Greetings blog faithful, from beautiful Woodbury, Minn. where our temperature today has skyrocketed all the way above zero! We are sitting pretty at 1-degree right now. I’m inside. It’s fine. Going out to get the newspaper can wait until we hit a crooked number. And that massive dangerous storm that is rocking the south and east right now is all below us. We have a beautiful blue sky. It’s just cold.
We’ll start off with some news about the book. Yesterday, the Kindle version was added to the Amazon website. Which means if you own a Kindle or know someone who does, one quick click can get you “How Far?” in all its digital glory for the low-low price of $9.99, and that’s hard to beat. The button is right next to the one for the printed version, as you can maybe see here in this screen grab.
I wrote at length, in a post I created for the networking website LinkedIn, that I firmly believe the era of digital readers is waning and fading. When Kindle, NOOK, and iBooks for the iPad all greeted us as “the next huge thing” there was a groundswell of transition going on. It was cool, all your books were in one place, and once you bought the device the books were cheap. On any flight I was on through the mid-teens, it seemed like every other person on the plane had some sort of e-reader. I even had one. I read more than a few books on my iPad.
But here’s what happened, in my opinion. People actually enjoy the tactile connection between the human hands and a real book. It’s a connection that is centuries old. It’s in our DNA.
I think the catalyst for this shift has a lot to do with the global pandemic and the challenges we’ve all faced and continue to face. We crave normalcy. We crave anything close to normal. We missed books.
Yes, people will still download material to their devices, but not at the rate they used to. I think it’s heartwarming. Books are warm. Devices are not. You connect with books (hopefully) and feel them in your hands. You get the joy of turning an actual page. It’s a primal connection we’ve all known since just after birth. Books are never going away.
To that end, we’ve only had the Kindle version “live” for about 24 hours now, but the sales are mere fraction of what they were for “Bats, Balls, & Burnouts” while the printed book sales seem to be at least as big if not more so. We actually sold quite a few Kindle versions in the first month back then, with “Bats, Balls, & Burnouts.” And for me, as much as I love books, that was financially a good thing. Believe it or not, I actually earn a larger royalty from Kindle. Why? It’s only $9.99 right? That is true, but there is no book to print. No production cost. No shipping. And no middle man. It felt like free money. I think I’ll be lucky to buy a nice lunch with what I earn this week from Kindle.
But… If you do have a Kindle, or know anyone who does, do me a solid favor and consider clicking on that button or telling your Kindle friends about it. Maybe I can buy two lunches if we spike the sales a bit. Maybe even Super-Size it!
As for my personal interaction with “How Far?” I had a marvelous hour with it the other day. A couple of copies landed on the porch and I needed to sign them and ship them back off to their rightful destinations. Before doing that, I could hold it in my hand and marvel at it. Barbara did too, and we were both pretty emotional just to see it and hold it. That tactile sensation again. It was tough, but I signed the books, packaged them up, and got them mailed off to where they belong.
And what this all means is that I still don’t have my copies. It was as if I got to adopt a copy for an hour. It was the same way with “Bats, Balls, & Burnouts” too. I was the last to get it.
And that brings me to my next section of this blog. A few people have asked me what the two experiences were like, writing each book. There are some similarities, but there are far more differences.
One similarity is that both had to be heavily researched. That was a lot of work and I filled file folders and notepads with important details that had to be right.
For “Bats, Balls, & Burnouts” it was really all about numbers and names. After all, the story itself was already in my head. I had lived it. Today, I may only remember 10% of my passwords and I wonder what we had for dinner on Sunday, but my recollections of the stories in my life were all up here (points to head). There was no way, however, I was going to be able to instantly recall every at-bat, every lap, every elapsed time, every opponent, every win, every loss in baseball or drag racing, and that all had to be right. I’m sure I spent at least an equal amount of hours, for one year, getting all of that correct with research compared to the hours I spent actually writing.
For “How Far?” there was more research. Brooks and Eric may be fictional characters, but when writing a book like this the “real stuff” going on around them has to be right. Again, just tons of research and not all of it on my own. I had some trusted and appreciated “advisers” giving me background, color, and flavor. But it all had to be right. That’s why I went up to Roseau twice, just to soak the place in and plant the feelings and the look of the place up here (points to head again).
So the research was a similarity, and lots of focused work.
The differences?
Obviously the storyline for the first book was already there. I just had to write it. The other characters were all real too, I just had to write about them.
For “How Far?” the historical stuff was there, but the main characters were fictional, as were their families and many of their friends. All of that had to be made up, and surrounded by reality and real facts. And, writing it as two people, I had to juggle the timelines and keep the flow going without it getting too convoluted or out of sync. And, of course, I’d never done anything like this, so I was learning on the fly.
Very different experiences, basically.
Another difference was the pace of writing. As you probably remember I got a lot of money, from quite a few people, with my Kickstarter campaign. That money got me going and paid a lot of the publishing and marketing expenses, but it also created a sense of urgency and responsibility within me. Those people paid me. I felt like I worked for them. That’s why I dutifully went to work at least five days a week, and put in long days, cranking out the stories. It was my job.
For this book, I did it all on my own. I didn’t want to go to that Kickstarter well again. I didn’t really like doing it the first time. So, with no “bosses” watching over me, I wrote at a pace that was comfortable. Sometimes too comfortable. Sometimes the whole thing would grind to a halt for a few days or even a couple of weeks. I just waited until the writing juices were flowing again, and then got back into it.
“Bats, Balls, & Burnouts” took exactly one year to write. Exactly. Right to the day.
“How Far?” took more than two years to write, and the odd thing is I don’t remember what day I sat down and started. I remember that with “Bats, Balls, & Burnouts.” It was January 6, 2016.
For this one, two long years at least, although the pace quickened as I got to know the characters and how they sounded and acted. In the last month (June, 2021) I couldn’t write fast enough. It was pouring out of me, but I couldn’t cheat. I still needed the same amount of detail and drama. I never said “That’s good enough” or “I don’t need all this, I’ll just jump right to the end.”
To be honest, I wasn’t really sure how the book was going to end until maybe a month before I was done with the original manuscript (July 4, 2021). I found a small notepad the other day, buried under some files on my desk. On it were my scribbles outlining the final five chapters. I remember doing that.
I did it not so much for the story, but to see how much more writing I had to do! I needed a road map to the end. Looking at those notes (in purple ink, by the way) I think I had my head wrapped around it pretty well. Step by step, that’s how the story ended. And like I said, I don’t really think I had a firm grip on the ending until right then.
Or as Greg Halling told me, after we were done with the manuscript, “I’ve been with you all the way with this, for two years. Up until today, I wasn’t sure how it was going to end. Well done, Bobby Ballgame.”
Another huge (gigantic) difference is just the comparison of writing in the first-person as myself versus writing in the first-person as two made-up characters. That’s what we call a stretch.
I know my voice. I know how I like to write, in a very conversational way. For “How Far?” it was all a completely new experience, and I had to be really careful to “stay in character” and not slip into being me. I had the concept in my head when I started, but putting it into practice was a challenge. I’m proud of it, and I’m proud of Brooks and Eric for feeding me the words, all up in my head. They’re good guys. I miss them. We spent a lot of time together! And I don’t think I’m nuts to have heard their voices in my brain for two years. I hope not, anyway.
Finally, on a different subject, please send some good vibes, solid karma, and positive thoughts to my sister Mary, out on Kauai. She had a knee replaced a few days ago and is in initial recovery. Yesterday, when we spoke, she said it was still killing her but for the first time since the operation she was seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, and finally felt like she might not be in excruciating pain for the rest of her life. Damn I wish I could be there with her and Lonnie. Mary and I are like twins. It’s horrible that I can’t be there.
Get well Sis! Follow the program. I love you!
So there you have it. I’ll finish by asking you all two favors.
Number one: If you haven’t bought the book, please consider it. If you have and you’re reading it, I hope you enjoy it. If you do enjoy it, please rate it and write a review on Amazon. And if you do that, please recommend the book to anyone you know who will like it. Spread the word! I often say that I didn’t do this for anyone other than me, but that’s not true. I’m proud of it, and I want to share it with as many people as possible. That’s really why I wrote it.
Haven’t bought it yet? Just click here to join this big party.
Number two: In terms of this blog, if you thought it was OK please click on the “LIKE” button below. That’s how this works. “Likes” beget more “Likes” and the word spreads.
Thank you all. For those of you who have “How Far?” I truly and deeply hope you’ll like it.
Take care everyone, especially if you’re in the way of this mega-storm.
Bob