The Author Guy Blog by Larry B. Gildersleeve

10th May 2024

Hello out there,

Welcome back. Just returned from a six days in Florida and a four-day cruise around the Caribbean with my bride/best friend of thirty-five years. This was only our second cruise, and there will definitely be more in the future.

After ten years that yielded four novels, I find myself much more relaxed regarding my author journey since my escape five months ago from the self-publishing world. Don’t get me wrong. It was a wonderful experience and I learned more than I can possibly describe but, at least for me, a lot of the self-induced pressure has abated.

My first book with the new publisher and their partner Simon & Schuster will be a re-release of what is now a scrupulously and meticulously edited manuscript of my fourth (and award-winning) novel Blue by You. The “new” Blue will be published sometime later this year. The rough draft of my second of a two-book initial commitment, For the Love of Charlie Chaplin, will be finished in a month or two. It will then begin its journey down the step-by-step conveyor belt from an initial publisher internal review, through editing and formatting, a stop along the way for cover design, the production and marketing.

All by way of saying I have a book scheduled for release in 2024, and one in early 2025. I expect to finish my sixth manuscript and have it published much later in 2025. My new publisher has a right-of-first refusal on all my future work – here’s hoping I can continue to meet their stringent requirements. So the pressure to perform creatively (on my part) has largely gone away – at least for a couple of years.

Also, and not insignificantly, the pressure of doing everything myself -creating the manuscript, and then finding resources to format and publish, as well as book cover designers and ultimately an independent publisher to produce, has now all been corralled with one entity with deep and robust experience and expertise.

After four-plus decades in the pressure cookers of corporate life in both public and private companies, and a lengthy stint as an independent consultant, I know that pressure can be a good thing – in moderation. I’m now “moderating” as I enjoy my last one-third of life.

Until next week … Vaya con Dios

Larry B. Gildersleeve


Location: Bowling Green, KY, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Author Guy Blog by Larry B. Gildersleeve (Dec 4, 2024)

Image
  4th December 2024 Hello out there, Welcome back. I hope you and your family had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. My late father was a highly educated man. Two degrees from the University of Virginia and a doctorate from Johns Hopkins University. A geologist by profession, he was involved very, very tangentially in the creation of the atom bomb that brought an end to the second world war. Along with my mother, he instilled in me a love of reading, and he delighted in clever puns. These that I recently came across on my author journey would have pleased him greatly. Look Younger  by Fay Slift;  Leo Tostoy  by Warren Peace;  No!  by Curt Reply;  Cliff Jumping  by Hugo First; Holmes Does It Again  by Scott Linyard; and  French Overpopulation  by Francis Crowded. Short and sweet. Until next week … Vaya con Dios Larry B. Gildersleeve
Read more

The Author Guy Blog by Larry B. Gildersleeve

22th March 2024 Hello out there, Welcome back. My previously self-published and award-winning novel Blue by You is moving quickly through the editorial process with my new hybrid publisher Indigo River . I have final say regarding any changes their folks suggest, and mine will be a quick turnaround so that we can move ahead to the publishing phase (new cover design, formatting, etc.). My incredible marketing resource, RJ McHatton of Bend, OR, is in direct contact with Indigo’s marketing team to craft a launch ahead of the book’s availability for pre-ordering. Over the past couple of years, RJ and I have fine-tuned a marketing plan, one focused on the elimination of marginal opportunities, driven by the belief success will come more from what we choose not to do rather than what we actually pursue. Trying not to fall down rabbit holes, if you will. I’m doubly excited that my Indigo relationship (and I can’t say enough great things about them) brings with it the distribution prowess of ...
Read more

The Author Guy blog by Larry B. Gildersleeve

  8 th December 2023 Hey, out there, Welcome back. Today, a word about words. A few weeks ago, the autobiography My Name is Barbra was released. No need to identify the author – who else could it be? But here’s the thing. Isn’t 992 pages a bit much, even for someone with such a stellar stage, film and music career? I think it is. The comparisons I’m about to make are by no means parallel or comparable, but they are, I believe, illustrative about the verbosity trap into which so many people in the public eye are prone to fall. The account of creation in Genisis is told in only 400 words; the Ten Commandments in 313; the Lord’s Prayer in 66. The Declaration of Independence, written in 1776, contains a mere 1,322 words, yet the 2010 Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) extends to almost twelve million words with all of its associated regulations. Whether written or spoken, I believe more words don’t always, or even usually, equate to better.  The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr’s large...
Read more