Okay, it's on.

I'm going through with the book, and here are the answers to a few of the questions that have been raised.

I mean, would it really be that hard to add additional advice based on your own experiences rather than just what people have asked you on here?

The parts of the book that could be considered useful are in question/answer format. Sometimes the laughs come from knowing it's an actual question. If I make up a bunch of questions just so I can give clever answers, readers will think I made all of them up. The answers won't seem so clever.

Now, if you guys send a bunch of questions, I can answer them in the book rather than on the blog, thus providing new material. But it probably won't be instructional material. I see this as a book writers will read for entertainment, not for advice. Books with advice for writers are easily found (and easily discarded). This one might be read over and over.


I would buy it, but I'd really like it if it's liberally dosed with your humorous commentaries.

It'll have plenty of what you want.


I'd first want to know what would set it apart from the plethora of other books offering a road map to publishing success, or pointing out the roadblocks along the way.

Why, it'll be nothing like those books. It will offer nothing, and point out nothing. (Unless you read between the lines.) I expect it will contain a few items not on the blog, but not a lot. Here's an analogy that may be helpful.

You're a big Dilbert fan. You read it every day in the Springfield Gazette. Time passes. You want to relive the joy you received reading Dilbert. You notice that a giant anthology of Dilbert comic strips is available for $14.95. You also know that you can go into the archives of the Springfield Gazette one issue at a time and eventually read all the Dilberts for free. If $14.95 is the kids' lunch money, you read the archives. If it's dinner at The Olive Garden, maybe you buy the book and make your own spaghetti. You don't buy the book expecting a lot of cartoons that never appeared in the newspaper. You buy it because you want to read in bed or on a plane or during commercials, instead of in front of your computer.


If you really wanted to get serious about marketing . . .

I don't. I want one for me, and I want to sell enough to cover the printing and shipping and other costs.


I really do like the idea for the new book...I just wish there was a way to get it besides the internet. Do you think it will get into the bookstores anywhere?

Yes, you'll be able to request it in a bookstore, and they'll order it from a wholesaler, who'll order it from EE, who'll mail it to the wholesaler, who'll ship it to the bookstore. I will put it on the blog a couple months earlier, as I'm more likely to cover costs if I'm not giving these other places their cuts, and also to please reviewers, who don't want it in stores before they write their reviews. But eventually you can ask for it at your local store.