So, How's the Book Going? Part 10

My Muse (Jeremy Brett's Sherlock Holmes) is my jockey and I'm the racehorse about to break down right at the finish line.  However, I'm still amazed to report that we are both in the homestretch of getting the first draft completed.  (Okay, technically it's not a first draft. I must have written Part I nearly 30 times. The book will have five parts and I'm over halfway completed Part V, so I'm still calling it a first draft.  Don't argue with me.  I'm writing.)

Getting the first draft done means (of course) that the book is not ready for prime time just yet.  After the first draft is finished, I will then still need to:

• Edit
• Reformat the Microsoft Word document to whatever format Amazon handles
• Edit it some more
• Somehow figure out a cover image for the damn thing (!)
• Edit is some more
• Go through a final internal argument where I decide whether to go for "mere" ebook publishing or try to send the damn thing to a traditional publisher (and have it ignored for ten years)
• Market it when it's published in whatever format it comes out as.

It's actually getting scary now.  So far, no one has seen this manuscript except my Muse.  Letting someone else read it means that someone could really hate it.  Or, worse yet, I could place the book up on Amazon.com and sell not one friggin' copy.  As Holmes is saying in this scene from The Second Stain, "Every man's hand is against us."

Well, now I know what I'll have nightmares about tonight.

So How's the Book Going, Part 9

The Sherlock Holmes book was chugging along pretty well until July 2, when my main client Yahoo Contributor Network suddenly announced that it will go out of business on July 31. It will start deleting all 1643 of my articles on July 30.

I also have about 1100 articles on Helium that will go dark in December when they officially go out of business. At least Helium gave their writers a six month warning.

YCN is now the third client of mine to go out of business this year. My industry (web content writing) seems to be completely screwed. I had hoped writing would be my final career -- what a dumb hope, huh?

The nice thing about the late YCN is that I could write about topics I had an interest in.  Now it's back to writing about such scintillating topics as vaginal cosmetic surgery and how to choose a DUI lawyer.

The big problem is that the residual payments that I received help pay my ridiculously expensive health insurance premiums (I live in America, remember) and still take time out to work on the book.  Remember, time I work on the book is time that I'm not getting paid.  Odds are, I'll never make a single cent with this book, so I'm not sure if I can ever find the time to finish this damn thing, let alone try to edit it and flog it.

And yet my Muse is nagging me to finish this.  Of course, he gets very quiet when I'm upset.  He doesn't seem to understand the importance of getting my bills paid.  He gets jealous so easily when I have other things on my mind except him.  If he really wanted to be helpful, he'd get me publisher.