Yesterday, I put a teaser out on Facebook about the fact I’d be restarting the blog today, after not writing it for a nearly a month due to the Covid-19 virus and all the challenges we mutually face. And I also subtly (that’s sarcasm) made mention of the fact the main reason for this reboot is the fact I had big news on the personal front. I do. I’ll get to it. But before I do any of that, I want to send out caring wishes to everyone. I hope you’re being safe. I hope you’re all well. I hope none of you foolishly think you’re bulletproof. We’re on a “stay at home” quarantine here in Minnesota and I have actually only been out of the house twice in the last three weeks, not counting getting the mail. Both times, when I left here in my car, I was on an errand to drop something off with no human interaction. I’m being good, as is Barbara, and we’re both taking our temperature multiple times a day. So far, so good.

Barbara is more than a little adamant about my restrictions, because I’m certainly classified in the “at risk” category atop the charts, thanks to my long history of asthma and other respiratory issues. At first, I was a bit dismissive of all the rules, but I know she’s right and I’m learning all the steps I have to take if I even bring a package in from the front porch. It’s the right thing to do. She’s been a little more socially interactive than me (someone has to go to the store when we’re out of food) so we’ve even quarantined ourselves to a degree here at the house. I tend to stay downstairs and she is upstairs most of the time, working from home. We do eat together, and we’ve been making all of our meals here at home. That’s a huge departure for us. We’ve probably averaged eating out at least three or four nights a week since we got married 22+ years ago. And guess what happens when you eat at home…  You create a LOT of dirty dishes. We’ve been running the dishwasher every other day for weeks. And my “short-order cook” skills have been getting a workout.

We have two other residents here, named Boofus and Buster, and frankly it took them more than a week to get comfortable with the fact this isn’t solely their home. They clearly were aware that things were amiss when they realized we actually weren’t leaving the place to them for hours or days at a time. They’ve gotten more used to it now, but when they get a chance to curl up and sleep we make sure to let them. They need their space just like we do.

And now on to the news at hand…

First of all, my decades in the racing business make me very mindful of not counting chickens, roosters, or any other flying creatures until they hatch. You don’t put out a press release full of details about a new partnership until the contracts are legally signed and in place. Call it a superstition if you like, but just about any marketing or PR person from the racing world has experienced how things can go sideways after verbal agreements are in place. I’m a healthy skeptic, but still I feel really solid about this and even though I’m going to leave out most of the details until the contract is done, I think it’s worth bringing up.

Yesterday, I spent nearly an hour on the phone with a very bright entrepreneurial guy, by the name of Ryan, who has taken an interest in my work. He’s making a name for himself in a number of media fields, including a successful podcast and an up-and-coming publishing business. Yep, publishing.

He interviewed me on his podcast a few months ago, talking about my book “Bats, Balls & Burnouts” and we hit it off well. Plus, he read the book cover-to-cover and really enjoyed it, so that made for a very insightful interview. After we finished the podcast we talked a little more about the new book I’m writing, still tentatively titled “How Far?” and he left me with the words, “Hey, once you get closer to being done let’s talk. I’m growing my publishing business and I might want to talk to you about this new book.” I filed that away in my memory bank.

I’ve been making some good progress as of late, completing new chapters and adding to previous ones. I’m really happy with how it’s going and how the character development keeps coming more and more to life. It’s been fun, challenging, and rewarding. I’m also “old school” enough to keep a printed copy of the manuscript in a binder. I like to be able to hold it in my hands and read what I’ve written in print, rather than on the screen. I noticed yesterday that this binder is basically full now. I’m either going to have to jump up to a much bigger binder or go with “Binder 1” and “Binder 2” as we keep going. Maybe even “Binder 3.”

Not long ago, I got in touch and let Ryan know about my progress. He agreed to take a look at the partial manuscript I’ve so far completed.

A few days later, he let me know what he thought of it and also let me know he’d be interesting in seeing what we can do together to bring it to life.

His publishing business is what’s called a “hybrid” shop, in that most of their business is self-publishing, wherein the author submits the work and pays a fee to get it out there in print and available to the public. That’s exactly what I did to get “Bats, Balls, & Burnouts” out into the world. The business has changed and consolidated a lot in the last couple of decades, and even for a guy like me who has one successful book under his belt, it’s still nearly impossible to land a deal with one of the big traditional New York publishing houses. It just doesn’t happen, but you will spend a year getting rejected on a weekly basis, if that’s what you’re after.

In addition to publishing for a fee, he selects a very limited number of works to publish in the traditional way. No fee from the author and his business covers all the costs, then splits a royalty with the writer. By “very limited” I mean one or two per month. I was thrilled to see, in his email reply to me, words to the effect off “I’d very much like to publish this for you, in the traditional way, but I’m stacked up until the first quarter of 2021. Would that work? Otherwise, if you want to move faster and take full ownership I can send you a proposal for our various packages.”

I was honored. I did have him send me the proposal just so I could see how he goes about publishing and marketing, and all those details were just what I wanted to see. I was very interested in working with Ryan in the traditional sense. Plus, first quarter of 2021 is about the right target for me, considering where I am in terms of getting this done.

Ryan agreed. We talked about many details and he answered the two pages worth of questions I’d compiled, as to how it all works and what the expectations will be.

So…  Once the contract is signed next week, I’ll be on my way to being published because my work is good, rather than because my money is good.

I won’t get rich (seemingly no one does in the book business these days) but I’ll be under contract to a real publisher and all I have to do is concentrate on the writing. We agreed to a firm deadline of October this year in terms of wrapping up the story and submitting the full manuscript.

Ryan is fully networked, and the book will be available on Amazon and all the other normal online outlets, both in print and in digital formats. On top of that, and this is really a bonus, he has an established network of local “brick and mortar” bookstores around the country, and he plans to get the book on the shelves there as well. But there’s one more detail that really got me excited.

We plan to release it in early 2021 as a hardback first. We’ll then bring out the paperback version a few months later. That’s another huge step up from anything I’ve ever done. And we’ll do all we can to keep the cover price in the sweet spot, in terms of what’s selling well these days, even with the hardback version.

I’ve been writing since I could scribble. I’ve done a lot of things, put a ton of words out there, and successfully released my own autobiography. I’ve written everything from press releases, to blogs, to columns, to a mammoth 545-page book. To have someone read my stuff and say “This is really good. It will sell. Let me make that happen for you” is the reward for all this work. Again, I’m honored.

But there’s a long chain in this process, to get me to this point in my life and career. A lot of things that had to fall in the right order and work in their own ways. Missing any link in the chain would likely mean this project would have to be “pay to play” just like the first one. Or it might not even happen at all.

Being accepted as a PR rep for 20+ years in the NHRA world not only established me, it gave me confidence. Writing my column for National Dragster magazine took that confidence to a new level. Writing my blog for all these years allowed me the chance to stretch out all those widely different writing muscles, putting stories together in a vast range of styles. It all added up to my first book.

Taking on this project, a fictional work, was a new foray into uncharted territory for me. It’s been eye-opening and thrilling to do this.

Without the support of people like Del Worsham, Tim Wilkerson, Phil Burgess, Greg Halling, and many others throughout the years, this wouldn’t have happened. I never take it lightly when anyone’s advice to me is “You really have to do this. It will be great. Just do it.”

Without the amazing and stunning support of my Kickstarter backers, who so generously pledged an enormous amount of money to fund “Bats, Balls, & Burnouts” I’m not sure if it ever would’ve seen the light of day. Without that first book, I can’t imagine there would be this second one.

Without trusting in myself to take this leap into a creative corner of the fictional world, I’d still just be sitting on the sidelines quite proud of the first book but without anything else to write about.

And without Ryan’s trust and interest, there’s almost zero chance I’d be launching a traditionally published book in hardback, as soon as early 2021.

That’s a lot of “without this and without that” references. It just had to happen that way.

Hopefully, next week I’ll be able to release more details and plans once the ink is dry on the contract.

One could say “This is getting real, right about now.”  I think it is.

I’ll keep you posted, every step of the way.

And hey, as always, don’t be afraid to click on the “Like” button at the top of this blog. The more “likes” the more exposure, and the wider the audience for what’s coming in the very near future.

Take care of yourselves. Be safe. Follow the protocols. WASH YOUR HANDS, and wear that goofy mask. It can save your life.

Bob Wilber, at your service and working hard at becoming a real boy.