It’s been an exciting week around here…a lot of good news has come down the pike for The Neverland Wars, and just fielding all of that has been an intense responsibility. Turns out, it takes a lot of energy to change your plans and craft a best-selling book.

But The Neverland Wars has been off an on Amazon best seller lists ever since the pre-order event in January, so that’s (amazingly) old news. Every day the future of The Neverland Wars looks a bit brighter though, and the marketing plan is getting adjustments to account for the now real possibility that the book release might launch The Neverland Wars up even farther on those lists, or land it on more competitive best seller lists (in case you’re wondering, I still have a fireball’s chance in heaven of making it onto the New York Times List)

The biggest development is that we’ve received an amazing offer from a third-party printer to do the books in even higher quality, and at a better price! How does that work!? Economics! Who knows. So, in the event you missed this memo when it went out to the mailing list, (you should definitely join that if you haven’t!)

A long story short, we’re switching printers which is going to delay the release of the physical book about a month (the ebooks. You’ll love it though—the new ones are going to having UV spot cover art and just be a lot better overall. When I got the physical ARCs I was a tiny bit disappointed because they weren’t any better than the self-published books I would get through Createspace or Lulu. My publisher does about 95% of its sales in digital books, so it make sense that they wouldn’t default to a really ritzy printer when they’re only expecting to sell a few hundred paperbacks.

I’ve basically been sick for a week now because I’m so excited I can’t sleep and I’m working crazy 15 hour days because what else could possibly be as cool? I have yet to figure out this whole “moderation” and “balance” thing… but I’m not in a hurry to at the moment. Moderation can happen after release. For the next month, I’m okay running myself a little ragged because it’s the sprint to book release. Sustainable levels of activity will resume as soon the book is out and it becomes the marathon of keeping my career’s momentum going.

I’m not usually into TED talks, but Meg Jay’s “Why 30 is Not the New 20” really resonates with me. It talks about the importance of seizing your twenties and using them to develop yourself professionally and personally. I don’t think that comes intuitively to young people in our culture. The speaker makes an important point that the first year of your career is the most the important. Your initial momentum is invaluable, and the reality is that your “first impression” on the industry is as important your first impression with an individual.

Here’s to hoping a little lost sleep pays off in May!