TCL eBook Launch Day!
Plus I talk to Jenn Laughran of The Literaticast
The Book š
The This Creative Life book has been such a long time coming that I hardly can believe it (the ebook version) is actually out today in all the places. The experience of doing this self-publishing project has been so fun for me! As far as the systems and platforms and software and services, itās been like learning a new, complicated game.
The writing itself was less like a new toy and more like an old frienemy. Iāve been taking notes on this idea for a very long time, but putting it all together into a final form took longer than I thought it would. And once it was in a āfinalā form and copyedited and proofed, I kept finding little things I wanted to changeāwith the content and also with the layout. I must have made twenty versions of epub files before I finally forced myself to lock it in.
But after all that, what came out in the wash is really a book! Itās about 32k words, or around 160 print pages. Ebook page count varies by your device and font size, of course. My model for the physical form and length of it was Steven Pressfieldās The War of Art, a book I sort of love and sort of hate. I wanted to write the non-hyper-masculinized version of thatāless drill sergeant, less tough love, and more āweāre all in this togetherā camaraderie. Itās not exactly a Liz Phair style track-by-track rebuttal (maybe next time), but it does carry a little bit of that spirit.
Ways to get it!
Direct and 30% off, for those who love the convenience of ebooks but hate big tech. More about this in the podcast ep, but here is your link and your code: QWBODLO8MX (this one will never expire).
KoboĀ - (If you donāt have a Kobo device, you can download the Kobo Books app for iOS or Android, and if you make sure your Kobo account is associated with your favorite indie book shop, it will help them, too!
You can also:
Add it to your Storygraph (though not all the metadata is showing up yet)
Stand by for the wide release paperback. Itās set to come out on May 5. You can find it on Amazon now, because I could not set it to a future date and once my file was approved, it went live, and you can find a pocket edition on Lulu, but if you can be one more weekās worth of patient, I stongly recommend hanging in there so that I can get all these different editions and platforms fully ironed out and present you with all of your options on May 5.
(Bonus content for publishing nerds: Iām learning new things like my Ingram ISBN is tied to the 5x8 trim size, not all trim sizes are available for expanded/global distribution, but the pocket size is very cute and Iām trying to have both sizes available and looking into how I could make it even smoller??)
The Podcast šļø
Today in the This Creative Life feed, youāre getting my conversation with Jenn Laughran on The Literaticast, which is another great writing and publishing podcast that you should be checking out if youāre not already. Also, after recording my intro, I realized Iāve been pronouncing it and Jennās Literaticat handle incorrectly for nigh upon 17 years. Annnnyway, in this episode, we really dig in to the content and ideas in the This Creative Life book, so if youāre still wondering what the heck is in this book, this should give you a good idea!
On deck will be a return to some classic format TCL episodes as well as the final Launch Box ep with a full post-mortem of this whole self-publishing adventure.
As ever, find it in your favorite podcast app or directly right here.
The Newsletter š§
As Iāve mentioned, the scope of this newsletter will be expanding as I do some more regular posts about writing, publishing, and the writing life. I would love to hear from you on this. Do you have a question youād like addressed in the newsletter or the podcast? If there were a follow up book to This Creative Life, what would you like to see in it that you felt was missing from this first book? What are your biggest challenges and concerns about writing? Let me know! You can use the comment field here, reply to the newsletter, or email to contact@sarazarr.com
Also: if you were a paying subscriber once upon a time, you probably got an email saying your subscription was canceled. Donāt worry, you are still subscribed! I finally turned off paying subscription option after having it paused for a year. A couple of you have already written to say, āBut I want to support you!ā Check out this page for ways to continue to contribute if you like, and thank you!