How to go from 340,269 words to 95,619 words in just one decade

An exciting thing happened this month. I finally got Firebug to a point where it was close enough to done that I could plan out the weeks between now and when I’m having my book launch party.

I’ve created a color-coded launch calendar (text removed so as not to give away any surprises). Everything has a margin of error just in case things don’t go as planned. My buffers have buffers.

This week, I finalized my Launch Team and sent out an advance digital copy for them to read and review. I’m pulling together my plan for the book trailer I’m going to do. Next comes finalizing the cover art (which is almost done and looks beautiful) and sending out files to Ingram Spark and KDP so I can get a test print of the paperback. Once I get that back, along with the comments from the early readers, I can send out files to have both the print and the epub version created. Then I will finally be able to start sending out a presale link for the e-book and get the word out about the paperback. 

Once all that is sorted — along with dozens of social media posts and ads and emails and possibly even a press release — I can set my sights on the book launch date.

That day is going to feel like one hell of a finish line. I’ve spent so much of this year weighed down by decision fatigue, sliding down into the troughs of a hundred Dunning-Kruger graphs. Kindle Direct Publishing. Ingram Spark. Formatting files for epub. Podcast interviews. TikTok posts. Countless Google searches and YouTube videos. And not to mention more than a decade of working on Firebug whenever I could find the time. 

And now, in a few short months, I’ll be able to hold it in my hands.  However many copies I sell, however many people read it, whatever reviews I get, it will be a real solid object that I wrenched out of my subconscious piece by piece over more than a decade and chiseled from 340,269 words (the meandering, way-too-long first draft) to 95,619 words (its current nearly-ready-to-print incarnation).

Firebug will be done, and out in the world, and then I can move forward with the next project (Loop, Nevada) and start the whole journey over again, maybe a little higher up on the second hill of the Dunning-Kruger graph this time. 

Deep breaths. One step at a time, bird by bird. Let’s do this.