9/1/25 Book Update

Hi guys!

We're about seven months from launch today (roughly, haven't quite worked out the details). This post is mostly for maintenance and points of admin, so I think I'll get those out of the way first, then talk about where I'm at with the book.

Points of Admin:

The first point is about blog posts, and more broadly, what kind of content I post where. I think moving forward, I've decided I'll be putting all of the "book updates" here and longer details about my writing experience. If you liked my piece "The Art of Being Young, Messy, and Human," most of those kinds of introspection-y think pieces will be on my Substack, where I post every Friday. I may cross-post those to here occasionally.

On Instagram, I try to post more frequently (it's VERY difficult, though, as I've come to learn, to come up with advice several times a week). On YouTube, I post long-form video-essay things and some short videos. I'm still learning the ropes, and maybe I'll abandon one of these sites for another, who knows.

Second point of admin---I have no idea how my posting schedule is going to change because of school. I'm starting my junior year of high school, and that might have to take priority over posting sometimes. I hope I didn't make a massive mistake trying to publish my book this year, but I'm honestly so motivated to do this that it doesn't really matter right now, even if future me will be hating current me.

Book Update

Alright, now for what you actually clicked on this article to read. So here's where I'm at with my book---I'm finishing developmental edits, and beginning to work things out with a copy editor to clean up my manuscript. A lot of the past few weeks have sort of been a state of limbo as I'm trying to work out finances and budget, because publishing a book is not only difficult, but also not free, to the surprise of no one. I finished training for my first job yesterday, because while I do currently have the money to pay for an editor, my savings account will be fully depleted afterwards, so I want to work to replenish it.

I dunno about you guys, but I'm excited. My goal is to sell about 300 copies, since that's all I need to break even in terms of money. In terms of the time I've invested in this project, I consider it worthwhile. I talked to the editors, and they told me the turnaround time is about four weeks, which surprised me. I expected it to be longer, but I suppose they're professionals. My initial thought was that I'd have too much time between when my book is finished with the copyedit and the actual release date, but then I considered cover design, formatting for Amazon KDP, and everything else...

Now, this might be too early to ask, but would you guys be interested in character/world art? I've been doing quite a bit of it over the years, and if it's something that people are interested in, maybe I can even sprinkle some into the book (I made a map, too, that I want to put somewhere in the front matter).

Alright, that wraps up this book update. Thanks for reading to the end! Or if you just scrolled all the way down here, you're cool too! Comment below for your thoughts, ideas, follow the socials, blah blah blah. Thanks again, and I hope to see you soon!