As I’m sure you’ve noticed, it’s December, and you don’t have a copy of my book in your hands. If you haven’t noticed, please stop reading this right now and continue on your merry way. I tried to come up with some entertaining title for this post or a witty analogy for my update, but I decided against offering up some trite lighthearted excuse.
Instead, here’s why you don’t have a copy of my book in your bookcase or in a stack of stuff on your desk. I was on track to have everything finished and the book printed by November, and then a number of discouraging factors along with a few neutral delays intervened.
Most significantly though was the book I read about how to promote a platform, be it a book, a charity, or any other idea. I hadn’t planned on asking people for endorsements—that section of praise that’s usually on the first page or two inside books—and then I finished this book on promoting platforms, convinced that I absolutely needed to secure endorsements. I still feel like that was an important move, but it’s caused a delay in my book. The good news is that I’ve gotten some really great feedback and quotable words for my book from pastors, ministry execs, and other authors, and I think it will significantly help my book. Unfortunately, I’m still waiting on a few of those to come back to me. They’re important enough that I decided they were worth waiting for. Hopefully they’ll be in within the next couple of weeks though. Because it’s now Christmas season and people are crazy, that’s pretty bad news for my book.
I want to apologize for not following through on my projected publication date. This fall has been stressful for multiple reasons, but what’s been the most stressful and disheartening thing has been that my book is not published yet. I hate that I didn’t make my goal, I hate that I didn’t follow through faithfully as promised to all of my amazing supporters, and I hate that I’m still not holding a published copy of my book. 🙁
Though it completely bums me out to say this, my goal is that my book will be out by the end of January or at least by mid February. I’ve gotten conflicting answers about how long cover designing takes, but it sounds like it’s around 3 weeks to set that up and then a few more weeks to print the book (I do have my cover all planned out, but I can’t technically move on to that phase with designers until the final text is in). So I think it could be done by the end of January, but with holiday hours at the publishing house, I’m just not certain how that timeline will be affected.
One of the thoughts from the book I read said, “Don’t settle for less than ‘Wow,'” and though I considered just scrapping endorsements and canceling another final edit to move forward, I heeded that advice. This is important enough to me that, although I’m tempted to just move this show along, I don’t want to settle for less than “wow,” less than my best.
If you have questions, please e-mail me and let me know. Again, I am so sorry. I really am. I’m thinking about what to do to at least semi-make it up to you. In the meantime, I would really appreciate your prayers for this to all come together as soon as possible—for all of the final details to fall easily into place, for final endorsements to come through, for the 5 hour time difference between the publisher and me not to be an issue, and to finish strong. Thank you again so much for your support. I truly appreciate you, your support, and your patience in not having angrily demanded my book yet. 🙂