Wow! I logged on yesterday morning, threw up a post about Mr. Zig and then did something we all should probably do more often – shut the computer completely off and walk away for a while.

Ziua Nationala was insane for me and I literally spent the entire day locked in the house (and warm and dry from the cold rain) and clicking on webpages and getting the book all ready for “final release” and all the rest, so that was insane.

It was great to get out of the house as well, despite a little rain, and walk around town. I went in a lot of book stores, even bought a book (in English) and took myself a little break, as we say ;)

Both here in comments, via emails, twitter and face to face, some people have been asking me some questions.

How do I turn my blog into a dot com site?

With WordPress, it’s easy. From your blog’s main dashboard you’ll see “domains”. Either through WP or via an independent site, you pay for whatever address you want (WP doesn’t do punct ro ones, for instance) and then on “domains” you re-route your old blog address to the new one.

Literally takes 20 minutes tops, especially if you’re okay with a US address (like dot com).

I live in Romania. Can I buy the book here?

Not yet. The only versions for sale are the ones listed in the main page, which you can always find the latest information about at the top of the blog.

Of course my plans are to get this book into Romanian bookstores as well. If you can assist me in any way on this topic, please contact me!

Depending on how things work out, I may just ship my own copies in and do it another way, but I won’t know that in the immediate future.

I do however, have a few copies myself, of course. I am thinking of hosting a little get together here in Cluj in the next couple of weeks, where I think we might have a Romanian trivia quiz and I’ll be giving away a free, signed copy of the book to he or she who proves they are the most Romanian! Plus you can listen to me “speak Romanian” and tell Ion si Maria jokes ;)

If that sounds like something you’d be interested in attending, write a comment at the end of this post so I can get an approximate head count.

When are you coming to Bucharest/my city in Romania?

Not sure. I definitely would like to go to Bucharest in the near future and there’s a growing list of people I’d like to meet with. So if you’re in Bucharest, and interested in meeting me, write me an email or drop me a comment here.

I also would really like to give away another signed copy in Bucharest as well.

As for other cities in Romania, I have no idea at the moment. All I can say is “not until January at the earliest”.

Furthermore, on the off chance you will be in Madrid (Spain) I will be going there over the winter break. Write me an email and we can work something out.

Jeez I want to write a book. Tell me how you did it.

Briefly, of course :P

Writing a book is a lengthy process and there are literally 10 billion websites with advice on how to do it. Please check those for more information and inspiration.

The long and short of it is that writing a book is like building a log cabin – you can draw pretty plans for it but at the end of the day you’ve got to do all the grinding labor of hauling a metric ton of wood around to actually build it.

Publishing a book, however, is another kettle of fish. You basically have two options.

Old Skool JK Rowling Style

You write the book. You read Writer’s Digest and learn how to write a cover letter and get a literary agent.

Said agent then contacts his pals at established printing houses and pitches your book to them.

Publishing house agrees to buy your book. You and your agent negotiate a complicated contract involving rights as well as royalties (money you get paid).

A professional person (or team of persons) then edits, formats and fully prepares your book to be printed.

Publishing house prints, distributes, lists and advertises your book. You may have received an “advance”, a lump sum determined by expectations of your books’ success. And/or you receive solely a percentage of the book price, shared of course with your agent.

–OR–

Internet 2.0 Way

You write the book. You also go over it 100 times with a fine-tooth comb as the only person who is going to catch your errors, misspellings and goofs is you.

You then figure out whether or not you want to even sell your book, or just post it in its entirety for others to read and critique.

You then decide if you want to “publish electronically” or just the “dead tree” actual paper form (or both).

For the electronic versions (yes, including the vaunted Kindle), the actual cost to publish is zero.

For the dead tree versions, there’s always going to be a monetary cost, sometimes exorbitantly so. Do your research on with whom you want to work.

You format your book in all of the various, sometimes-conflicting forms that all of the various online publishers require.

The good news: if you have a completed novel on your hard-drive, you can be published in any format you could ever desire for little to no money and in a relatively short amount of time.

The bad news: you are completely responsible for the marketing of your book. Since literally everyone and their brother can publish anything they like (especially electronically), how do you stand out from the crowd?

Are You Super Rich and Famous Now? When Can I Ride In Your Gold-Plated Yacht?

Soon! Send photos in an email to reserve your spot now :P