Words Are Done-ish – Hurricane Ridge

The words are done! Well, the first draft of the words are done. The first draft of the words for Twelve Months at Hurricane Ridge are done. Yay and whew. But isn’t it supposed to be a photo essay? Yep. But the photos have titles, maybe some captions, and this essay will have a few thousand words describing what the pictures didn’t show. 

Twelve Months at Fort Ebey was a photo series I did on Whidbey Island, the tenth of ten. I finished it in April 2023.

Twelve Months at Hurricane Ridge is the first of my photo essays on the Olympic Peninsula. The words and my life mean it is more likely to be finished in May, I hope.

The photos are done, and the words are soon to be final. After that I have to build the book and prepare for any exhibition. 

The book is going to be through a different publisher. That makes it easier to track sales, but it is also because the previous publisher has raised prices from ~35 to ~ $75. That price increase warrants me finding a new publisher.

My Twelve Month series cover several years. The publisher can change. The technology can change. The market can change. Blurb was my choice in the 2000s. I haven’t researched the specifics because my main criterion is user experience, which is primarily price. Amazon/Kindle/Createspace may be best now, but the conglomerate is harder to trust and buyers may prefer another source. I’ve published Kettle Pot Cup through Lulu.com, and believe (yet can’t prove) that it is a viable alternative.

Picking a publisher also restricts book sizes and formats. I strive for hardback (because these may be gifts that are shipped), square (to not show a preference for vertical or horizontal photos), and not too big and not too small. Too big and bookstores may not carry them. Too small and buyers may see them as trinkets and not as art.

It is the end of April, so I’ll conveniently set the book work aside until May, and hopefully finish before Memorial Day. There’s a life to be lived and I prioritize that.

Besides, my next essay is Twelve Months at Kalaloch Beach, and I’ll visit it soon. 

As for the third book in my scifi trilogy (Firewatcher, Fire Race, tbd), that’s in progress too. Almost 30,000 words, about halfway through the first draft, and coming along better than the second book. Stay tuned.

Oh yeah, and in a moment of self-promotion, this will be my second anniversary in my tiny house, so some retrospectives are due there, too. (blog: MyTinyExperiment.net)