DHH: Rework Manuscript Was Cut in Half from 50,000 Words to 25,000
David Heinemeier Hansson (DHH) · DHH: How to Build a Profitable Company Without Losing Control · Jul 26, 2026 · at 0:43
David Heinemeier Hansson, co-founder of 37signals, reflects on the writing and editing process behind the bestselling business book Rework.
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“In fact, when we wrote Rework, the initial manuscript that we submitted was, I think, 50,000 words. That was what the publisher got to see, right? And they were very excited. Great. This fits. This is like just the size of the book. And then Jason and I went through it and cut it in half. And it was down to 25,000 words and the publisher freaked out. They're like, we can't publish a business book that looks like this, that looks like a pamphlet. So we had to pad it with spacing and margins and illustrations to get to it. But it was really that process cutting in from 50,000 words to 25,000 words and taking some essays from two pages down to four paragraphs that really made it all happen.”
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