2022 A Year in Review

A lot has happened in this year!

Most importantly, at least to the future of this website, my immediate goals and prospects, and hopefully the long-running legacy of the Junior Rangers Investigative Club: The first book was released!!!

Treasure off the Coast – Out now! Check it out! (urge resisted to post link. You can find it on the home page!)

And while this has been a massive learning curve on my part, and I’ve had to ditch my initial schedule, I still consider this is a hugely fun milestone!!!

So, I thought, as we usher out the old year, and usher in the new it might be fun (for me if no one else) to look back on how that happened, while highlighting a few other standout moments along the way.

I’m going to do it by month, knowing that I will forget a few things and mistake a few dates. So don’t expect this to be completely accurate or representative, and don’t use it as a guideline for your own book schedule.

So, in my year-end wrap up, lets start in the most obvious place.

Before 2022:

Ok. I have to start before 2022, as there were a couple of important milestones. #1 I finished my very rough draft of Treasure off the Coast. #2. I made this website in anticipation of great things to come. #3. I found Bailey, who is responsible for all the amazing artwork for Book 1 and upcoming Junior Rangers Club Books.

Thus the groundwork for Treasure off the Coast was set out as the year turned over.

Ok, now a quick note before I begin for good. Bailey has been working on illustration throughout the year, However, I don’t want to spend too much time here talking about that process when you can find a more interesting summary of the illustration on her website here. Bailey's website

Now on to my non-comprehensive year in review!!!

January

Logo design.- so the book was on it’s way, soon, hopefully. Now it was time for a logo. Only I wanted something much better than my feeble attempts at graphic design.

Another Edit- So, obvious secret here. I’m wordy. So this is something I’m continually trying to fix. The manuscript for book 2 was too long. So I began trimming it down.

Early promotional material made! Oof, these were bad. Maybe I will share them someday.

February

Website update – New logo. Time to up the website game too.

Editor Search – Time to fine professionals to look over the manuscripts. – yes manuscripts plural.

March

Edit of Mammoth Cave book – That’s right, through an odd quirk of timing, the Mammoth Cave book went through developmental editing before Treasure off the Coast.

Travel to the Southwest – I would like to say this was research for a book, but this was mostly a family trip.

Dad and sibs

April

Edit(s) complete – The manuscripts for both Treasure off the Coast and Book 2 were back from the Editors. Susan Chang did a wonderful job helping me with a developmental edit of book 1. (That means content editing, so blame only Me if you are holding onto an early copy of the book where the kids are eating deserts of stollen.) And her advice took what was a Very Nathan manuscript and turned it into something I could confidently release – with work. Nicole Hall did some similarly valuable work for the Mammoth Cave book, but unfortunately, I had to set Book 2 aside for a while.

Research – so, how exactly does one self publish? Time to start learning. While I

May

Implement New Edits -Ok. I had the editorial advice now it was up to me to make the changes. I don’t want to tell you how many times the manuscript for Treasure off the Coast has been editing. (Mostly because I don’t want to think about it.) But now it was time to slog through it one more time.

ISBN’s – time to start some of the groundwork for actual publication.

Making interior pages – someone has to write all of those incidental interior pages. Copyright, title page, forward, etc.

June

Art - Final Artwork starts to come in! Bailey’s doing a wonderful job. Time for me to pick up the pace!

Proof edits – This was an in house job. I let a few too many edits slip through the cracks. See if you can spot them if you have an early draft!

Register Treasure off the Coast – See the LCCN at the bottom of the copyright page. That stands for Library of Congress Control Number. I arranged this early for book 1.

July

Biscayne Trip – in preparation for book 3. I traveled up to Biscayne National Park and took a tour with Ranger Gary Bremen. He gave me an incredibly informative tour of a park that I once knew much better. He has also helped in many other ways so expect to read more of my appreciation for his help in the future!

Amazon stuff  - There is a lot of stuff which goes into releasing a book, even if you are going to self-publish it. (way too much to write about here.) Time to start working on that end of things.

August

Final Materials Finalized-  Final manuscript to Bailey, final book put together. It’s time to go!

Amazon- Time to put all of those final files on Amazon, and to make sure that everything is up to date and ready for launch.

Proofs- Now it’s time to order book proofs! One last Chance for Bailey and I to make sure everything is as we want it.

September

Push that button! – Proofs reviewed. Changes made. It was time to push the button. Publish.

Announcement – Book was announced!!!! It was so exciting and humbling to have people take note of the book, order the book, or simply share their kind words.

Trip to Dry Tortugas – It’s a little late to change anything drastic about Treasure off the Coast but I traveled with dad out to the fort on one of his research trips for his book. For fun I took one of the proofs along with me. Allowing me to not so accurately match the cover.

Not the best lighting :-)

Release of Coffee Chronicles – I also decided to release another series which is near and dear to my heart, entirely too ridiculous, and honestly more for my own self interest than anyone else. However I like it. So I wanted to share it. It is now available on a very awkward platform with none of the polish other professionals help me bring to the Junior Rangers Investigative Club.

Start of this Blog – My continued promise to you that I will keep writing things here. Don’t worry about reading them. Come for the graphics. Stay to make fun of the graphics. The words are incidental.

October

Marketing- Not so much. Honestly, I’m waiting for the release of book 2 before I market too hard. But now that book one is out it’s time to…

Edit, again – I don’t know where else to credit him for this. I’ll try and find a more appropriate place. But I received a copy of the manuscript for Book 1 from Ranger Gary Bremen highlighting several errors I had missed. So, thanks to Bailey, we were able to make a quick touch up of book 1. Which now includes a full preview cover of the upcoming Mammoth Cave Title. Which means it’s time to…

Work on book 2 – more to do with book 2 including

November

Meeting with Rangers- My Goal has always been to work alongside professionals who know their parks better than me to make the Junior Rangers Club books the best they can be. I was able to meet with several rangers at Mammoth Cave. Their advice, knowledge, and information will only improve the upcoming book!

Reworking manuscript for book 2 – The work ever continues. Bailey is ahead of me with some amazing artwork. (check it out on her website.)

December

Continued work on Book 2 – Time to start planning for the next book release!!!!

Writing more of Book 3 – Work on book 3 is ongoing. I’ve been more focused on pushing books 1 and 2 up the publishing hill. But I’m excited to dig into this and even more future adventures with the Junior Rangers Investigative Club!!!!!!!

Coffee Chronicles – I undersell it. I do my own art for it. (for now) which is not professional at all. I purposefully hastily write it and hastily edit it. However, I do believe it is thoroughly entertaining, and will continue writing this first season and releasing it on Kindle Vella until Kevin and Tazo save all of Everything.

Graphic Design- I guess, for now, Latteans are the official mascot of the website. I’ve been making lots of silly graphics for them.

So! There’s a year in review. 2022 was weird. I still am not sure I have a handle on this “Published Author.” But I promise to continue. To Improve, and to Push forward into the Future!

Stay Tuned!