Exfanding Your Horizons Turns 4 Years Old!

It's official: Exfanding Your Horizons is four years old! Happy birthday to us!

Because it's now a tradition, we'll be following in the blogsteps of the last three years with a Q&A format guaranteed to please new readers and longtime Exfanders alike. (DISCLAIMER: That's just talk; we guarantee nothing.) Due to various circumstances, this year we've condensed the list from ten questions down to five. There's probably DLC already on the disc for the other five questions, though, so it's not like we're totally gypping you.

Our blog rules.


Hey...didn't there used to be two guys writing this blog?

NATHANIEL: Um...there did used to be two of us. It just occurred to me that perhaps I didn't back up the Alex Posts Stuff widget before I asked my HTML-savvy wife to do most of the work overhauling the blog, because I haven't seen him since.

ALEX: *Crawls out from under his rock, locks around, sees shadow, thinks about heading back under his rock.*


This past year, in an effort to minimize filler and still continue to write amidst everything else going on in your lives, you introduced a new weekly column and several revisions and reductions to the regular posting schedule. For the last six weeks, one of you has been blogging solo while the other has been completely occupied with other endeavors. How do you feel about all that?

ALEX: It certainly wasn’t the ideal for me to stop writing for the blog, but unfortunately, it was (and, sadly, still is) a necessary evil. I’ve pretty much stopped sleeping in an effort to extend the day, so sitting down to write up an Exfanding post should theoretically be something I can handle. And yet, apparently I cannot.

Handle writing an Exfanding post, that is.

I actually just got back from a week in LA for work, and this week has been nonstop crazy as I try to finish off everything that’s due. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, though, and I honestly do hope to be back to the blog pretty soon.

NATHANIEL: Hey, you're here now, and that means a lot. Writing solo for a two-person blog is like performing without your co-star when the marquee clearly says "[pick one: Laurel and Hardy / Abbott and Costello / The Blues Brothers / Jay and Silent Bob / Penn and Teller / etc.]." You can make references to the other person, and carry on with the same kind of material as usual, but after a certain point it's almost disingenuous to work as a one-person duo.

It honestly feels like a different blog now than it did a month ago. Yes, the new look is part of it. But I think what was most jarring to me was spending a couple of years posting every single day virtually without exception, and then suddenly looking at the blog one day to see that it'd been just me posting two or three things per week. That all happened over the course of less than a month, and I don't think either of us expected things to be so drastic or last so long.

It'd be one thing if we'd just decided to pursue other projects, and I ended up starting up a blog of my own, but Exfanding has always been about collaboration. I find myself missing the joint posts and the theme weeks and the daily back-and-forth e-mail banter that we had before things got busy for us--and I miss having Alex's posts to read. Like I said two years ago, I'm a fan of Exfanding.

All that being said, there's still been a lot of good to come out of the changes we've made to accommodate both our crazy schedules. Sunday Spotlight has rejuvenated my focus on sharing new fandoms, which is ostensibly what this blog is all about. By relaxing our self-imposed posting deadlines, I've been able to take my time on writing the kinds of long, rambly posts I like best. Consequently, that occasional feeling of, "Aw, I need to write a blog post tonight," has all but disappeared, and the number of new "favorite posts" I've been able to write will make our Year in Review for 2012 even more of a challenge, assuming we get to our 2011 edition before then.


Whether it was Flashback Week, being on a Konami kick, the epic tale of the wedding saga, New York Comic-Con/Anime Festival, the ups and downs of self-publishing, or your latest D&D quest, you've told a lot of stories in the last twelve months. You've also been a bit more outspoken, reflective, ranty, and soapboxy than usual. Where do you see your writing going over the course of the next year?

ALEX: Hopefully on the blog.

No, really. I don’t care what I’m writing about; I just want to have the time to write for the blog again.

NATHANIEL: Well, if Alex will be writing again, then maybe I won't take over his Waiting for Wednesday column and talk every week about all the comics on my shelf that I picked up ages ago but haven't gotten around to reading yet.

Actually, that idea's not half bad...

::ahem::  I'm looking forward to taking a break from sprawling stories than span multiple posts. Writing them is fun, but it's also exhausting, especially when you get up to seven or eight parts. I've always been a short story and poetry kind of guy, and these things keep turning into novellas, so I'll be striving to find new ways to keep my storytelling concise. I'm hoping to maintain and expand the variety of topics I cover as well; I mean, off the top of my head, I can't even think of the last time I mentioned Mega Man.


Got any big, geeky plans we can look forward to hearing about in the near future?

NATHANIEL: Once The Avengers comes out on video in late September, you can bet I'll be hosting a 13-hour movie marathon of everything the Marvel Cinematic Universe has to offer so far.

Now that I've already brought up Mega Man once in this post, I can also mention that I'll be doing something for the Blue Bomber's 25th anniversary in December. If I can swing it, I'll do a streaming livecast marathon over the Internet, but I make no promises because I'm not even sure if "a streaming livecast over the Internet" is the proper terminology for what I'm thinking of, let alone something I've got the technology or know-how to properly pull off. I might have to get one or two of my tech-smart friends involved.

Alex, I know you've got something exciting planned.

ALEX: Yes! I have spent the past several days piled under printer files for my forthcoming children’s book, which is scheduled to be on sale the first week of October.

Aside from that, I’ve also started work on a comic book for which I’ve hired a really kicking artist. We plan on completing the entire first issue, then posting it (for free) on KickStarter in an effort to get people to pay for the rest of the series. It’ll be a four-issue mini, and it’s an idea I’ve toyed with for a while now.

Hmmm…what else? Oh! I’m going to the Baltimore Comic Con in an effort to drum up some interest in the children’s book, and in the comic series. I haven’t been to a convention since last year’s New York show, so I am really excited to make that trip.


Dare I ask about that blog book you keep threatening to release?

ALEX: I don’t even want to talk about books, or getting books printed. Seriously. Ask Nathaniel.

NATHANIEL: Oh, sure. Ask Nathaniel. I think it's been long enough now that we can file this one under "Things We'd Like To See, But Probably Won't," along with the full story of The Great Comic Book Adventure of 2011 and Part 2 of that Transformers 101 guest post.

Oh, jeez. Didn't we promise you a t-shirt, too?

ALEX: And Exfanding Hand Puppet Theater©.

NATHANIEL: Yeah. You can officially stop listening to everything we promise you.

Waiting for Wednesday, Volume 4, Issue 54: Even More Amazing Adventures in Self Publishing!

[Continued from Part Seven.]

I'm starting to scare myself with the amount of time that I spend not sleeping these days (um, or nights, I suppose). I'm at a point where there just aren't enough hours in the day to get to everything I have going on.

For the first time in a long time, my creative energies are hitting on all cylinders, and I just can't bring myself to unplugging. Heck, I'm even finding time to blog again, which, if you'd have asked me a couple of weeks ago, I would have told you was not going to happen for a good, long while.

But here I am, up after midnight after a long day at the office, typing away and sending off countless emails to the artist on my next project. At the same time, I'm emailing and communicating with a number of people about my current project, the children's book I can't seem to shut up about.

I have no idea where any of this is going to take me. And, tonight (or, more accurately, this morning) as I start contemplating the cost of doing these things that I want to do, I have some butterflies in the stomach and a bit of worry, but it's a good, anxious, let's get this done already kind of worry.

I know full well that there's a pretty large possibility that none of the projects I'm currently hammering away on will make one single penny, and that the money I'm about to throw into them may not ever find its way back to me.

But I'm at a point where I can't afford to NOT do this. It's time to take that stupid risk that I have always been telling myself I'd take. It's time to suck it up and let the sacrifices of the past few years mean something. I've saved money and I've made decisions in my personal life that have always been rooted in getting my work out there, in the best-looking form humanly possible.

Nothing is cheap these days, especially within the publishing industry, so the money I'm about to spend is not going to be peanuts.

But I've been smart about saving it, and instead of using the money for other things that will assuredly help me down the road in life, I am going to use the money to try to get this dream off the ground. Because, frankly, I've had my feet planted for far too long.

Saying you're going to do something is nothing. Telling yourself you're going to do something is nothing. Convincing yourself that you're going to do something someday is nothing. It's all meaningless unless you actually go out and do it.

I'm at the point where "someday" is now. Right this moment. We're past the dreaming stage. We're past the let's-find-a-way-to-put-this-into-practice stage. We're miles beyond the, "Gee, I hope people will like this" stage.

We're at the Do It Now, or Do It Never stage.

Time to toughen up, Exfanders, because this is it. Right now is the moment the decision is made. This night (morning) is the one I look back on years from now and say one of two things about. And, even if this all amounts to absolutely zero, I promise you this: When I look back on this moment, I will not say, "I wish I'd just done it."

Because it's being done.

I have no idea what happens next. I have no idea if it's a financially stupid move on the part of a naive wanna-be writer.

The only thing I know is that, moving forward, there are no regrets.

Because I'm doing it.

I'm doing it.

The Return of Amazing Adventures in Self Publishing

[Continued from Part Six.]

I had an interesting conversation with a friend the other day about being creative and just getting out there and doing the things you've always wanted to do. Luckily for me, those things do not include base-jumping or hiking Mt. Everest or skydiving, so achieving the things I want to someday achieve is theoretically within reach.

As I mentioned on Saturday, I'm awaiting pricing information about the printing of a children's book that I've written and had illustrated. The book, from my end, is basically done. It needs another couple pairs of eyes to act as objective observers and proofreaders. (That's what we call in the biz a "cold read," kids.)

So far, though, I've shown the book to a pretty good number of folks who have given me lots and lots of positive feedback. The same buddy I mentioned up at the top of this post also said about the book--about the art, specifically--that "It's somewhere I'd want to live in."

That's a wonderful compliment for the artist, and one that I was very happy to hear as the aesthetic of the book is not exactly your standard children's book fare.

Which is, of course, exactly what I wanted when I set out to find the perfect artist for the project.

As I've said countless times on the blog, I have quite a bit of built-up resentment for the publishing industry as it currently stands. I'm not too in love with the fact that, when The Walking Dead hit big, all the big publishers jumped aboard the zombie bandwagon.

Or, when Twilight first took over the world, you couldn't throw a bookmark in a Borders without hitting a tween vampire thing.

I'm also quite tired of the notion that one must already be published in order to get published. That, as I like to say, is the stupidest thing ever. And, despite the fact that people in the books industry will tell you that's not the case at all...let me break some news for you: That's absolutely the case.

Sure, there are first-time authors who break in--of course there are. But they're so few and far between that the actual numbers might well drive a would-be writer to, well, maybe try something crazy.

Like self publishing.

I've read countless pieces online (by people who are published, by the way) about how self publishing has so diluted to market because, as they like the decry, "Now anyone can write a book."

Yes. Yes, they can. And that's the point.

Listen, I know from being looked down upon. Nobody in publishing considers what Nathaniel and I do here on the blog "being published." But guess what? We are published, and our work--for better or for worse--is out there for the entire Internet to see.

I have no delusions of grandeur, though. I get that our blog isn't Neil Gaiman's blog. I get that. I really do. But for "professionals" to dismiss blogs as being amateurish and somehow unworthy of recognition? Short-sighted, plain and simple.

But, that's the publishing industry in a nutshell. I mean, so far they've done such a good job with transitioning to digital, right?

Oh, there's a meteor coming? I'm sure it'll just blow right over us.

Yep, that was a low blow on my part. Sorry. And, yep, I get that digital sales are actually doing quite well. But, if the publishers figured out WHAT THE REST OF THE PLANET FIGURED OUT 5 YEARS AGO, maybe there would not have been so many layoffs of so many talented people.

Think about this for a second.

In publishing, the writer (the would-be money-maker) has to go out and, basically, woo an agent. How backwards is that? Can you imagine if that's the way professional sports teams operated?

Nah, we haven't seen Bryce Harper. Why not? Well, because he never sent us a query letter. Oh, wait. Perhaps it's on this slush pile behind me. I'll have my assistant look through them in the morning. But this Harper kid--is he any good?

Insanity. It's insanity that publishing works the way that it does, and it's amazing that there are still people out there screaming that self-publishing has "lowered the bar."

Ya know what, though?

While they push through yet another vampire love story with zombies invading a high school, I'll happily continue lowering the bar.

[Continued in Part Eight.]

Amazing Adventures in Self Publishing! Part Six

[Continued from Part Five.]

So today is a pretty special day for me.

The artist on the children's book I've been writing about these last few weeks has officially finished the final illustrations. She sent everything along this morning and I had a chance to check it out before I left for work.

Even though it was but a quick look through the pages before I had to fly out the door, I'm ridiculously happy with how the art came out. It was more than a little mind-blowing to see something that started as nothing more than thoughts in my head come to life on the page.

From here, the real work begins for me.

I'll need to sit down and edit my text and make sure that the illustrations and the words mesh well together. I'm waiting on a final cover from the artist, but then it's GO GO GO to the printer with the files.

We're shooting for an October on-sale for the book, so I'll need to get things moving rather quickly from here, and I've still not 100% decided on a specific printer, though there is one that's leading the pack thus far.

I also need to figure out the marketing of the book and follow through on several ideas I've had to generate some buzz about the project online.

Right.

Lots of work ahead, but for today at least, I'm gonna enjoy where things stand.

[Continued in Part Seven.]

Amazing Adventures in Self Publishing! Part Five

[Continued from Part Four.]

Making things can be fun.

Creating something from nothing and breathing life into characters that didn’t exist before you came along and dreamed them up and clacked some keys can be one of the coolest feelings on the planet.

Going from that awesome, creative stage to the next part of the creative endeavor, however, can be the opposite of that warm, fuzzy feeling, mostly because the business end of anything just isn’t a whole lotta fun. Mostly because “business end” is a nice way to say “you’re gonna spend money, homes.”

I’ve learned this lesson (the hard way) a few times in the past, but with my latest creative project I intend to not screw it up.

Mostly because I’ve had plenty of practice screwing creative things up in the past.

But this time? This time I’m not gonna screw it up. Why? Well, it’s certainly not because I think I might actually know what I’m doing. No, no. See, I’ve learned that the moment you think you know what you’re doing is the very same moment that you realize how incredibly stupid you’ve been.

But this time, I’ve budgeted in enough money and time to account for the part when I screw up royally.

*sigh*

I have a lot to say about this, actually, but Blogger is driving me INSANE today, so I’m gonna stop here and try again tomorrow. Sorry, but I really don’t want to have to throw my computer out the window today…

Back with more soon. Promise.

[Continued in Part Six.]

Amazing Adventures in Self Publishing! Part Four

[Continued from Part Three.]

There’s a lot going on here at Exfanding HQ today, so I’ll be pretty brief. Instead of giving up on writing the next part of my (EPIC!) Adventures in Self Publishing! missive, though, I think there’s something pretty relevant to talk about.

Specifically, my lack of any free time to work on side projects.

This weekend will be my last relatively quiet one for a while, as I’m working through next weekend and then...well, who knows? So, despite the fact that I have two family commitments (one on Saturday and one on Sunday), I still plan to carve out at least a couple of hours to devote to my little publishing venture.

I’m in a holding pattern for the moment, but once I get final art pages from my artist, things are going to pick up considerably. So, my time now needs to be spent figuring out how to make that time as painless as possible.

Because my book has a spooky feel to it, our plan has been to release the book sometime around October.

Which means it’ll need to be printed by end of summer. Which means, in the next few weeks, I need to figure out how I’m going to print it (preferably without going bankrupt) and how I’m going to distribute, both physical copies and digitally.

As that’s happening, we’ll also need to launch our marketing campaign, which will be grass roots.

For any of this to happen, of course, I need to have the time to sit down and do it. And time has been the most fleeting of luxuries as of late.

I’m not gonna sit here and use this space to say something like, “If you really want something, you need to just go out and do it.” While good advice, it’s also impractical and, well, stupid, and I’ll be darned if my quasi-journal of starting a publishing company will include something as contrived and clichéd as that sentiment.

Most people have other, more pressing matters to take into consideration—like fulltime work, or family, or looking for fulltime work while trying to raise a family, and the thought of neglecting all of that to pursue a dream? As romantic as it may sound, it’s just not for me.

Let me put this right out there: I do not, nor have I ever, bought into the “Starving Artist” philosophy.

I believe that, while one’s art (whatever that may entail) should be an important—and, frankly, huge—part of one’s life, it cannot get in the way of one’s life.

There are all these great stories about indy filmmakers quitting their jobs, maxing out their credit cards, giving it “one last shot” to make it. Those stories are wonderful and inspiring and incredibly reckless. And I can hear you say, “Sometimes we all need to be a little reckless.”

Sure, but also remember that we usually only hear about the times that recklessness leads to something great and not the countless times recklessness leads to something not so great.

So here’s my thinking on the matter: Be responsibly reckless.

Huh. I think that’s my new motto.

[Continued in Part Five.]

Amazing Adventures in Self Publishing! Part Three

[Continued from Part Two.]

I think the single harshest word in the English language is, “No.”

I also think “no” is the one word that can really drive me to get off my backside and get motivated. So, in a weird, in-Alex’s-head-only-does-this-make-sense kinda way, “no” is also my favorite word in the English language.

It’s a good motivator, is what I’m trying to say.

I can’t help my ineloquence.

You see, I have a lot of ideas floating around in my coconut, and some of them are even worthwhile. I tend to get very passionate about things, and once I have my heart and/or mind set on something, I get really frustrated if I can’t see it to fruition.

When I started my own (tiny, independent) publisher with two of my best friends, one of the biggest reasons to actually go out and do stuff on our own was the simple concept of not having anyone there to tell us “no.”

It’s our money, it’s our time, and when it comes down to it, it’s whatever we want to publish, in whatever form we want to publish in.

I’d had the idea for a publishing house for quite a while, but it took a conversation one Sunday morning in an NYC diner to put the idea into practice. It’s always more fun to do stuff with friends, so we decided to give it a go.

Sure, it’s been a slow ride to where we are today, and we still have, well, pretty much all the work still in front of us, but we’re at the really exciting part.

As I’ve said in previous posts, I’m now waiting on the final art for my children’s book, which will be the first product we put out as a publisher.

But I think it’s important for us to establish ourselves as being capable of producing new, different, high-quality work. That last bit—the high quality part—is super important. We need to be able to show that we can go toe-to-toe with the big boys in terms of production value, even if—heck, especially because—we’re just three people who decided to start a publisher.

I know we have some cool stuff that we can show the world. I know that we have the independent spirit within us, and that we’re totally capable of pulling this off. Next time, I’ll talk about the process of “pulling it off.”

Stay tuned...

[Continued in Part Four.]

Amazing Adventures in Self Publishing! Part Two

[Continued from Part One.]

My time spent in traditional publishing--from my time with a very small publisher, then with a very nice but incredibly unorganized magazine publisher, and then a with a larger publisher--afforded me innumerable important lessons about the industry.

At my last gig, I worked for the smartest person in the book business, and I literally learned something every single day from him.

At previous jobs, I learned how not to do things--which, as I was told back in my baseball-playing days, is also quite valuable. One of my first coaches told me that you can learn a whole heck of a lot more by watching someone do everything wrong than you can by watching someone do everything right.

In publishing, a whole lot of folks have been doing a whole lot of things wrong for quite a while now.

One friend in the book biz likens even mid-size publishers to large ships incapable of changing course quickly. Publishers, no matter their size, should be just the opposite--small, quick vessels able to turn on a dime. Especially in today's don't-blink-or-you'll-miss-the-next-big-thing environment of technology, publishers need to realize that the old ways, though maybe not dead, are certainly in need of repair.

But the words "publishing" and "technology" haven't exactly fit well together since that Gutenberg guy came along.

Somehow, there's a 10-year-old kid at the Apple store in the mall who is more technologically advanced than the heads of most publishing houses today, large and small. I got so tired of asking questions about technological advances (like, "Hey, shouldn't this be an ebook?") that I left publishing altogether and now work in digital media.

I have a Kindle that I don't use (two, actually). I go to used book stores on a frighteningly weekly basis. I collect first editions. I am the guy that will never prefer an ebook to a printed book. But I'm also smart enough to realize that the rest of the world doesn't agree with me.

Digital isn't the future. It's last year.

The next big thing just flew by my window. He's being replaced tomorrow.

So the publishers, slow as they were to embrace digital, now finally have thrown themselves into the fold. Good for them. And, with the emergence of new and awesome digital products, the same publishers are now putting out lots and lots of new, exciting books and genres and characters to take full advantage of the new, exciting digital landscape, right?

Sure. Just this year (it's APRIL!!), there have been 100 books on Titanic published. IN THE UNITED STATES ALONE.

New and different, indeed.

I could honestly rail all day long on how publishers big and small refuse to take gambles or are simply restricted financially from taking a risk on something that's unique to the marketplace.

I've seen enough Profit and Loss reports to know how mind-numbingly difficult it can be to justify the expense of publishing a book. In that sense, it's an absolute wonder anything gets published.

But, for my part, I think I just got tired of hearing the word NO. Then, it dawned on me.

When you self-publish, there is no one to say NO.

So, along with two of my best friends in the world, I started a publishing house. Initially, we were going to open things up to a whole slew of unpublished and untested writers and artists and photographers and circus clowns, but I realized that, A. I'm deathly afraid of circus clowns, and B. In order to attract others to our cause, we'd first need something of our own to show.

Something professional and cool and different and, well, something that we did completely on our own, without the help of a "real" publisher. Without the help of agents or writing coaches (whatever that is) or a marketing team.

Just three friends looking to do something fun that might just work and might just attract others.

And it all started with a doodle on a Post-It note and a conversation in a diner.

But more on all that in Part Three.

Amazing Adventures in Self Publishing! Part One

So things are starting to move a little bit on the old self publishing front. The book (a children’s book that I wrote and am now self-publishing, for those playing along at home) is in the hands of the amazingly talented artist, who is now more than halfway through the final illustrations.

For my part, I’m in the middle of researching printers and costs of printers and trying not to pass out from looking at the insane cost of printing a book with full color illustrations.

You’d think paper was a hot commodity, or something.

Being in publishing for a while, I certainly understand how the paper market fluctuates, and how that fluctuation effects...well, pretty much everything when it comes to making and publishing books.

That in mind, you might be asking why I—as someone who has left a traditional publisher for a job in digital media—am now so fixated on the cost of printing a physical copy of a book. You know, with paper and everything.

The answer is simple: Actual books are nice...and I like them.

I’ll be printing a very short run of books, and then offering the whole thing digitally for a fraction of the physical price, but, darn it, if I’m gonna write a book, then I want to be able to hold a physical copy of that book.

Also, it'll be nice to give out copies of the book to family and friends.

But I completely understand that digital is where the industry is, and where I want to go with things.

Going digital is also a heck of a lot cheaper than printing physical books.

But I've jumped way ahead of myself with this post. So let's stop things here, and call this entry an introduction. An overview, if you will, to get everyone up to speed on the project.

Next time, I'll go back to the beginning and talk about how the book began, how I found and hired an artist, and I'll show design sketches and page layouts and all that fun stuff.

So stay tuned, Exfanders, because these Amazing Adventures in Self Publishing are just getting started.

[Continued in Part Two.]

Weekend Work

Don't really have anything comparable to follow up Nathaniel's epic--and awesome--Harry Potter marathon post from yesterday, so I think I'll be pretty brief today.

So far, it's been a busy weekend of…well, work, mostly. And there's plenty more in store, as I have lots of stuff going on, both at work and in my at-home work endeavors.

The work-work stuff is, well, it's work and there's lots of it today, but I'm not gonna talk about it here. The at-home work, though? That's the fun stuff.

As I’ve alluded to in the past, I’m in the process of self publishing a children’s book. I’m now pretty far along in that process, and things are getting to the nitty gritty—but the fun part of the nitty gritty (if that makes any sense). I'm in that wonderful stage where I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing, which despite how it might sound, is actually a lot of fun.

You see, it’s one thing to write something, and to then stick it in a (digital) drawer for a while before making a decision to do anything with it. I've found that I'm quite good at that part of the game.

There's plenty of stuff that I've written and just socked away.

But, for a number of reasons, I decided to go all out with this latest project and sometime around October of last year I took the first big step--teaming up with an artist. Just getting to that step can prove to be quite the task, but this time it just felt like the right thing to do.

Since then, things have progressed nicely and I've received layouts for the entire book. I am, to say the least, incredibly excited with what I've seen, and I cannot wait to see what the final product looks like.

While the artist is hard at work on the finished pages, I'm now venturing out into the big, scary world of printers. There's lots of options from which to choose, and there's quite a bit of a difference in price with...well, with everything. Low print runs, in color, with a hard cover?

Incredibly expensive.

Because it's a children's book, we need to print this bad boy in full color, which ain't cheap, let me tell you. Still, along with some very smart friends of mine, I think I've narrowed things down enough to at least have a very real possibility of producing a high quality product for a price that isn't going to ruin me.

And, while those words may well come back to haunt me in the future, Present Day Alex is quite happy, and quite confident in what's to come.

Which, if you know me, is not like me at all.

But just going over page layouts and planning out both the printing and the marketing strategies for the book have me riled up--in a good way for once.

I know full well the pitfalls and the landmines of the publishing business. But, like one of my very first baseball coaches used to say, you can learn a whole heck of a lot more by watching someone who's doing everything wrong than you can from someone who's doing things right.

And I've watched plenty of people go about doing things the wrong way over the course of my career.

So we'll see what happens, and as I like to say: What could possibly go wrong?

: )


-- -- -- --

Enjoy your Sunday, Exfanders.