Finished!
2 Jan 2008
At exactly 12:11 a.m. today (Wednesday, January 2), I made the final edit on U2, A Diary, saved the massive MS Word document, and declared the manuscript finished. I think I smiled. :) I sent it via e-mail to Omnibus Press shortly after that, and then crashed into bed and slept. Zzzzzzz. So, now, several things…
First and foremost:
Thank you deeply and sincerely for all your help with this book. As I said a few posts back, U2 fans are amazing. If you’ve ever commented on this blog, or sent me a helpful e-mail, you’ve made the book better. I’ve been doing my best to keep a master list of everyone who has directly affected the text in some way, and your names will be included in the acknowledgments. (I’ll do my best to limit the number of names I forget to include.)
Secondly:
As soon as I have details from the photo editor, I’ll be posting here on the blog about how to submit photos, what types of photos we’re looking for, and so forth. Please stay tuned for that, because no matter how good my manuscript may (or may not) be, you’ll like the book a lot better if it has great pictures.
Third:
Over on the right here are my final stats from the MS Word file. Almost 204,000 words. Heheheheee. I was supposed to write 150,000, so … ummm … I went 33% over my target. Whoops! I’ll be curious to see how much gets edited. I can see the discussion now:
Me: “Seriously, that time when Bono stubbed his toe just has to be in the book! You can’t edit that out!”
Chris (editor): “Sorry, Matt. It’s gone.”
Just kidding. There are no mentions of stubbed toes in the book.
Lastly: I can’t say this enough…
Holly S**t!!!
I can’t wait! :D
Well done Matt! The book is going to be great and I can’t wait for it to come out later this year.
CONGRATULATIONS MATT!! I can’t wait to see it!
Hey Matt – Congrats!!!! I can’t wait to read it. What an accomplishment!
-Pat
Nothing much to say I guess, just the same as all the rest: Congratulations on completing this major step of what will surely be one of the most appreciated U2 books.
Keep up the good work, Matt!
Congratulations Matt. I hope the editing process doesn’t get too hair raising. Looking forward to buying this when it comes out.
Dana
Congrats on getting finished (sorta!). I can’t wait to see it and I’m hoping that you will maybe do a booksigning tour!
Jordan
I just came across this and I also want to say Congrats and am looking forward to to reading your book!
Trinn
The goal you’ve reached will mean so much to the community. Cheers to u2diary, destined to outsell Neil and Michka!
Cool news.
Great job. Maybe you can post what’s edited out as a follow up on here after the big publication date.
The diary/on this date part of atu2 was always my favourite – look forward to the book.
Thank you all for the kind words and support and encouragement, and all that good stuff. :-)
Darren – the “on this date” was one of my fave parts, too. It was my little baby, but the book really puts it to shame. I was embarrassed by how much was missing on the web site.