5B2021* Journal, Issue #3

*Five Books in 2021

I’m trying to publish five books this year. In issue #1 I got my head on straight. In issue #2 I got my process figured out. So what’s next? figuring out what I’m actually working with!

Book idea #1: Book for my son

Don’t tell my son, but I’m writing a book for him to celebrate his birthday. I wrote about it over here. I’ve only just started this one, and it’s the highest priority. That means it’ll get the most attention this year.

Book idea #2: Book for my kids

Over the years, I’ve written a bunch of different bedtime stories and fantasy worlds for my kids. I checked and there are about 60k of words already written there, so I could probably bundle them together and publish a book out of that work.

Book idea #3: Political essays

I love writing about politics, so I have a lot of projects sitting around that could be bundled into a single book. My quick estimates say I have 75k of words ready to go, and that’s before adding some older stuff.

Book idea #4: A collection of short stories

I publish short story collections in a zine, so I bundled them all together to see how many words they make up. Turns out I’m already up to 96k, and I’d like to write a new zine issue soon to boot.

Reminding myself how long books are

A good rule of thumb for novel length is about 90k words. That means these 4 projects are pretty close to the target. Books for kids are shorter, as are books of essays. I’m sure when I edit they’ll get much shorter, but I have lots of other content to make up the difference.

Keeping the fifth book open

I have a lot of ideas about what the fifth book could be, but I’d rather keep it open-ended. If I can get the first four books done, the fifth one will be like dessert. But I can’t get four done if I don’t get my son’s book done first. So that’s where I should focus next!