Book on its way to printers

We did the final proofread this weekend for Lessons In Stalking.  We're both pretty sick of reading it.  Blair took it upstairs yesterday afternoon to read and I heard a big yawn from him float down the stairs.

"I know you're not yawning while reading my work," I called out.

There was no answer.

Anyway, I'm taking it to the Post Office today to mail to the printer.  I'm not sure I understand the exact process from there, but what I've gathered is a customer service rep will receive and review my materials, make sure everything is in order, then run a sample book and send me the bluelines to proof (yea! We get to read the book again). After I approve them it should be 20 days to print the 2,000 copies.  Then the real fun begins.

I still have so much to do.  I need to get galley copies out to reviewers (I'm like, 4 months late on that) and my website still needs tweaking.  We're having trouble with the autographed portion.  I may just take it off or place a blurb  that says if you want an autographed copy, e-mail me. But then I have to match the e-mails with the Paypal orders and I'm not sure what that would entail.

That all assumes people are ordering! Which they won't be if I don't get some PR work done - sent my site out to websites, book stores, gift shops, etc.  But that will simply have to wait until this book project is through.

I've discovered, to my surprise, that I enjoy focusing on one project at a time.  It's nice to get up and know exactly what it is I'll be working on and then focusing all my energies on that.  I thought it might be boring but there's enough variety in the project itself (research vs. writing vs. organizing) to keep it interesting.

So far I've "written" two chapters with the material I have.  I'm trying to rough out the chapters so I can figure out my outline.  5 more to go.  I may not finish them by the time the outline's due, but I'm hoping to have enough done that I can figure out the remainder of my outline.  Plus, I'd like to turn in what I've completed for early review to make sure I'm on the right track.  It would be a major bummer to turn everything in and find out, "Eh, that's not what we were going for."  AAAAUUUGH!!!!

Okay. Time for coffee and today's exciting chapter of "Cats Around the World."