Release Dates and Book Covers and Readings, Oh My!

*Don't forget to come to the Banned Books Week event posted on the right side of my blog TONIGHT if you live in the Chicagoland area!!!*

I would like to start by writing that my ass is fully asleep.  I've been sitting on my bed for an hour, my laptop perched on my Boppy, and my ass has gone numb.  Just another hint that I need to be exercising my ass.  Buns of steel, here I come.

I know I owe you guys a blog post that is to be the opposite of my Celebrity Dissings post from last week, but I have to think of the people I want to write about.  Next week, I'll be out of town, so either I'll get some steam (and ass) to write it this week, or you'll have to wait two weeks.  So far, I'm thinking my list will include Eddie Vedder and Joss Whedon.  I may not have a whole lot to say, though.  I kind of wished I didn't promise that.

In other promising news, I received a comment from someone named Robyn (could it be the Swedish pop singer?  You know, I once had an email pal named Adrian Grenier, but it wasn't that Adrian Grenier.  Weird.) asking why the release date of GET WELL SOON II: ANNA BUSTS LOOSE [I love making up titles for that book] won't be out until 2012.  I don't quite know every detail of why it takes books so long to come out, and maybe my commenters can chime in, but part of it has to do with the long process of getting it revised.  I revise it [what's the difference between revising and editing, btw?  I'm using them interchangeably for now] until it's ready for my editor to see, then she reads it, marks it up, sends it back, and we go back and forth like that for a bit.  Then it has to be copy-edited and designed and laid-out all prettily, a cover has to be designed, and it has to be printed.  There are also other factors.  Books are put onto lists, which are like seasons, and these lists are carefully planned by publishers to be balanced.  They wouldn't want two books about the same topic or by the same author to be on the same list because that would mean competing with their own books.  So sometimes completely finished books still have to wait.  I think that explains it.  I have a book, DON'T STOP NOW, coming out on May 10, 2011 (ARCs available sooooooooooon!!!!), so it would be logical from a sales perspective to not have a second hardcover come out in the same year.  I think.  Plus, I will not be nearly done with the SEQUEL for a while.  I still have to type up the 397 pages!  Which I am putting off by blogging right now.

Lastly, I'm hoping to have a DON'T STOP NOW cover to show you soon.  Actually, who knows.  I'm just saying that.  The cover comes when it is ready, and I don't want it to be rushed.  Rich Deas, the gifted designer, always makes me happy, so I'll wait.  And wait.  This is a business of waiting, people. And one day you check your email, and there it is.  The message that says you're going to have a book published or a TV show made or a brand new cover to your book.  It's worth it, but it sure makes it hard not to check your email 50,000 times a day.