cellini's Diaryland Diary

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My Prospects

I keep getting more inquiries from media outlets for interviews. It is getting kind of crazy.

Erin said the other day that she thinks it not impossible - not something to expect either - but within the realm of possibility that I could maybe get an advance of up to $50,000 for this book if I submit a complete manuscript instead of just sample chapters and a proposal. Right now the topic is 'hot' and the timing is really good. Given the amount of media exposure I can clearly get (I'm getting it even when I don't want it) it seems like I can maybe get more of an advance than a first-time author of non-fiction would expect.

So I was thinking about it and if I get an advance of $30k or more then I'm going to try to make a new career out of this. If I get an advance like that then what I would do is temporarily scale back to working maybe 1 or 2 days a week at my current job, just enough to keep my health insurance. With a big cut in pay, I could get away with that right now at work since business is slow. I would take 3 months off, starting right when the books is launched. I would be pushing the book full time, doing interviews and travelling. Maybe speaking or doing demonstrations at regional environmental forums and fairs and such. Going on talk radio shows. Busting my ass to earn out the advance in actual book sales. Then I'd get as much work done on a second book as possible. The advance money would more than pay my bills during those 3 months.

I figure that after 3 months I would have an idea as to how successful the book is turning out to be and I should know whether I'm then in a position to get an even bigger advance on a second book. I already have 2 really good concepts for other books that I would have a ball researching, travelling for and writing. If I could make enough of a success out of the first book to get a $50k or bigger advance on the second one, then I will quit my job and make this my new career. If it doesn't work out, then I'd go back to working full time at my current job and enjoy whatever money remained.

Yes, I realize that this is maybe kind of getting ahead of myself. My main priority right now is getting this first book finished and selling it to a publisher for as much as I can possibly get. But I'm trying to think ahead because if I'm really going to make a go of this then I need to think about what kind of image and message I want to project in these interviews that I'll be doing over the next few months.

If I could pull this off, it would basically amount to my dream job. And holy shit do I ever need the money.

11:53 a.m. - 2009-10-16

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