holy crap, my book is here!

early copies arrived at the office this morning and i squealed like a little girl! eeeeeee!

by the way…

Finished writing my book yesterday at 2:30 p.m. I can’t tell you how much of a relief it is to be done. Well, you know, done aside from the rounds of editing coming over the next few months. Hurrah!

Hurtling towards my book deadline

Current word count: 27,818 (out of 30,000)

Trying not to freak out too much about the fact that my book is due in less than a MONTH. I’m starting to break down the remaining stuff to do into manageable chunks. I made up a calendar with weekly goals written on it, for example, my goal for this weekend is to polish up the introduction and first chapter and get the appendix done.

I’m taking a few days off of work in the next month to give myself more time to work on the book. I’m also trying not to completely get cut off from the rest of the world. (Sorry, friends!)

One big problem in getting done with the book is that I keep finding more people I want to talk to! Gotta stop that… After next week, promise.

PS: I’m not writing recaps of books I read for now, but I am still updating my list.

Holy crap, my book’s almost real

Current word count: 25,035 (out of 30,000)

A little more than a month left until my manuscript deadline, and I have reached my Jan. 1 goal of 25,000 words a few days early! It’s incredible to see the progress I’ve made. The book still has some holes and placeholders, but my to-do list is manageable, and the end is in sight. Of course, after I turn in the manuscript in February, there’s still a few months of editing to come. :)

Barrelling towards 30,000 words

Talked to more awesome crafters, and after copying and pasting integrating their quotes, I am very near my Dec. 1 goal of 20,000 words!

Current word count: 19,843 (out of 30,000)

My to-do list is still very long, but I feel positive about where the book’s going as the deadline creeps ever nearer. The manuscript is due Feb. 10, and ideally I’d like to be able to turn in something in really good shape, so maybe I’ll aim to hit 30,000 words by January 1 so I have a few weeks to revise and edit.

Probably the biggest thing on my list is contacting the organizers of major indie craft shows. I’d been waiting on that because craft show season is in full tilt right now. But if I wait too long, I’ll be hitting the holiday season when (presumably) people aren’t going to want to be doing interviews. Conundrum!

my book has a title!

Crafty Superstar: Turn Your Crafts into Extra Cash, Keep Your Day Job, and Basically Have It All will be released in November 2009! And I have even more exciting news:

Current word count: 14,953 (out of 30,000)

I powered through today, integrating tons of quotes from interviews to try to hit my goal of 15,000 this weekend, and it worked! After hitting the halfway point, I just have to write about 5,000 words in November, December and January to hit my manuscript deadline (with a week or two for revisions in there, too).

I’ve been talking to so many amazing people for this book, and my list of crafters I want to talk to still keeps growing! If you happen to know a biz-savvy part-time crafter, let me know. :)

book update

Current word count: 9,400 (out of 30,000)

I’m not as far along as I’d like to be, but I’m making progress. I’d hoped to hit 15,000 words by the end of October… that’d take a miracle at this point, I think.

But really, I’m not terribly behind. I’ve started interviewing a ton of awesome crafters, but I’ve integrated relatively little of their information into the book. So once I start doing that, it’ll write itself. (Or so I keep telling myself.)

In any case, I’m almost a third of the way there with about four months to go.

The title meeting for my book was the week before last, but so far there’s still no final decision. I pitched a few ideas, as did my editor, but there are many more people in on the discussion—the publisher, salespeople, marketing managers. I hope there’s a decision soon… I think the book will start feeling more real when there’s a title attached.

I’m writing a book

I very vaguely alluded to a big potential project in my last post of 2007. That project is now very real, so I feel OK with letting the cat out of the bag: I’m writing a book. Got a deal and everything. (Though deal is a kind of misleading word—it implies six-figure advances and major publicity campaigns, neither of which I have.)

The book—as of yet untitled—is a how-to business book for indie crafters. My final manuscript is due in February, and the book will be on shelves in fall 2009, if all goes according to plan. I’m still going to write my little capsule book reviews here in this blog, but I’m also going to use it to keep track of my writing progress. Like so:

Current word count: 6,793 (out of 30,000)

And I have stories to tell about the wild world of book publishing. I might create an FAQ. The most FAQ has to be whether I get to pick the title of the book. I don’t—that’s a decision left up to the publisher, with the input of my editor and the marketing/sales folks. The more you know!

So, that’s why I’ve totally dropped the killer reading pace I had earlier this year. It’s an exciting project, but dang, is it a lot of work.

If you have any questions, post a comment!