Another surprise book

At the end of every year, I take stock of the books I managed to write and think about the books I’ll be working on in the new year. Every once in a while, though, a “surprise book” will land on my desk. This happened with my poetry books, Touched by Fire, Remember the Soldier and Wandering Soul (which is still a work in progress). All three of these books were created as I edited a mammoth poetry collection. I realized they could be separated into their own thematic poetry collections. This is how surprise books have happened for me; I’ll realize material in one book would work better in a different kind of book.

This week, I got another surprise book. It came about in a different way and, also different, it is with a nonfiction ebook I’d been writing.

Recently, I entered an agreement to ghostwrite ebooks for a client. He would provide a list of different books he wanted written and his team of writers would select topics to write short ebooks for him. Well, I happened to peruse what I later found out was an old list of topics. Those books had already been written. Not knowing this, I started writing the book, thinking I’d hear from the client after I notified him of what I was going to write next. I didn't hear from him until I was halfway through the book -–only to be told to abandon the project. It was already complete and he didn’t need it.

Well, after writing that much of the book, I was not prepared to just drop it. I wanted to finish it, anyway.

A writer friend suggested I self-publish this book. I liked this idea. Why not? If I’ve written it, why not get it out there? It does have useful information to readers and it is a topic that could sell. But first, I had to make some changes before moving forward in that direction. I had to give this book another title and flesh it out a little bit more to make it more like a book I would normally write myself. (That is, including quotes from people interviewed. I do this for all of my nonfiction books.)

I also realized it would be helpful to have a co-author on board for this book. And since it’s about saving money and looking for discounts, as well as living frugally, the first person to pop into my mind to ask was the “Discount Diva” Shaunna Privratsky. I contacted her and asked if she was interested in joining me to write this book. I was thrilled when she replied that she was definitely interested and actually had material for the book on some of the chapters included.

So Shaunna and I will be finishing this book together and then we’ll get it out there as an ebook. Yay! Because of the book’s topic, we hope to get it out sometime by the end of the year or around January 1st. I think this would be an ideal time for its release because people will be thinking about how they can save money in the year, start living more frugally and managing their finances better.

I certainly did not expect to be writing a book on this subject this year but I’m excited about this recent development. It’s definitely a book reflecting my own life and something I have experience with, so no worries there. And I hope it’ll also give a boost to Shaunna’s platform as a “Discount Diva.” Many thanks to Shaunna for agreeing to co-write this book with me!


Update, 10/28/14: 

I will not be co-authoring a book with Shaunna Privratsky. Oh, well. Gonna keep pressing onward!