could get for free. Thankyou to everyone who bought or download the book, and thankyou for your support.
## The Second Edition
I few weeks ago I tweeted:
> Getting the itch to write a 2nd edition of The Art of Community – would you folks be interested in it? #artofcommunity #oreilly #community
After an eager response I contacted the always awesome *Andy Oram* from O’Reilly (who was responsible for the first edition happening), and he was interested. I fleshed out some plans, put together a proposal and sent it over. Last week it got approved and this week we finalized the contract.
So, I am delighted to announce that I have **started work on a second edition of *The Art of Community***. I can’t confirm a publishing date yet, but stay tuned.
## Keeping Up To Date
Speaking of staying tuned, like with the first edition, I will be blogging throughout the writing process and providing plenty of updates, news, competitions, and features as it continues. You can keep up to date [on the official blog](https://www.artofcommunityonline.org/), by following the brand new [@artofcommunity on Twitter](https://twitter.com/#!/artofcommunity), and on [the Facebook page](https://www.facebook.com/artofcommunity).
