What is a Business Mystery?

Like many other industries, publishing is searching for the Next Big Idea. However, if the Idea requires imagination and some chutzpha, people buck out. That's the story of Surfing on Silicon Waves. No one understands how to sell a Business Mystery.

Publishing subdivides between fiction and non-fiction. Fiction is an imaginary narrative. Non-fiction is the book format of data told by an 'expert'. Lately the emphasis on narrative seeped into non-fiction from memoirs to popular science. Even business books are littered with narratives such as Rich Dad Poor Dad and The World is Flat.

On the same token, business found its way into fiction. A good example is Joseph Finder corporate thrillers where the setting is business. While the story deals with an industry or a company and a gun is involved, there's no discussion over a business issue. Joseph Finder writes thrillers with a business background, that's it.

A Business Mystery is a different beast. First it is fiction, specifically a mystery. Second it deals with a business topic, dilemma or strategy. Think a CEO that follows the rules of Good to Great. Think a plot that exemplifies the Wisdom of the Crowds or the Tipping Point.

As a business book, Surfing challenges the notion of Rationality. As the story progresses, each scene is accompanied by a relevant theory, from supply and demand to positive feedback. And I offer a new theory of choice dubbed as Reciprocity.

I first thought of Surfing as Business Thriller, but thrillers focus on action and imminent danger. It sounds great but in real life the dilemmas of business are mostly tactical and strategic. Mysteries focus on solving the crime.

In a business mystery, the crime is not that someone killed someone but that someone violated the rules. The bad guy created a business dilemma that the protagonist must solve. In Surfing the story follows the Internet Bubble and the predicaments of choice.

Surfing is good enough to be sold as a simple mystery. The story is enticing, the plot surprising and the characters interesting. However, if I took out the economic, business, software and philosophy annotations, Surfing's uniqueness would disappear. It would no longer be a Big Idea.