How's the book going?

Not infrequently someone will say to me how's the book going? When I hear the question I'm not sure what book they mean. Are they referring to my part of the Pioneer Project, the book covering the amateur era of base ball or do they mean the William Lloyd Civil War letters. In fact they don't mean either of those works in progress - in most cases they don't even know about them.

Of course the book they are asking about is "The Major League Pennant Races of 1916" which Paul and I completed last February (cover to the right). My experience thus far with both of my books is that they are submitted to the publisher and then you hear very little about it for months. In this case, we had a few minor questions the end of September and that was it. Then you wait for the day when the proofs arrive in the mail.

Ironically the proofs for "The Mutinous Regiment" showed up unannounced when Carol and I returned from a trip to Toronto. The irony is that we were attending the Society for American Baseball Research's annual convention along with Paul and Sarah. During the convention Paul and I introduced ourselves to Gary Mitchem of McFarland and asked (with more than a little trepidation) whether they might be interested in a book about the 1916 season. Thankfully Gary was very interested and because I was already a McFarland author he kindly eased the submission process. I arrived back from Toronto ready to get started on what they did want, only to find the proofs of my first book which required my immediate attention.

This morning I was working on editing and re-drafting the beginning of my Pioneer Project section on the Newark base ball club when the phone rang. It was Paul letting me know that he had just received an e-mail from McFarland telling him that the proofs were on their way to him. We now have to review them and prepare an index which is our final work on the book. If we do our part in a timely fashion, McFarland plans to send the book to the printer about January 15th. If my first book is any indication that should mean that it will be published by about the middle of February - just in time for spring training.

That's obviously good news which means, among other things, that Paul and I have to start talking about how we are going to promote the book. We plan to do that aggressively. So the good news is that I have a new and exciting answer to the question - How's the book going?
Assuming I can figure out what book the person is asking about.