I got a check today. This check is interesting because it’s the first half of the advance on my forthcoming book, The Cranky User. It’s weird; it’s one thing to have signed a contract, and it’s another thing to have written a rough draft of a book, but it’s another thing entirely to actually get paid. It’s not that I don’t get paid for writing the rest of the time; indeed, it’s about all I get paid for recently. However, this is the advance on my first actual book. Not just a couple thousand words; an entire book.
The book is well on its way to being ready. The first draft is done, and reviewers are (I believe) reading that to send comments which will be used to revise it; actually, there’s not that much time for revisions, but this is essentially a second revision pass now. If all goes well, the book will be in copy editing by this time next month, or sooner. And, somewhere down the road, it’ll be officially done.
It’s frustrating, because no matter how much I work on the book, I always find myself thinking it’s not really done. I don’t know that it ever will be; any book trying to capture something difficult will always be looking for one more good example, one more analogy. Ahh, well. We do what we can.
With any luck, there will be a snippet or two up here in a month or two.