Book of the Dumb 2 is Done

Posted on August 8, 2004    Posted by John Scalzi

Yes, a last-few days writing sprint took care of that (as it usually does), with me cranking out about 30 articles/8,000 words in about 36 hours. The last BotD had about 200 articles in it; I wrote 223 for this one, so even if a few are dinked out we should be fine. There is some ancillary bits to be done (an introduction and some chapter headings), but those won’t cause me any headaches.

Looking back on the work, I have to say I like it — it is very clearly designed to be much like the first book in the series, which was a bestseller (or so they tell me), and so there was not much call to mess with success. At the same time, this version of the book has actual chapter based on subject matter, and I also threw in a couple more recurring features a la the Tips for Stupid Criminals and the Really Stupid Quiz. It’s that whole “give them what they want — and then give them something extra” thing.

As per usual Uncle John’s publishing schedules, it won’t take very long for BotD2 to show up in your local bookstore; the posted publishing date (found on Amazon, which is taking pre-orders) is October 10, which is, of course, just about two months from today. As always, I find the Uncle John production cycle breathtaking; it’s more akin to a magazine production schedule than a book production schedule in my experience. This is neither good nor bad; it is what it is. It works for this particular publisher, but I can think of numerous reasons why it wouldn’t for others.

What will I do now? Well, I expect to reward myself with 24 hours of Doom 3, after which I’ll get on with the next book, and also a longer article I’m writing for OPM (which I’ve already started but which now gets kicked into higher gear). It’s nice to be done. The best thing about deadlines is when you’re looking at the backside of one.