After he sold his company, WinterSilks, in 1990, businessman Frank Farwell started to think about writing a book about his experiences. He dictated his journals, notes, and memories into a tape recorder and had them transcribed, which, he says, “resulted in a hell of a mess: 1,500 unorganized pages that overflowed two cardboard file boxes. [It was] such an overwhelming sight that I left the file boxes in my office closet, untouched, for eight years. Every now and then I’d peek inside, only to recoil in horror.”

It would take another twelve years, and the support of both friends and professionals, before Frank’s notes were compiled, crafted, edited, and eventually published. But in spring of 2011, John Wiley and Sons released Chicken Lips, Wheeler-Dealer, and the Beady-Eyed M.B.A.: An Entrepreneur’s Wild Adventures on the New Silk Road.  With this release comes the realization of Frank’s vision to share the fascinating story of building his company and provide an instructive guide to for anyone considering entrepreneurship as a path to employment, financial independence, and personal fulfillment.

Frank met his soul mate, Laura, in 1998, and she made him start facing the boxes in the closet. With her support and coaching from a neighbor, who happened to be a writing instructor, Frank began to tell his story—how he walked away from his staff editor job at a sporting magazine to become his own boss. How he worked out of his attic and basement for years, encountering obstacles and making mistakes. How eventually he came across a perfect niche clothing product—imported knit turtlenecks—which he sold by catalog. And how WinterSilks went on to become a three-time Inc. 500 company.

Frank came to The Editorial Department in 2008 with his manuscript draft, and editor Peter Gelfan worked with him through two final revisions. Together, author and editor crafted a book proposal. “Frank’s manuscript brought a lot to the table,” says Peter. “Great stories, a lot of vivid experience, and a terrific tale of one man’s rags-and-riches journey in a Wild West (and East) kind of business venture. But hidden in it was also a lot of knowledge. We worked together to distill the manuscript down to its essence and bring out the implicit lessons to give the book added takeaway value. Who knew that learning about business could be so much fun?”

Frank stayed focused on his goal. “It takes a lot of self-discipline to keep re-editing and re-editing, rewriting and rewriting, and condensing and condensing to get to a book to a commercial-quality level,” he says. But in the end, he had an irresistible package that he presented to an old contact, who happened to work in the Asian division of John Wiley and Sons, one of the largest publishers of business books in the world. Wiley loved the project, calling it “a living lesson on how to, as well as how not to, go out on one's own,” and a publishing contract was negotiated with the help of literary agent Ethan Freidman, who was introduced to the project by The Editorial Department’s Agent Matchmaking Program directors Ross Browne and  Karinya Funsett-Topping.

After several years of part-time work on the manuscript, Frank is pleased that his story is in print. He’s already planning his next book, detailing his experiences as a disenchanted medical patient who turned to traditional and alternative medicine.

Find out more about Chicken Lips, Wheeler Dealer and the Beady-Eyed MBA: An Entrepreneur’s Wild Adventures on the New Silk Road on the John Wiley & Sons website.