12-24 Book Deal!
So, I got a book deal. That’s pretty cool. I’m pretty stoked about it.
Back in like March, I read an article in the Worldview, the magazine for Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCV), in which a guy was pimping his publishing house. The publishing house is Other Places Publishing. He started it when he got frustrated by the poor travel guides to his country of service. He wrote his own travel guide, started the publishing house and published the book. From there, he’s published 13 more travel guides written by RPCVs and 2 other Peace Corps related books. One is a photo essay and looks gorgeous, but I haven’t been near a bookstore in a year, so I haven’t gotten to handle a real copy.
At the end of his article, he had a paragraph asking for solicitations from currently serving PCVs who were within 1-6 months of finishing service interested in writing a travel guide. So I wrote to him. He sent me the application requirements which I did and sent back. He offered me the Lead Writer position on the book in May or June.
The US government has very strong ideas of what its employees should and shouldn’t be doing. One of the shouldn’ts is “any work for anyone else.” Basically, one of the clauses in my PC contract says that I won’t sign a contract or take money from any other organization while working for them. So, I couldn’t sign the contract when he offered me the position. He knew this and understood so we were both on the same page and it was not an issue.In an attempt to get the book in sooner, and therefore get some feedback before leaving Vanuatu, I finished my PC contract on November 30th. I turned the rough draft of the book in less than a week later. A bit over a week after that, the publisher sent me the book contract which I signed and sent back to him. Now I have a signed book contract. The huge amount of research needed for this project is the reason that I kind of, sort of, completely stopped blogging for a few months. I couldn’t mention it here, then, because I didn’t actually have the contract so I hope you will retroactively forgive me.
I am still creating the maps and the photo spreads but the rough draft is done. It clocked in at ~138,000 words. That is more that I have ever written on anything by almost triple. I’m proud of myself and a little worried that something is still going to go terribly wrong.
The book should be out in May or June. I’ll let you all know. Now that I’ve announced it to the world, I’ll probably let you know the milestones as the process goes on as well.