Alex. Project SmallI was surprised this morning when I opened my other blog to see something unexpected: the first chapter of my book. It didn’t take too long, though, to figure out what caused it to magically materialize.

Three years ago today I posted the first draft of the first chapter, adding a new chapter every Monday until I had finished the original version of the book ( I think I posted one chapter late, and did miss one week, but over all, I didn’t do too badly).

It took more than a year for me to rewrite the book, go through the inevitably vain exercise of trying to find an agent, and then complete my workout on the treadmill of picking cover art, writing the back cover blurb, picking a publisher, and all the rest of the steps needed to turn a draft into a “real” book. Simultaneously, I started posting the sequel in weekly installments (on Mondays), and my Adventures in Self-Publishing series (on Fridays), and also redated the serial version of The Alexandria Project (except for the first three chapters) so that they would no longer be visible. All had then been prepared, I thought, to tee off a successful launch. Of course, it turned out to be a lot harder to launch a successful sales campaign than just that.

Anyway, the easiest way to hide the posts without deleting them using the blogging software I was using was to redate them. Apparently I had chosen 2013 as an appropriate time in the future to which they should be banished, and hence the reemergence of the first one today.

Not such a bad occurrence from a marketing perspective, so I plan to let the first several chapters continue to post on a weekly basis, and we’ll see if it has the desired effect. Any one who reads my other blog will have seen more than enough ads for the book already, and may have read the serial three years ago as well, but perhaps it will motivate some of them to want to read the final product. It also reminded me to post a few sample chapters at this blog, which I’ve now done.

Have you discovered The Alexandria Project?

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