I've neglected my house a bit as I took on a bit too much freelance work. And finally the kitchen ceiling repair was finished, but there was a fine film of dust and grit on all the surfaces. I'm behind in the laundry, too. I could have spent Saturday tidying up around the house.
I did do a little reading and I wiped down the surfaces in the kitchen, but that was not what I spent the weekend doing. I decided to write a book.
What?!
That is kind of the response I got from the few I shared my idea with. What can I say, everyone is doing it these days. And thankfully, it isn't something your mother would respond with "If everyone jumped off a bridge, would you?" No, writing a book isn't really a bad idea. With any luck, I'll make a little pocket change.
The past month or so, I've been mulling ideas about expanding my freelance business and what I could do to make a little extra pocket change. A number of book bloggers have started to organize blog tours, myself included. But I also now several do-it-yourself authors, who have asked for advice about setting up tours on their own. Last summer, when I wasn't sure if I wanted to start my own freelance business I wrote a tips post for bloggers and authors who wanted some pointers on blog tours. I had a few other posts I could pair with it and decided that I could put together a short how to manual. I've read several such books. Typically, less than 100 pages on a specific topic - using Pinterest for marketing, etc.
I learned during my dissertation writing that I worked best if I could write an entire chapter in a weekend. One chapter I wrote in a day - over 12 hours. This knowledge strengthened my resolve to write a mini-book. And that is what I did last weekend. Between pasting posts and adding new content I wrote over 4,000 words on Saturday and added more than 5,000 words on Sunday for a total just under 10,000 words.
I contacted some friends in the blogging/writing world about reading through it. I've also contacted a friend about doing a cover. I got great feedback on the manuscript and have spent today addresses a few of their points and adding some information I thought of this week. The second draft is no complete and with it I believe all the content is compiled as well. I've contacted another author friend to read through it, but mostly all that is left is proofreading and polishing and gathering all the front/back matter (copyright page, acknowledgements, etc.). I'm hoping to publish it the beginning of June.
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