This is a fairly quick plug for Ikigai’s eBook, linked to above.  It is quite nicely done.  It is 95 pages long, and I didn’t find anything in there I disagreed with.  It definitely has a Japanese slant, but most of the traditions hold for the Korean-based arts I’m most familiar with, which isn’t surprising, considering those nation’s tangled history.  There is a lot of great advice and background information in the book, so take a look at it if you haven’t done so already.  If I have a criticism, it is that I think it might be a bit overwhelming for someone who has never trained in martial arts before — sort of an “Oh, gosh, how am I going to remember all that?” response.  But I think anyone with enough enthusiasm to read through the book should realize they’ll learn this stuff as they go, and this book can be used to provide a framework for understanding what is going on.

Matt, if you’re reading this, I think you’d do a great job at writing a “beginner’s guide”, as more of a time-line progression: how to choose an art, what to look for in a martial arts school, what to expect in your first class, etiquette, moving up the ranks, becoming an advanced student, etc.  A good chunk of the information would be the same or similar to this ebook, but just arranged a bit differently.