Nice to see you again Harper.
You too.
How was the first week of #BlankPageToBookstore, your plan to write and publish a book in under a year while also building an author platform from scratch?
That was actually the focus of this week. Developing the plan. I’m hoping what I’ve come up with is realistic, but it looks like a lot. I might need to tweak a little as I go.
You know what they say about plans.
They are no fun, and no one ever follows them anyway, so why even bother?
(Laughs…) sort of. Though, I was thinking more along the lines of John Lennon’s, ‘Life is what happens while you’re busy making plans.’
Same thing, really.
(Smiles…) I suppose so.
So, did it?
Did what do what?
Life get in the way while you were busy making your plan?
Oh… yes… a little. Like most writers, I am doing my best to juggle many other things in my life alongside my writing. I have a job and a mortgage and a family and a dog and a cat and friends and the need to exercise and… they are all mostly very good things, but they still mean I need to prioritise my time to make sure my writing stays in the mix.
I’m sure none of that is much of a surprise to anyone.
I wouldn’t have thought so.
Did you make the writing plan anyway?
Yes, I did.
Great. Would you like to step us through the process you followed to build it?
Sure. Though, there weren’t as many steps in the process as I thought there might be. I drafted the plan as a brain dump from what I thought I needed to do based on my own experience of writing books. Then, I cross-checked it with ChatGPT and Google to see what I missed.
So, what did you miss?
The money. ChatGPT and Google agreed that this will be more work and will cost money than I think it will.
Ouch.
Yes.
How much more?
They didn’t say?
And you didn’t ask?
Not really. I mean I sort of did, but I didn’t get very specific answers. There were things about subscription fees for tools and service fees for editors and print designers and cover artists and upfront book setup fees and a bunch of other things… plus marketing. But it was all pretty open-ended. Basically, I can spend as much as I want.
How much to you want to spend.
That’s a good question. I hadn’t really factored in any substantial costs. My family is generally supportive of my hobby, but I’ve never tested the waters with it costing anything more than a couple of subscription fees before. I am hoping to do as much as I can of the grunt work myself, use the cheapest services I can find… within reason… I’m not prepared to compromise on quality, and I’ll cross the financial bridges as they come.
You’re going to wing it and lie about it to your family...
No… I won’t lie. I will just… share the details on an… ‘as needed’ basis.
Sounds very close to lying to me.
I can’t help how it sounds.
Fair enough. What’s your best guess on the ballpark figure?
I have roughly estimated $3-5 thousand depending on how many self-published books I choose to print.
So you’ve committed to self-publishing now?
No, my preference is still traditional publishing, which will lower the upfront costs. But I need to be realistic that self-publishing is the likely path considering the timeframes.
Good luck with that. Meanwhile, would you like to share your plan?
I will include the full plan at the end of the blog. Which might be now. Is that all today?
No. I wanted to check how you’re feeling about everything. Are you still excited?
Yes… I think so… though I will admit to also feeling a little daunted. Writing is usually a very private process for me, with no real timeframe or demands other than what I choose to place on myself. If I’m not happy with something, I just shelve it for a year or two and let my subconscious tick away at it, then come back to it later.
You can’t really do that here.
No, I’m making myself accountable to… I’m not sure yet… but more than just me. It’s not doing the work that worries me… most things are within my control. Barring ill-health or something else unforeseen, I will get the the work done. The question is, at what quality? I know I can write well, but writing is an art, and art can’t always be rushed… at least not without risking compromising the art. I just hope I can achieve the quality I want within the timeframes I have imposed upon myself.
Only one way to find out.
Yes. (Smiles…) that’s what worries me.
Before we wrap up, you had a fair bit to say on the AI front last week, anything you’d like to add this week?
(Frowns…) yes, actually, I try to keep on top of AI developments for my own interest and to try to gauge the likely impact on my children and their children in the future. Perhaps the biggest development I have seen lately is that Elon Musk’s company Neuralink has commenced their first human trial of their AI brain implant technology.
Yes, I think I heard something about that. That’s good isn’t it? Their looking to cure quadriplegia or something, aren’t they?
Yes, that is one of their stated goals. And they are far from the only company to be testing AI brain implants or similar, less-invasive brain-computer interfaces. But… they are the most vocal about other possible uses for the technology. Namely, increasing the bandwidth of information flow between the human brain and AI digital systems to try to keep humans competitive in the race with AI.
Lost me a bit there. What race with AI?
The race to keep up. So AI doesn’t out evolve us.
You mean in a Terminator sense.
Yes.
You seemed pretty upbeat about all that last week. Like you didn’t think that would happen.
No, I was upbeat about my own creative spirit continuing regardless. It is almost a certainty that AI will become more intelligent than humans.
You mean it’s not already?
No. There’s a concept called Singularity where humanity’s knowledge of the human brain and raw computing power and the capability of AI tools all coincide such that we can create an AI that is truly as ‘smart’ as a human. Not just good at generating text and images but actually able to reason… to think… aware of itself and its surroundings.
How far off is that?
Most scientists in the field agree it’s at least fifteen to twenty years away.
So where’s the problem? You are looking a little grim.
Well… it’s not a problem as such. Singularity will enable a raft of very high-value capabilities for humanity – particularly in health and in dangerous and mundane industries. Not to mention opening up the possibility of humans uploading our brains into synthetic bodies, i.e. humans essentially becoming robots and swapping out our body parts as they wear out.
Eternal life?
Of a kind. But that’s not the most daunting part.
Do tell.
Well, compute power has never been on a linear curve. Even with traditional technology, we roughly double our compute power every 2 years, often much faster. It’s something known as Moore’s Law, named after Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel, who observed in 1965 that the number of transistors on a microchip doubles about every two years, though the cost of computers is halved. Back in 1965 we had maybe a hundred transistors on a chip. Apple’s current M3 chip has 25 billion.
So, you’re saying that a couple of years, or less, after we have a computer as smart as a human, we’ll have a computer twice as smart as a human.
Yes.
And 4 times as smart 4 years later.
Yes and… eventually… thousands of times smarter… then millions and billions and trillions of times smarter.
Surely, that’s hundreds of years away.
Perhaps, but that’s not very long in evolutionary terms. Factor in quantum computing and it might happen much sooner. The big question is, what will a mind a billion times as ‘smart’ as Einstein decide to do with humanity?
And that’s what Neuralink is trying to compete with… very smart AI?
In simple terms, yes.
Is this what your book is going to be about?
I don’t know. I still haven’t decided on a genre.
Okay, well, until then I don’t want to think about that stuff anymore, if that’s okay.
(Smiles…) of course. It’s much easier just to get on with the day-to-day.
How do you rationalise that with you optimism last week that the writing industry and literature in general won’t be wiped out by AI?
Easily. I can’t control any of that any more than I can control the universe being infinite, which is a concept I find just as scary… and exciting. The truth is, I feel incredibly fortunate to be a human at this pivotal stage of humanity’s evolution. I will keep on creating my books about humans and keep reading books created by other humans about their interactions with even more humans… no matter where this ends up. Though… I will watch our future unfold with great interest.
So, what’s next? I mean, on your writing journey… not War of the Worlds or Terminator or whatever.
The next step on my plan is to choose Website & Blog tools and services and build a website and stand up a blog so I can share the first few blogs in the series.
Good luck with that.
Thanks.
Let’s catch up for Blog 3 and see how the web and blog stuff goes.
Looking forward to it. Here’s the full plan through to book launch on Jan 1st 2025.
Harper’s Plan for #BlankPageToBookstore in 2024:
- Kick-off
- Build 52 week plan
- Stand up website & blog
- Stand up socials
- Decide genre & write premise
- Write synopsis & query letter
- Build chapter outline
- Build character, setting & key object profiles
- Draft 0 – chapter 1
- Draft 1 – chapter 1
- Draft 2 – chapter 1
- Draft 2 – beta reader feedback on chapter 1
- Draft 0 – chapter 2
- Draft 0 – chapter 3&4
- Draft 0 – chapter 4&5
- Draft 0 – chapters 6,7 & 8
- Draft 0 – chapters 9,10 & 11
- Draft 0 – chapters 12, 13, 14
- Draft 0 – chapters 15, 16, 17
- Draft 0 – chapters 18, 19, 20
- Draft 1 – chapter 1-10
- Draft 1 – chapter 11-20
- Build true chapter structure with conscious endings
- Draft 2 – whole book
- Draft 3 – whole book – with audio & grammar review
- Profile agents/ publishers
- Review synopsis/ query
- Mass send to agents/ publishers & beta readers
- Learn principles of self-publishing
- Choose self-publishing platforms
- Prepare additional self-publishing materials
- Format/ structure for self-publishing
- Receive/ assimilate beta reader feedback
- Draft 4 – fresh eyes & beta review
- Plan & prepare materials for book release promotion on website & socials
- Start book release promotion on website & socials
- Draft 5 – detailed review & release promotion
- Rev 0.9 – detailed review & release promotion
- Rev 1.0 – detailed review & release promotion
- Submit materials in readiness for publication
- Release promotion
- Release promotion & review
- Rev 1.1 – Make changes to final materials (hopefully not required)
- Check-in with agents/ publishers
- Release promotion
- Release promotion
- Release promotion
- Launch book