We are officially less than two weeks out from release! Barring any disasters, the book will come out on August 22nd, 2025. The first chapter of this book was written on March 21st, 2023. I have not, in reality, been writing it for 2.5 years, but from concept to publication, that's how long it took. The next one will come much faster. Now, for what I've been doing:
Advance reader copies
A lot of you are on this email list because you took an advance copy of the book. Thanks for doing that! You will be receiving a separate email from me closer to the publication date. This has been a HUGE effort on my part to find people for the ARC campaign, and I can't thank you enough for taking a chance on me.
Physical media
The book content and the cover has been finalized. I splurged on ordering some stickers and bookmarks, and those have been super awesome. I'm really happy with the print quality of the book. The cover printed clearly, it all aligns, no issues on that front, so that is a huge relief.
Marketing
I have been hammering social media to very modest success. I think email is a cooler format than short form videos, but hey, what can you do. One thing I'm quietly trying is ranting about my book in a low-effort way on YouTube.
Why do all this? Organic reach is basically dead on social media. Platforms want you to pay to have more people see your stuff, which makes some sense since they want to make money, but it's hard for a little guy like me. So my goal is to try a bunch of stuff to see what works. And yes, I'm working on being more affable in front of a camera. It's not as easy as it looks.
More writing
I try to write every morning. When I finished the second draft of Paint Dries in March, I began writing another book the next day. Well, that book actually just had it's first draft completed this week! I don't want to share too much about it at this early stage, but I'm excited about it. It's a little more serious, a little more literary than this book that's coming out. It will take place in Big Bend National Park, in the Far West of Texas. I posted a couple snippets on Instagram if you are dying to know more.
I also am probably taking down the sample chapters of Paint Dries when the book releases. I have written one and a half short stories, and I'm hoping to get a few more together over the next month or so. These stories will be pretty much exclusive to my readers. A link to sample text from my next book is available in the back pages of Paint Dries.
A final note
For Boston-based folks, it's looking like there will be a launch party at Life Drawing Boston (in Somerville) on September 13th, around 8pm. Details are still being finalized. I know many of you are international (Tanzania, India, Portugal, Poland, Texas, etc.) and just know you guys are the coolest. Hopefully one day I'll be everywhere and see everyone.