WNA #12: So, what are you up to this year?
Great! This is what I’ll be doing:
As mentioned in the previous edition, the contract came with a global planning. To make things more tangible, I plotted the milestones into my Notion workspace.
The milestones with a 🔴 are the ones that haunt me the most. I marked them to make sure I never run out of things to stress over in bed at night.
Jokes aside, the schedule is quite packed, especially in the first half of 2024. A few highlights:
First version delivery
Somewhere in April, the publisher expects a full first version of the entire book. Yes, that means everything has to be written by then. People ask me how far I am. I reply “Somewhere between 40% and 70%,” and this is the truth.
The thing with writing is: it’s never done. There’s always something to change. While writing chapter 25, you’ll realise that something in chapter 7 needs clarification. It’s a never-ending spiral.
Quantitavely, I have written 35,000 out of my target of 40,000 words. But that includes notes, multiple versions of the same paragraph, and other fluff. Some chapters are completely blank, still, or are long overdue to be completely rewritten. So, yeah. 40-70%.
Title and subtitle
Yes. I know. I’ve changed the title before. I was (am) happy with “We’re Not Artists,” and yet, the title is up for debate.
The publisher wants three candidates for both the title and the subtitle (and the cover).
My gut reaction was an overly confident “Well, screw that.” After taking a breather, I reminded myself that the publisher is in my corner. If anything, he wants to sell as many books as we can. So, I should be grateful that he’s on a mission to make this thing as good as we can.
I read somewhere:
A good title doesn’t guarantee the book will do well. But a bad title will definitely prevent it.
So, while “We’re Not Artists” is still in the running, I am exploring other options. Just to make sure we settle on something that’ll work.
Funny anecdote: in 1982, Laura Hayden released a book called Astro-Logical Love. It completely bombed. Shortly after, she repackaged the same contents in a new book, only changing the title and cover: How to Satisfy a Woman Every Time. It has since sold almost 3 million copies.
Cover design x3
This goes hand in hand with the title and subtitle. Apparently, people consider buying a book in this order:
Title and subtitle
Cover
Back copy
(Reviews on back or front)
Author bio
Look inside / flip through
Price
Every one of those is a potential exit point. When the reader makes it all the way to the price, and it fits their budget, they buy.
So, sure, I’m also open to exploring two additional visual directions for the cover. One of them will be designed by my talented wife Kiki+Design. She had no say in this.
Anecdote and knowledge blatantly borrowed from Scribe Media.