I WROTE A BOOK! Come Along With Me From Writing To Production (first time in traditional publishing)

Hello, welcome back! It feels like it's been quite a while since I sat down to film a video like this and the video and filming today feels quite surreal and I can't quite believe I'm saying this but I wrote a book and it's available for pre-order now! It's called 'How To Do Life With A Chronic Illness'. It's published by JKP, and the release date is the 18th of April 2024, but you can pre-order it right now right this second and all the links that you need are down below. This is something

that's been in the works for almost two years actually and over that time I thought I'll film some clips here and there of what's going on in the hope of putting them together in a video like this because I know that book publishing is something that a lot of people are interested in and there's the chronic illness land in this occasion as well. So yes, it might not be everybody's cup of tea, but I thought I'd share what I can from the commissioning process, to the writing, to the production

process. What happens after you submit your final manuscript and everything that's brought me to this point right now basically if we haven't met before just to give you a brief background about me. My name is Pippa Stacey. I'm based in Yorkshire. I'm a writer, speaker, and a communication consultant and I have a chronic illness called M.E. I've had that diagnosis for nearly 10 years, but I've lived with the condition for much longer and I've had bad periods of health and I've had better per

iods of health and I'm very thankful that for the past few years I've been in a much better period of health, this was a book I always wanted to write and it's nonfiction and I think the premise for it kind of came about because when you're diagnosed with a chronic illness there's only so much help that you get from medical professionals and of that help most of it is focused on the physical aspects of chronic illness. So things like symptom management, medication, potential treatment option

s, if there are any.. All of those things are really, really important and goodness knows we need more of them, but when there's only so much you can do to help yourself. I remember thinking really clearly. "Well, what about the rest of Life?" How do I do life now that this is my reality because nobody really teaches you the things about like rediscovering your identity and recalibrating as a disabled person. How do you manage your friendships? What are accessible ways of socializing? Can I e

ven have a dating life? How to adopt your hobbies and interests, how to set realistic goals for the future and think about what you really want out of life all of these questions. I had and over the last decade I've basically been figuring out the answers for myself. So I thought I'd take all of that knowledge from my lived experiences and also from the experiences of diverse contributors and put it all into a book which I hope will become sort of a One-Stop guide for someone who's newly dia

gnosed with chronic illness or perhaps looking for support and advice on adjusting to the broader things in life and just establishing a life that really feels like yours, even though you're going through this really life-altering thing. But yeah, that was a very brief overview. Like I said this pre-order links down below. This is the biggest dream come true. So let me take you back to 2022 and we will start going through that process and how this all happened just while I remember I want to

make it really clear that I'm only speaking about my own experiences. I know that everybody has their own stories with writing and publishing and especially disabled and chronically ill people but I can't speak on behalf of other people. So like with everything on this channel the experiences I'm sharing are purely my own. So the day is the 12th of July 2022, I'm sat at my desk doing my work as usual and I see an email pop into my inbox and the subject line of this email reads "Message from

Jessica Kinglee Publisher". So immediately, I stopped everything I think. Oh my goodness. What on Earth Is this? That message was from the commissioning editor who I've worked with closely throughout this process and she was getting in touch to introduce herself and to say that she'd seen some of my existing work. She'd seen the book I previously released called 'University and Chronic Illness, The Survival Guide'. That was something that I'd done previously and I done that independently, it

wasn't through to do traditional publishing like this was that was completely independently and I had actually seen that members from JKP had been following me on social media and yes, we set up a meeting I got Introduce myself, we discuss some potential book ideas. At this point I didn't want to assume anything of course didn't want to assume anything but we discussed a couple of ideas and we settled on one which felt like the right one to pursue at this point in time. One thing you should

know about me is well, I've always been a writer. This is not a new thing writing has always been one of the things I love to do more than anything else and I've always got a million and one book ideas in my head. So coming up with the idea was not the difficult part. If anything, I've got an abundance of them I feel like I just want to say at this point in time that with everything I do, I never want people to think that opportunities just handed to me because I work very hard. I've had my

fair share of rejections like anybody else and I never want anybody to think that this just comes easily. All of that said this opportunity was pretty much handed to me. It was a complete out-of-body experience. I've pitched Publisher's so many times. I've been rejected so many times and I know from experience how hard it is to get into that world to start with. So the fact that somebody came to me is something that I'm still having a difficult time processing because it feels so unreal. So

yeah, I feel like I just wanted to acknowledge that I know how lucky I am that all of this played out in the way that it did because I know from experience that that's not how it usually goes and it's definitely not something that I take for granted. The next step was she sent over a book proposal form. I filled that out. It was very thorough. So I did start to think about the planning at that point in time. Just about to hit send on my book proposal and chapter outline and I feel a little b

it nervous. It's the first level of nerves I've got in this whole thing, but.. Done! And at this point I still wasn't assuming anything they could look at the proposal and they could hate it and think are now you're alright you carry on we're not doing this. But then on the seventh of September 20 22, I got the email saying they would like to go ahead and offer me a contract and that was where the book Deal started and I can't even tell you how surreal it was to get that email it. Honestly fe

lt like somebody had just handed me one of my biggest dreams in the world. It was just unbelievable. But this point in time I was facing a bit of a dilemma. Because I knew that in an Ideal World this contract had come to me but I did feel like I want other support of an agent just to make sure that everything that's in the contract was as it should be I had no reason to think otherwise, but just for my own peace of mind. I knew that having an agent would make this entire process a lot easier

now, I have tried for a book agent in the past and I was unsuccessful. Nobody took me on but between the time I did that and the time were in now I had done some work with a literary agent. I had given some feedback and insights on a proposal they were working on and we'd kind of kept in touch and she had let me know that I was on her radar. So when all of this happened I thought I'm going to reach out to her again not making any assumptions, but I'm going to see if she would be interested i

n signing me and becoming my agent so that meeting took place. I don't think I got any clips of this. I had that meeting I had to medical appointments on that day, but I knew that I needed to get it sorted quickly. So I had my medical appointment in the morning and then I went to waterstones Cafe in town. I did the meeting in there and then I went to the other medical appointment. So it was very unfair and all around but we had a lovely conversation and from that she agreed to sign me and th

at's how I got my lit agent again a bit of an unconventional path for that seems to be one of the things within the story and the most valuable thing that my agent did at this point in time is they help to negotiate the contract. They explain bits to me that I wasn't sure about and she went back and she spoke directly with the Publishers and I won't go into specifics because that doesn't feel appropriate but she got me a much better deal than I would have been able to get on my own. I can't

believe I'm filming looking like this. I've got laundry in the background. It's all going on. But today is Thursday the 8th of December and I'm just about to sign my contract. I've been like a cry. This means I have an agent and a book deal. I'm sat in my office in my dad's or jumper with no makeup on everything just have Normal morning, and one of my biggest dreams just came true. I feel like maybe I should be celebrating or something. But it's 9:37am and I've got a medical appointment soon

that I need to set off. It's just normal day and true story for yet. Again another very on brand occurrence after that meeting. I went to my appointment and that was the day that I got a diagnosis confirmed of quite a rare neuro vascular Disorder. So in my head it's a very memorable day for all kinds of reasons. It was all going on now. We're both thinking about the final book which in my head was still a very A hypothetical thing we were originally aiming for a submission date for a complet

ed manuscript for September 2023 to be published in September 20 24, but after talking with my agent, she basically shared her insight and she thought that September wasn't the right time to be publishing a book like I was doing so she encouraged me to go for a different publishing date instead. So there was more discussion about that and in my head, I thought it would probably be wise to aim for sort of around May time because In May as most of you will know just about every chronic illness

Awareness Day Under the Sun falls in May, so I thought it might make sense to have a book out before then. And April is a popular time for publishing. So it made sense to go for that round instead of the September round where my agent felt my book would have a less good chance of being seen and reaching the right people. So in theory that was a good idea and it made sense and I still maintain that that was the right decision but in practice what that meant that my writing time for writing th

e manuscript was halved so I went From having an original deadline of September 2023 to a deadline of May 2023 and because of that I think it was a really good thing that I was writing this particular book because I wrote it in a really a few months and we'll talk more about that. And I think if that information that I wanted to share wasn't so easily accessible in my brain from my own lived experiences. I think that would have been an incredibly difficult task. I would have done it because

I would not have let this opportunity go but now I'm going to pipe down in a minute and hand over to past Pippa, but before I do that I think this is the biggest jump in time because from signing the contract I had from January 2023 to May 2023 to write this book and I didn't Vlog the writing process which I slightly regret now, but I'm sure you can imagine it was a lot of that was my priority and I just wanted to do it and do it to my best ability rather than thinking about vlogging it as w

ell and how to tell that side of the story and the other thing that I'm just going to briefly mention here is This is the one of the most incredible things that has ever happened to me. But all of this has happened during a time that's been very very difficult for me and my family for reasons that I choose not to share online in a lot of detail. I was writing this book and absolutely genuinely loving that process and feeling so thankful to have that release and have that sort of happiness in

my life. But yeah, it was a very difficult time and it is still a difficult time to this day. I know I don't owe an explanation, but if some of my reactions in the following clips Seemed a bit muted or I don't quite seem like myself. That's not a reflection on how grateful I am for this experience and how much I've enjoyed it. It's just a reflection of The Wider circumstances. It's been a very weird time. There's been like the highest of highs and the lowest of lows and that's difficult to r

ecalibrate in the Here and Now let alone with how you present that online. So I just thought I'd mention that here. I wrote the book. I can't believe it. I think I've just finished the first draft of my book and when I say it's a very rough draft it is a very very very rough draft. It's going to need a lot of editing. It's the beginning of April now and I'm hoping I've got until the end of May to do some really thorough edits. There's also a big life change that's happening next week. So it'

s going to be quite challenging now that I've got this first draft. I feel much more equipped to make this happen. I feel really happy. I feel really really I've been I've just got it out. I've just started reading a little bit of the introduction back and I think it's just starting to hit me that we actually did it in case you're wondering actually the big life change that I talked about in that last clip was something really really positive among the difficult stuff. And that was that my m

om brought home a little puppy called Ruby, which was just the best thing ever. She's the best thing that could have happened to us at that point in time and I would never wish that away for anything but it did mean that I lost a further two weeks of writing to bring in Ruby home and helping it. Elaine and just enjoying and being present in that moment. I have zero regrets about that settling in a puppy was something that was so exhausting. It would be exhausting for any person let alone mana

ging an energy limiting conditions. So there was no way that I could possibly think about writing alongside that but a lot of this book was edited while I had a sleep a little puppy called up on my knee which is such a lovely way to be I would highly recommend that to anybody we're few weeks away from my deadline. I'm going through the chapters one by one and I'm doing In my head, it's a final edit. But it's a first final edit. Today's the first not the first but today's an apparent time whe

re I'm thinking can I do it? So the usual pattern I'll work in the morning when my cognitive functions at its best and then every afternoon, my brain just feels like mush. I'm hoping I'm going to wake up feeling a bit more positive tomorrow. It's Saturday the 6th of May my voice is going more and more by the day because when I go through each chapter, and edit I've read it out loud to make sure that the words sound like they're in the right order and it flows ok, so I'm doing a lot of readin

g out loud. I'm doing a lot of speaking work at the minute. I did one in-person event yesterday and I'm supposed to have two more this month. And I've just I'm going to have to cancel them because I can't do it. My throat is so sore may is always a busy freelance months and I'm very grateful for the work coming in because it has been quite a quiet start to the year. It just feels like everything's come at once. There is so much I need to do I've done a bit more editing this morning of contrib

utor submissions which involves a started coming in and that's been wonderful. I've got my face on because I need to go and do some filming. I'm trying to keep the overwhelm at Bay. I had an email last thing yesterday on Friday with some potential book titles to kick start that conversation and that was really exciting as well already. I'm having thoughts. I like the ones they've sent over but I've also thought of a few of my own now book titles and book covers are not much. Because Pauline

but I have got a few ideas. I'm going to go back and hopefully we can discuss further but seeing the email was one of those moments where it was like, oh my gosh, this is actually happening. I've also just realized that I feel those two clips. I haven't even got my lipstick on I've got my lip liner on but not my lipstick on which I think tells you just about everything you need to know about my mental capabilities at this time. Okay. Here's the thing. I've realized I didn't have any inspirat

ion for titles whatsoever. But when my editor sent over her suggestions, it did prompt few of my own. And I made a list and I whittled it down to a top four. I didn't think I had a strong favorite, but I've been getting the opinions of other people and I've put a poll up on my close friends Instagram story this morning. So it might all change because I haven't sent that over to the editor or none of them have been approved by sales and marketing yet. But today is the 8th of May 2023 and I be

lieve I want the title to be how to do life with a chronic illness these clips. Just keep getting more. Are more attractive don't like not even bother to dry my hair this time, but we're cracking on. I think I'm almost there. The main things that aren't done at the Minotaur things. I'm waiting on from other people and I'm putting all of my trust in the fact that they're not going to let me down. They won't they won't let me down. I have started stitching together the whole book before now the

chapters are all in separate Word documents, but I'm very very worried about my word count on when I set the word count. I Thought it would be more than enough, but I quickly realized her writing the book that I could have easily done another 10K words just to clarify. So all the content is basically written. I just got a final little bit checklist. I've been writing down as I go through and I've started adding up the word count of the bits that aren't in so I can take it off my total word

count. So with this document that I'm pasting together at the minute, it kind of needs to be around 48 ,385 words. So this is currently 48443 words so I can work with that. She says, no. Yeah, I can work with that. I'm going to go and work with that now I wrote a book. Oh my God, it's Saturday the 13th of May and I have just compiled what will be the final draft. I'm going to go through it once more next week while I've got time and I'm going to make some final edits. I've just been crying w

riting the acknowledgements, its done nearly. It's done. I can't believe it. I actually can't believe it. So I got that first draft completed. I was so happy and so chuffed and that was the night that the Eurovision was all in the UK. So I went to my friends house to watch that with a group of friends and I was all intent to really celebrate really enjoy that time and I lost Consciousness twice that night. I'm still not sure why nothing alcohol-related or anything like that. I just had this r

eally funny term and I ended up finding twice I managed to talk. My way out of an ambulance and a visit to A&E. But yeah, so I was unconscious not very well and I still managed to win the sweepstakes. So I am just about like that that is one of my greatest accomplishments today. Let alone that book winning the Eurovision sweep State while not fully conscious is definitely up there in life achievement. It's Thursday the 18th of May and it's going oh, I'm gonna do it. I'm just going to do it.

I've done it. Hello, it's been a little while. Something happened that I forgot to update you on in real time. So I'm doing it. Now. This email came on the 8th of June. I got a title provisionally signed off and that is how to do life with a chronic illness. But the point that the sales and marketing team raised was a really good one in that it probably needs a subtitle so that people who are looking at the book have a better idea of what it's about and what content what it contains so they

came back to me with a subtitle in mind, but I wasn't quite quite sure about the subtitle. So I think what we've settled on that has now gone back to sales and marketing for final sign-off is how to do life with a chronic illness and the subtitle is reclaim your identity create Independence and Find Your Way Forward. I'm not a very visual person. So a book cover is always was always something I was going to struggle with it's something I struggle with with my last one. I know what I like and

I don't and I know what I don't like but I wouldn't be able to word it until I'd seen it she sent me a few examples to look through. And from that I was able to pick out what I liked and what I didn't like she has put together a brief for the cover design and I think that's what's happening next which is so exciting know where I'm at now and waiting for the title and cover design to come back with further thoughts. I am waiting for the manuscript come back with copy edit, which is so scary.

But so exciting and I'm also in the process of filming filling out and also questionnaire which is kind of going into sort of the sales and the marketing angle. More information about me and my background the kind of places where I would ideally like the book to review be reviewed any contacts have gotten those areas. It's just been a really thorough process so far, which I really appreciate because it's so different to what I had last time. So all good things and things are moving forward.

You'll have to excuse what I look like right now. I've had a long day and I've just had an allergic reaction, but I've just checked my emails and I've got draft cover designs that I didn't know we're coming and I really like them which I wasn't expecting. Oh my God, and I To psych myself up to click on the attachments and I had to kind of say to myself. It's okay. If you don't like them at this stage, this is only literally the first draft but for a first draft actually really like it to colo

r options. I really like the second one that feels big. I can't believe that's just happened. We'll just think I'm doing now is unexpectedly the most challenging bit of the whole process so far. I have lots of different contributors in the book because it's always really important to me to share lived experiences that a different from my own and get some more diverse viewpoints. So I've got a fair few contributors in this book and my current task is to obtain permission forms for all of thes

e contributors, which is essentially then sign in to say I'm happy with the quote that's been provided. I'm happy with how I'm being credited and I'm happy for this to go ahead in the final book all of which I've obtained informally beforehand, of course, but this is just kind of like the official bit so that it's documented that they're happy to go ahead and for some reason Form just absolutely baffled me. I could not get my head around it. I don't know if this is like well, it is a me prob

lem. I'm really struggling with forms at the minute which is quite a new experience for me, but I just could not fathom what I was supposed to be filling in what they were supposed to be filling in I just couldn't get my head around it. But luckily There's A really lovely editorial assistant who's working on this book and she's been very patient with my questions and she was explained it all to me. So at least I know what I'm doing now. I've got this camera very strategically placed so you ca

n't see my laundry that's dry in here and you can't The mess in the kitchen over there. I haven't been doing updates in real-time for a little while. And at first I couldn't figure out why I was procrastinating it but now that I've started with it a little bit. I think it's kind of because the more real this all seems to get the less real it feels to me. The book is moving into production and I've been briefed about what all the next stages are and what happens from here how the copy edits w

ere got a new provisional release date, which I think I mentioned something that I didn't mention in these clips. So I will do it now. Is that around this time? I found out the publishing day and I've got the month that I wanted. I've got April and they came back to me and they said I propose publishing day. Is that 18th of April 2024? And as soon as I saw that it took my breath away because that will be the second anniversary of the day my Dad died. So obviously my initial reaction was abso

lutely not there's no way I'm going to publish it on that day. That doesn't feel right, but then I sat with it for a bit and I talked to my mom, but I talked to my My mum about it as well and I think not everybody will understand this but the number 18 has a really weird significance in my family. It's bizarre and it's not a just like a self-fulfilling prophecy prophecy. It's just the number 18 crops up everywhere feels like a really significant number in my family. My mom kind of said to me

if your dad was here, you know exactly what he would say and I was like, yeah, I do. So instead of seeing this as like an old my goodness, what are the chances of a clash like that? I'm Choosing to see it as this is a really significant sign and I'm going to run with it and even just in sitting here and talking about this now. There's a part of me that's worrying that people will think that I'm heartless for that decision or that I care less than I do about that day and what it signifies it

just feels right. I don't know how else to describe it. It just feels so right even given the context it feels like this is the way it was meant to be so I'm confident and I'm at peace with that decision. And my family is and I know that my dad would be too yet. There was just a moment last week and I might not even include those but I was doing it. I was having all of these bookish conversations over email and then I was having meetings with my literary agent about other things and I just h

ad a moment and I thought oh my God, I am living one of my biggest dreams like this has been something that I've wanted so badly for such a long time, but it was in that moment where I kind of actually realized like how We get here and just this whole thing and even documenting it is proving challenging in some respects because on the one hand there's this really incredible thing that's happening. That's bringing me so much fulfillment and making me so excited for what's to come and yet all o

f this has happened during a time that has truthfully been one of the most difficult times of my life the last couple of years. There's been so much that's happened that I can't even like I'll never be able to share online not even allude to it and nobody will ever see that. And on that one side of my life all of these really awful terrible things are happening. And then on this side workwise, all of these incredible things are happening and it's such it's such an up-and-down thing and me as

a person. I don't always do well with the up and down and I think that's maybe why I'm struggling with it a little bit. I was initially a little bit resentful or that's my neighbor. Hang on. I remember resenting at one point that this wonderful thing was happening at a time when I couldn't really fully indulge in be just truly excited about it. But then I thought what a silly thing to wish that you had any control over the time or like resent that something like this was even happening beca

use the fact this is happening at all is still something that I'm struggling to wrap my head around because it's just the most incredible thing. And even if it is happening in the context of a lot of difficult stuff, I should just have so much gratitude that it's happening at all. And as I've had that thought I've it's been easier to actually feel that and experience it. Hello. It's the 22nd of August today. We've had another another significant development in that my copy edits of just come

back. I've not clicked on them yet because I can't prioritize it right now. I think my plan is to get the rest of my charity sector out was done for the week. And then I'll have Thursday Friday the weekend if I need it just to focus on this because I know what I'm like if I try to do everything at once I do less of a good job at everything so nobody wins by doing that. I submitted my manuscript. It's been looked over once by the commissioning editor just to check it was we were on the same p

age about things which we were that then went to a copy editor. and the edits from that read through and now coming back to me so I can look at those edits make any necessary changes highlight any issues yet. My deadline is Friday the 1st of September. So I've got to me that seems like plenty of time. I've got over a week and I think that probably might not seem like a lot of time to some people but I think because of my past experience which I don't think I've ever talked about had a not ve

ry good experience self-publishing last time and it was often the case that I'd not know that anything was coming and then last thing on a Friday I get an email saying I need this by first thing on Monday and that was very unsustainable. That was very not very chronic illness friendly. So this by comparison feels quite luxurious just in case anyone's interested. I've just opened up the copy edit dog and instead of making the changes on the manuscript in the column underneath my hand are all t

he things that the copy editors have flagged and then this blank space next to each one is where I can reply or amend or give my own feedback. I actually really like this way of doing it on my last one. I was making lots of edits to a manuscript and I was always terrified that I was going to send the wrong version back. So I really like that you do it on a separate document rather than in the manuscript itself and it's made me really excited to get started actually. Okay, it's couple of days

later and I can't believe I'm saying this but I've done the copy edit. It only took two hours, which is just so not a lot of was expecting I think because it was just so clearly laid out and stuff. I'll spare you seeing what my face looks like today, but I'm so pleased. I'm just about to send that back now and And I'm also sending over my dedication and acknowledgements which feels quite scary. It is very gloomy outside and I have just made some edits to the Advanced Title information sheet

. This is just sort of the copy that's going to be used for places on Amazon where the book is advertised and just stuff like that. It's point of reference. So there's a Keno along blurb a short blurb and the author bio and then some other stuff that's for the Publishers benefit. It's been a little while since I updated this video to I've just come to the end of Something that was a tiny bit challenging but that's been resolved in a really positive way. I don't know why I can't speak today. I

can't remember if I mentioned this year, but we started working through the advanced marketing copy for the book and I did make some changes and suggestions to that and I think we went back and forth twice about the blurb and I'm actually really proud of myself for pushing back on something that I wasn't 100% happy with that. Doesn't always feel like the easiest thing for me to do. But when you're thinking that this is the stuff that's going to go on the back of a book that has your name on

it. It does feel a lot easier. So even when we got to something that looked like a final version and I wasn't a hundred percent happy. I did do a final idea and I sent it back and just now five minutes ago. I've got the feedback that it's great and the change has been made and it's all done and dusted. I actually feel like I could cry. It's Wednesday the 25th of October and I've just Found out that there's going to be an audio book that was never a guarantee and that was something I want. T

hat was something I really wanted because I know that audiobooks is sometimes the only way that people with chronic illness can consume books and I can't I thought it was such a slim chance of happening and I don't have any more details at this stage just confirmation that they would like to do an audio book and I am absolutely over the moon right now. It's been a really difficult couple of weeks and that's just Oh gosh, that's just the best news. I was so pleased it's few days later. But aro

und the same time that I got that news about the audiobook. I got my next round of copy edits through but this version has all of the previous edits and quite excitingly, It also has some of the artwork and design elements in it as well. So you can get a slightly better idea of what the layout is going to look like. I am going to query the use of drop caps. Some people have issues comprehending the text when there's elements like this. So I think I am going to have a discussion about that an

d maybe query whether we can Change that but at the end of each chapter, we've got the journal prompts, which is wild. It's ours. It feels like a real book and I don't know whether I'll have the guts to leave this in but it's been a while since I last read the drafts, the manuscripts of my book have been working on other projects and I've got it into my head. I'm having a bit of a not ideal time at the minute. I'm having a slight identity crisis. My self-esteem isn't the best it's ever been

and I'm going to be honest about it and I've been thinking to myself I bet my books not even that good. I bet it's rubbish. I bet it's nothing. I don't deserve this. Why have I got this opportunity? This is so silly, but having read it this morning. I actually had a moment where I felt quite proud of it. I read it back and I was like, you know what? I'm actually really proud of what I've done here. I really like it. It's better on reading it with fresh eyes, and it was when I was constantly e

diting it and yeah, I feel really happy with what I've done and I really hope other people feel a similar way when they read it! Oh, we've hit a big milestone today. I finally got signed permission forms for all of the contributors in my book that probably doesn't even sound like a big deal, but there's a lot of contributors in there and everybody obviously has consented to their stuff being included in the book, but that all got done and then at a later point in time, I had to get everybody

to sign and return a permission form and that has been going on for six months. So to put that into context it's taken two months longer to get these from these forms return to they took me to write the entire book. Look, it's been a it's been an ordeal. I'm obviously really grateful to have everyone involved and obviously showing empathy because everyone's situation is different. Everyone's got stuff going on, but I genuinely think getting all of these permission form signed and returned h

as been harder than right in the book. I'm glad it's done. I'm glad I've got the brilliant people involved and lessons have been learned for the future. Hello. It's been a little while since I last updated you what's new but I thought in case it's of any interest. I've got the second round of copy edits back, but I thought I would show you some of the things as they look now and tell you what I changed and why, so like I said, I've got this digital version of what the book will look like in p

rint. I've had two iterations of this now and this is the most recent one one change that hasn't actually made in yet but will happen is that there are some links in the book people who are reading this as an e-book will be able to click like click directly on these but in the print version, I'm also going to have a QR code, which you You can scan. I've used this a couple of other times throughout the book because I've got videos on my YouTube channel that go really nicely with the content.

So there will be QR codes that somebody can scan if they want to be taken directly to that page without having to try and type out a link if they can't click on it before this version there were drop caps at the beginning of each chapter and they were much bigger than this. So we discussed what we could do to make sure they were still still something there that kind of added a little bit of a design element but wasn't quite as cognitively challenging to take in and then Most of the chapters

I have at least one contribution from somebody else somebody who's either a subject expert or they've got lived experiences that are different from my own on the original version. They were on a plain background, but they had a line going down here. But then I read Charlie Clements book, which is coming out from the same publisher. It's called all tangled up and it's about autism and chronic illness. But one of the things they had done in their book was have their contributors on this shaded

background and I thought that it really made it stand out and it made a bit easier to comprehend when there was a change in narrative and A different voice. So I asked whether I could do something similar for mine. And this is what they came back with and I like this much better. I think it makes it much clearer got a couple of these resource list scattered throughout the book and I found I had more space in the text box that I thought I had so I could add a few more people on narrowing down

a list when there's so many brilliant chronically ill people doing stuff. Like this was not an easy task. So I'm very glad I got to include a few more of those now. Oh, here's one of the examples of the QR codes that you can scan. So if you've got a physical copy of the book, you will just be able to scan this this one. YouTube video on my YouTube channel about making a personal survival budget if you're thinking about living independently, there's like a free template you can download and

all stuff like that. I've got different elements in different fonts wherever possible so that's an example letter if somebody's new to self advocacy and I think that's it. I know they might only seem small to some people but sometimes it's the little things like that that can really make a difference to a person's experience of reading especially when someone's dealing with chronic illness and the kind of cognitive fatigue and the cognitive challenges that come with that I probably have sai

d this before but I'm not really a visual person. So like the design elements and how it looks and the typesetting the cover that's not really stuff that I'm necessarily thinking about that much while I'm writing. So I'm so grateful that they've been so accommodating like they came back and leaving the first draft was great and I was really happy with it. But the fact I've been able to go back and say oh could we tweak this could we try this and they've been like, yep? Yep. Yep. I know that i

sn't the experience that everybody has so I feel really grateful to have had that and I'm really pleased with how it's looking I'm filming this in December. So for five months, oh, oh five months to the day until it's out in the world. Oh my God. It's 2024 today is the 8th of January and we have just signed off the back cover of my book and we're also having some endorsements in the front cover, now and I didn't document it at the time that I read the endorsements and I read the early media

reviews. Yes, but I think it was probably one of the most incredible surreal moments of my life. I'm trying to sit here trying to describe how it felt to read those positive reviews of my book and I don't have the words. I really don't it means it means everything. It was just thought it was the best thing ever. I've seen the reviews. There's a couple on the back cover. We've got the page of endorsements and they're signed off now and that's going into production as well. So few of On the wa

terstones page for the book as well. I have looked at the city of times now. I'm not gonna lie, but it just it still doesn't feel real. It's the 7th of February today, I have the go-ahead to announce my book and do the ver reveal eel on the 19th February third. So that's going to come around really soon. I think but as of now, it's just little things that keep like catching me off guard and getting me excited and I'm going to show you one of them like I've just been doing my emails and I was

talking to my agents. So my agency rather than the Publishers and at the bottom I just spotted this is there for her and I thought oh my God, it's me for so long. I've been so excited for the day that I finally get to share this news on Instagram and I get to tell people and I know I will enjoy it but I don't know that online will seems even more hostile than usual at the minute. It seems quite volatile. So I don't know I think that's the reason why part of me is feeling a bit worried about

it. If this is what I think is I'm about to actually lose my mind at the minute Schrodinger's Box. I've not opened it. I'm not going to open it because to be transparent. I'm in a really bad mood and I feel really ill and it's just life is a bit hard at the minute. So I'm going to wait until tomorrow until I'm in a better state of mind, but I did not know that was coming. And if that's what I think is That's a very very right very exciting thing. Look what I've got. Oh my goodness. It feels

weird to be holding it in my hands. It kind of solidified that it actually is a thing that happened. I've been talking this morning about audiobook arrangements and it's just all becoming very very real now absolute Madness completely surreal and it's going to look great on my yellow bookshelf and most importantly I do love yellow book you all know this by now. We originally tried the bits that are orange in pink and I did really like that as well. But I did want this to kind of be not femal

e coded. I wanted to keep it as gender neutral as possible and inclusive of all genders and the pattern on the back. I said, I don't want it too loud and too brash because obviously people with chronic illnesses have very sensitive brain, so I didn't want it to be too confident in and chewing your face, but we've just got this very subtle path. Sort of design in the background and that's to represent the fact that life with chronic illness seems to be anything but linear and it's all about f

inding a path that works for you rather than doing what the world might expect of you and then on the back, we've got testimonials which to this day is still feels like one of the most surreal things that people have read this book and said nice things about we've got the blurb and then I've got my photo down here and my little bio and I love the spine as well. I think my spines my spine. I think the spine. Is one of my favorite bits actually the day I'm filming this is the day before I annou

nce the book on social media. I have already done a couple of podcast interviews. So I feel like the ball is rolling already. But oh my gosh tomorrow it's going to be more public knowledge that this book exists. It's almost like my brain is stopping me from being too happy and too excited just in case anything happens, and I don't know what would and I'm sure I'm just worrying over. Nothing, or at least I hope I am but it's almost like my brain is stopping me from going to that higher level

or just to protect myself a bit better if there's a fall we just really really hope people like it. I hope it adds value to people's lives. That is the main thing. I wanted stuff that would be practical and helpful and help people to feel a bit more like themselves and to know that that knowledge was coming from somebody who really does get it writing has always been one of the things I love more than anything in the world. I always hope that writing would be a part of my life, and I'm so gr

ateful. For that it's become a part of my job and then to have this opportunity to break into traditional publishing which I never in a million years thought would be possible for me. Once I acquired my chronic illness. So to be doing this writing a book about chronic illness for people with chronic illnesses. It's just it's almost beyond my wildest dreams and I'm just so grateful that this has happened. So, like I said, you can pre-order a copy of the book now ahead of the release in April.

I will leave links to different retailers down below. Others are really really important. I'm told so any pre-orders would be so gratefully received and feel free to spread the word pass it on to anybody who might be interested in a book like this. That would be amazing as well. I really hope you love it. I really hope you get a lot of value out of it. But if there is anything that you're interested in or you'd like to hear more about in the future, I'd be more than happy to share that infor

mation. I know that writing is something that a lot of people want to do and other people with chronic illnesses like me might feel like they're shut out from In that world and though I can't claim to be an expert giving my one experience of this if there is anything helpful, I can share I'm more than happy to do that. Thank you so much as always for watching. I really really appreciate it. You can subscribe if you want if you want to see future videos and I'll see you next time.