I published my first book (well, at least in many years) on January 31st. (It’s here if you want it.) It’s been an entertaining if not nerve-racking process watching people download it and, in theory, read it.
There have been just under 150 downloads so far, which I’m calling a win since I did no marketing beyond sending to the email list for this website and posting on Facebook.
Now that I’ve got the first book out, I’ve been able to turn my focus back to everything else I have in the works.
Here’s my list of the next book projects I’m working on in the coming months.
- The Simpsons Season 1 Retrospective. I wrote this book originally as a way to build subscribers for my ’80s and ’90s newsletter, The Retro. I’m still planning to use it for that purposes. The book and cover are both completely done and ready to go, I’m just waiting until I get back from my upcoming family vacation to publish.
- ’80s toys trivia book (title tbd). The first of my trivia books. I have hundreds of unique facts about ’80s toys. Rough draft of the book is close to done, then I’ll need to give this a thorough review. Cover and artwork are both almost ready.
- Puzzle book (title tbd). I created hundreds of puzzles several years back for use with a board game; the board game never happened. I’m repurposing the puzzles into books. I need to do more revisions on the puzzles and add more humor to them. I’m aiming for March for this book.
- Nerds of Fortune. A heist novel about a group of college buddies. I’ve discussed it a little bit on this website in the past. I needed to work through two major plot issues. I used one of my recurring daily streaks in order to do so (I dictated and talked through the issues while doing nightly dog walks). I figured out the solutions to both and have a much stronger novel as a result. I now need to do the rewrites, then this one will be off to the copy editor. I’m hoping for May to publish.
- First children’s book (title tbd). My epic poem children’s book is almost done. I struggled a lot with the ending but believe I’ve cracked it. Need to finish the end, tighten up some of the rhymes, and give it a full edit. The artist is already working on character designs and illustration style. There’s a lot of art for this, so this is also likely a Q2 publication.
Also targeted for this year: 1-2 more novels, 1-2 more nonfiction books, 2-3 more trivia books, 2-3 more puzzle books, 1-2 more children’s books.
I’m approaching the books I publish in this first year with a lot of intention — that is, a lot of single books in different genres and/or first books in a series.
I’m rolling out my books that way for a few reasons.
- I want to see what the audience responses to, in order to give me direction for what to focus on and prioritize.
- I’m at the point now where the directions I go are still flexible; I haven’t built up an expectant audience (or algorithm strength) in any.
- I can better focus the marketing channels I’m building up around areas of strength.
If this is your first time here, welcome. I keep a log of what I’m doing in my 1-2 hours per night of work on this project at the Work Log.
Hope you enjoy seeing behind-the-scenes of the process!