Chapter One was born out of an old cliché: that every copywriter has started a novel, but few have finished one. So instead of asking Miami Ad School alumni and industry professionals for money, we asked them to donate the first chapters of their incomplete works of art that were gathering dust at the bottom of desk drawers and filling space on hard drives. Our goal? Create a book of first chapters and sell it to copywriters thus creating more copywriters.

There’s an old advertising cliché that every copywriter wants to be a novelist. That they’ve all started writing the first chapter of a book, but never get around to finishing it. The cliché is a running joke in creative departments around the world and was even referenced multiple times in the popular show about advertising, Mad Men.

We reached out to creative directors and industry leaders who are industry leaders where they spend far too much time: at their desks. Personalized notebooks and LinkedIn posts were sent to their offices with thought starters that were customized to reflect work that made each copywriter famous. Each asked them to send their unfinished manuscript to FirstChapterProject.com.

Personalized notebooks were sent to 75 “world famous” copywriters while another 1000 received LinkedIn messages/connection invites in early October in over 100 cities worldwide resulting in 50 submissions. The submissions were collected, reviewed and culled to curated “Chapter One: A Novel of Unfinished Novels”. The book was then offered for sale via Kickstarter.

Over 50 copywriters sent us the first chapter of their unfinished novel. “Chapter One: A Novel of Unfinished Novels” was offered for sale via Kickstarter. In just 72 hours we had hit our goal and were able to fund a scholarship to help create the next great copywriter.