What writing-related ‘firsts’ have you experienced this year?

[jongibbs]

I’ve been lucky enough to enjoy some great writing-related ‘firsts’ this year.

FIRST BOOK PUBLISHED
My debut novel, Fur-Face, came out as an e-Book from Echelon Press in June.

FIRST BOOK-SIGNING (SORT OF)
I put the various formats of Fur-Face on a CD so I could take part in book-selling events, starting with the Ocean County Library Book festival in

Comments

[msstacy13]

Since you ask, and since I like using

,
1. saw (and held!) my own book three times this year. (That is, three different books, although I had to resort to Lulu.)
2. Saw a story of mine published online. (The hardcopy anthology won't be 'til next year.)
3. Saw one of my books on the amazon wishlist of a complete stranger
4. Saw my name in the acknowledgements of another author's book
5. Gave autographed copies of my books to people who wanted them*
6. Gave a public reading of my work
7. Completed a work in excess of 80,000
8. Took a WIP beyond 120,000 words
9. Rec'd a review copy of an anthology to review, and reviewed it.
10. Bought and read an ebook for the first time.

* Which reminds me of a teaser from an episode of Cheers.
A kid tells Sam his younger brother is dying of leukemia,
and that he wanted to give him a ball autographed by
Carl Ystremski, but couldn't find one,
so he decided that if Sam signed a ball,
his brother wouldn't know the difference.
So Sam signs a ball and gives it to the kid,
who looks at it appreciatively for a moment,
then frowns and says,
"Not your name! Ystremski's!!!"

[jongibbs]

120,000 words? That's a long book. Did you manage to prune it back or maybe even split it into a two-parter?

[msstacy13]

I think it will be over 300,000 by the time I'm done with it.
If (dare I say when?) I find a publisher,
I'll discuss the possibility of breaking it into a number of smaller books,
since that would probably be more profitable.

I'd prefer having a single volume that stands comfortably
between Les Misérables and War and Peace,
but we don't always get everything we want.
:)

[jongibbs]

It's not just the profitabilityismness of it, I think there's a sort of economic batch quantity type thing, which limits the number of pages in a book too.

[msstacy13]

I'll let you know as soon as I find out...
:)