Shortly before Christmas, I got a book contract. I would have blogged about this amazing event sooner, but – well, Christmas got in the way. However, you can read my ongoing progress on a special blog I’ve set up for this purpose – True Imaginary Friends. (Trust me, here – it’s named after the mug that I’ve bought for my authorial self. I only use the mug when I’m sitting working on the book, to remind myself to concentrate.)
Being a librarian rather than a lecturer, I don’t have lecture plans and essay marking to do, so I suppose I have a slight time advantage during termtime – though lecturers have MUCH more time in vacations! (Even if they’re still “working” while the students are away, they don’t have the week-in, week-out 9-5 routine that we library folk “enjoy”…)
Back to the book, though. I had a bit of reading I wanted to do in relation to a conference paper I’ve committed to, so it was New Year’s Day before I sat down and wrote a schedule for work on the book. So far, so good – I shall have finished Chapter 3 by the weekend, and that means I’m right up to date. Thereafter I’ve allowed a month for chapter 4 and the new chapter 5. (It’s a book-based-on-a-thesis, but chapter 5 is new, and that means chapter 4 will undergo a tiny, modest bit of pruning in order to avoid duplication.)
A bigger question is the question of images. I knew I’d have to pay for them myself. Until today, I had no idea just how much I might have to pay. Owch. I see I shall have to factor in time not just for SOURCING and OBTAINING them, but also for finding the cheapest way of getting digital images.
I’ve written papers and articles before. (And reviews, and short stories, and even a magazine serial.) But 2012 is the year when I get to grips with obtaining images and their appropriate rights. All I can say is, watch this space!
Oh, and a belated Happy New Year to you while I’m at it! Here’s a Hogmanay posting I wrote for The Thesis Whisperer.
