By Mark Meier
Has it been two years already?
I signed a contract in October of 2016 to co-author The Handy Wisconsin Answer Book, and it's been an experience. Our writing was due this spring, and originally the book was due out in January of 2019.
I turned in my chapters in March, and my last contact with the publisher was in June. I'm not one to panic, but I was getting nervous. The contract gave the publisher the right to take what I'd written, and if they didn't like what I was doing with it, give it to someone else without further compensation. We'd already received half the advance, and the other half could vanish in an instant.
After four months I began to wonder. Did they exercise that option? It's not like I'm under any illusions that my writing is so flawless they accepted it "as-is." What's going on?
There are people reading this who are privy to some of the issues at hand. It would be rude to rehash that part of the situation. Suffice it to say complications arose that has pushed the release date back to spring of 2019. I learned that from my co-author, who is in much closer contact with the publisher.
The reason I bring this up is that earlier this week I sent the publisher an email. Part of my writing deals with the Milwaukee Brewers, and will need to be revised because the team is doing quite well in the postseason. (Though, as I write this they're one game away from elimination in the NLCS.)
I sent them a note asking if I could revise, and they responded with a longer version of "yes." Still quite brief, but at least it was something to indicate I hadn't been fired.
Yet.
Looks like two other Answer Books got bumped ahead of Wisconsin, though.
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