I posted a press release today regarding the upcoming release of my new book Reality Check. I’ve never done anything with press releases, so it was a good learning experience! Feel free to check it out and read it here.
Category Archives: My Book
Book Update #8
Today, I was completely stoked to have the UPS man drop off the proof of my book, Reality Check. It wasn’t completely in book format, but it was one last chance to look over everything and make sure it was correct.
It was somewhat surreal flipping through the pages and realizing we’re almost at the finish line! I spent some time going through the little details of it and making sure everything looked good. Once I finished, I shipped it back to the printer and now that they have that proof approved, they will start cranking them out!
My birthday is September 23, so I’m shooting for a major book delivery by then!
In the meantime, if you haven’t had a chance to read through a preview of the book, you really should. At the top of the page, click the Reality Check link, or you can download the sample chapters directly from here.
The Book Is Headed To Print!
Strike up the band…
Cue the Hallelujah chorus…
The book, Reality Check, is nearly complete!
Yesterday, it was one of the greatest feelings in the world to be able to take the completed manuscript proof to put in the mail. I felt like literally hours and hours of work had come together for that moment. I’m so stoked and can’t wait to get the books back!
From here, the printer will get the book by Monday and will check over the files and develop a sample proof to send me, which I should get about a week and a half from now or so. Once I okay that, print time will be about 3-4 weeks and then they’ll ship out after that. So we’re looking at probably late September to have the finished product in hand!
My Book Is On Amazon!
Filed under My Book
My book, Reality Check, has been loaded onto Amazon, and it’s ready for pre-order!
I have to admit, it’s kind of surreal to see it up there. But it’s very cool!
You can check it out here.
You can certainly go ahead and pre-order it if you would like but actually, I’m going to be doing a special the first week the book is out so you can get the book a little cheaper than what you could on Amazon. Just for one week though so keep an eye out for that!
Book Update #7
I just got back my book manuscript completely laid out in the book format. I must say it looks killer, and I can’t wait to get it printed up. I made a few more copies at Kinkos for myself and a few others to make some final changes and then we will go to print in the next few weeks!
I’m also in the process of uploading the book to Amazon.com, so I’ll let you know when it’s up there.
We’re so close!
Get A Sneak Peak At The Book…
We just added a new page to the website for the upcoming release of my book, Reality Check. On the page, you’ll find out how you can keep up-to-date on how and where you can pick up the book when it is released, tell others about it, and also get a sneak peak into the book.
You can now download a little preview that includes the cover, table of contents, introduction, and five FREE chapters! I’d love for you to check it out and let me know what you think. Visit www.grantbaldwin.com/realitycheck.php or you can download the file here!
Book Update #6
It’s been a little over a month since I’ve really said much about the book, so I wanted to pass along an update. The book is really coming along well and is right on track. I received back edits from several people and have been going through the book paragraph by paragraph, trying to reword, rewrite, and edit every little bit to make it as good as possible. We’re reordering several chapters, cutting some chapters, merging others, and adding some new ones.
It’s a long, tedious process but in the end, it will be worth it. Right now, I’m close to half way through the editing process and am hoping to be done by next week.
I think we have settled on the cover design which is pretty exciting. Here it is as we have it right now…
Let me know what you think on the cover…
We’re still on track to have the book printed and in hand by probably late September, so I’m pretty jazzed about that!
I’ve also put together five sample chapters that we will make available for download sometime next week.
The Challenge of Going From Good to Great
Filed under My Book, Thinking Out Loud...
As I’ve mentioned, I have finished writing my first book for students and now we are in the midst of the editing phase of it all. I currently have 15 students from around the country reading the book and another 6 adults reading over it as well. And so far, I’ve been getting some great feedback…people actually like the book and think it is really good!
And while I’m excited that the initial response has been positive (especially from students since they are the target audience), we still have a lot of work to do. It’s the challenge of being content with where we are at or working a little bit more to take it from good to great. So now we are in the process of asking the difficult questions. Do all of the questions that the book addresses fit to our target audience of students? Have we communicated responses in a clear, concise manner? Are these chapters nice theories or are there practical things students can do to implement the ideas into their daily lives?
In anything you do in life, it is easy to settle for the ‘good’ instead of pursuing the ‘great’.
Are you settling?
Finish Strong…
Filed under My Book, Thinking Out Loud...
As strange as it may sound, I think writing the last few chapters of the book this week was almost as difficult as writing the first few chapters. It is this weird feeling of being able to see the light at the end of the tunnel or catching a glimpse of what the mountain summit will look like, but it seems easier to just stop where you’re at.
Regardless of what you have going on, always finish strong. There is no reason to bust your butt for 95% of a project only to give a half hearted effort for the remaining 5%. Whether you are finishing school this week or next, you are completing a major project, or you are wrapping up a current job, I would encourage you to finish strong.
Demonstrate the same energy, passion, and fervor on the final day as you did on the first day.
Book Update #5
I’m stoked to announce that I am done writing my book! It has been quite the process but I finished up basically all the writing elements needed for this project. I ended up with an even 50 chapters plus an introduction and a wrap up chapter. I also finished writing all the extra stuff you got to do…copyright page, acknowledgements (maybe you made the list), back cover text, about the author, and everything else that has to get written.
Now it is time to transition into editing mode. This is where we throw it all in the fire and hopefully only the best will come out. Of course the whole thing may just burn up and well, that would suck. We’re still on track to have the book out by this fall, probably in late September.
I can’t wait to have the finished product done but beyond that, I can’t wait for students to get their hands on it and hopefully it will help them with the difficult transition into the real world of life.
