Five Most Exciting Moments in a Writer's Life

Today is a great day. Routledge sent the cover of my new book. This is in fact one of the best moments in the life of an author. The five highlights are:

• When a book publisher cares enough about your work and wants to publish it so they send you a contract. 
• When you see the cover for the first time
• When you hold that first copy of the published product and smell the paper
• When you are nominated for and/or win an award
• When readers respond to your work and send e-mail or tell you in person what your book has meant to them. 

Writing a book takes a lot of work and as Ali Wunderman, who wrote Frommer's latest book on Belize, said in her case study found within the covers of Creating the Freelance Career, book writing doesn't provide gratification for months (unlike article writing, which is published and the writer receives money for much more quickly as royalties are usually paid twice per year, once you've made back the money from any advance you may have received.)

So thank you, Nicole, at Routledge for sending me this book cover and for permission to release its image to everyone, and for letting me know that the book release date really has been moved up to the end of August. And since Routledge and Amazon still don't have the cover up on their websites, you, dear readers are among the first to see this image. Say hello to Creating the Freelance Career.