I anticipate publishing the first book in late 2009. Give me your
contact information and I'll tell you when it's available. I haven't yet decided whether to self-publish through Amazon, for example, or via the traditional route. If you're an agent, I'd love to get your opinion.
It's impossible to schedule a big project accurately if you haven't done one like it before. I've done a lot of writing and many big projects, but this is my first book. I've worked about a year on each version so far, so I now have a better sense of how long it will take to finish. Decades of experience with software products taught me that versioning is the secret sauce that makes publishing possible. I'll publish version 6 as the first edition, knowing I can correct the inevitable blunders later.
Starting dates for each phase of the project are:
- 2004 - Field research (first treks), book and 'net research, partial draft of version 1
- 2005 - Additional research, narrow the focus, draft version 2
- 2006 - Expand research, restructure, rewrite and add to previous version
- 2007 - Drastic cuts chapter by chapter (fell trees so forests can be seen),
- 2008 - Restructure again, more research, add missing topics
- 2009 - Complete copy-edit, tune for spontaneity, publish first printed edition
Advance publicity and research into the publishing process started in 2008.