Focused Fandom Countdown: 9 weeks to go

So where am I on? "Focused Fandom: Fanart, Fanartists, and Careers."  Well first, late with this post – I was a bit under the weather.

First of all, if you noticed the header, it got pushed out two weeks.  I'm quite busy and am likely to be changing apartments – which easily kills a weekend.  So I figured better to delay it ahead of time.

Our big lesson for the week?  Well that has to do with the rescheduling – namely, plan ahead to add space for the unexpected.

Last book I did for the series I plowed through it.  I worked weekends.  I did an entire book in 3 months.  Yes, I did it – but it doesn't mean it

In giving myself more time on the second book, I got under the delusion that I'd be fine – but just adding extra time doesn't mean you're estimating well, preparing for interruptions, etc.  If I didn't have a self-imposed deadline, it'd be one thing, but . . .

So when you're doing your own projects remember – don't just set aside time, if you at all have a deadline, project ahead, estimate your time, try and get some sense of hours, days, etc. to work.  Think ahead about interruptions.

Then?  add about 10-30% time onto that.  Seriously, rare indeed is the person who gets their time estimates right.  Take it from a Project Manager.

Next book?  I still want to keep putting these out reguarly (I'm thinking every 6 months), but you can bet I'm going to put timelines and estimates on that just to be sure I'm not full of it . . .

Steven Savage

 

Focused Fandom Countdown: 2+ Months To Go

I've decided it's time I start documenting my latest fan-to-pro effort – my next book "Focused Fandom: Fanart, Fanartists, and Careers."  It's about the career value of cross-national linguistic software.

Wait, no it's about how fanart can lead to and enhance your career.  Sorry – it's been a long week.

Unlike our own Rob and his wife I don't have the energy for a day-by-day discussion, and the book isn't due to April anyway.  In fact, that's part of the story.

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Focused Fandom: Cosplay and Costuming – T-29 Days – Formatting

Well Rob and his wife just launched their webcomic, and now it's time for a countdown of my own!

I've been working on a book on cosplay, costuming, and careers the last two months, and will be launching it as an ebook at http://www.focusedfandom.com/book-cosplay.html on October 4th or thereabouts (sometimes the file uploads get a bit tricky).  So youre going to be getting assorted random updates as I go through this process.  You've been warned.

So what is this?  Basically an ebook on how people can use costuming and cosplay in their careers, from finding a profession to finding ways it improves them professionally.

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