I know I’ve been quiet, but I’ve been hyper-focused on writing. I’m taking a break from the film for 6-8 weeks and going to release a book before Christmas.
My web developer and close friend emailed me all of the blogs in a word document as we are revamping the website. As soon as I opened the document, I started writing around the blogs and editing with a vengeance. My God, my spelling and grammar was so horribly atrocious, I’ve never read my old blogs before. I have a bad tendency to write, not proofread, and post. My story however is pretty cool. I’m including the story behind the story and some experiences I didn’t want to include until I was safe to do so. I’m also weeding out everything that is unimportant.
This book will take place from about 16 months before starting Project BlueSphere and end with the sale of Namaste in Brisbane, Australia. It’s hard for me to convey the lessons I’ve learned in video or short-format writing, this is perfect! The words are flying out of me faster than I can type.
Carla is also working her tail off editing. She has remarkable command of English grammar as she was a English teaching/translating major. She also studied editing so this works out really well for me. She’s going to make me look better/smarter than I actually am.
I’ve also come to the conclusion that my dreams are going to come to a screeching halt if I can’t generate some travel money. I’ve pretty much saturated the market with my films and need another product. After I released my first film it would bring in roughly $200 – $500 a month which was just enough for me to travel with. Now I’m happy to sell 5/6 downloads a month ($50-$60), not so good. The cool thing about the book is that it appeals to the non-sailor and I’m hoping to have a broader audience.
I’m thinking to release as an ebook/kindle download, but I’m also looking at some possibilities of self-publishing. If anyone has some literary contacts that could answer a few questions for me I’d really appreciate it.
I’m often up writing from 3:30 AM and usually conk-out midday when Carla takes over. I’m thinking I’ll have a working first draft, somewhere between 500-800 pages in about 3 weeks if I can keep this up. My current document is at about 1000 pages and 175,000 words. The book will only be about 60% blogs, maybe less, by the time I’m done.
Sorry to be short but I’m going back to work.
Cheers
– alex
I’m at the point now with Splendid that I don’t have money for materials, so I’m uber-motivated!