A Few Updates On The 2nd AgileMan Book

I've begun soliciting pre-orders for More Real-Life Adventures of AgileMan (Year 2: Easier Said Than Done), starting with the list of people who bought or expressed interest in the 1st book. I've had nearly 20 positive responses so far and that's an encouraging result after just a couple of days!

Since I've decided to produce a collected edition of the two books, I'm also looking for pre-orders on that (I have 2 so far!). I've been working on the bonus material for it recently, making sure that anyone who buys the collection gets a little bit of extra, fun stuff beyond what's in the two regular editions. I'm still noodling over the sub-title for that book, to go along with The Complete Real-Life Adventures of AgileMan. Ideas I've had so far include:

• (Two Years of Going Agile)
• (Two Years of Lessons Learned)
• (Two Years of Agile Lessons Learned)

Anyone out there have any better suggestions?

The online prices at Lulu.com will be slightly higher than what I'm about to quote, but for in-person sales I'm expecting to charge $30 for the 2nd book and $45 for the collected edition (the latter of which is compared to $25 and $30, or $55 total, for the 2 books individually). For anyone in my neck of the woods who'd like to get a copy from the author himself on Launch Day (sometime in January 2009), please let me know now so that I can be sure to print enough copies!

While the actual writing of the books could at least conceivably be considered "work," I have to say that doing the various extras for them comes almost entirely under the category of "fun!" I had a great time dreaming up the comic strip captions that I used in The Real-Life Adventures of AgileMan (Lessons Learned in Going Agile), not to mention the minor thrill that I felt in creating the artwork in the first place! While I don't want to give too much away ahead of Launch Day '09, I will say that I'm having every bit as much fun this time around! I also tended to laugh out loud quite a bit as I came up with the contents of "AgileBoy's Glossary of Terms" for the 1st book, and I have an idea for something similar to use in the 2nd one. I really enjoy flexing my creative muscles on things like that, and if the people who buy the books get a kick out of them - as a few readers have told me they did - then all the better!

As for timing, the reviewers have until Nov 21st to get me their feedback (some of which has already come in) and then I hope to be starting the printing/publishing process shortly thereafter. I might manage to have the first print draft in my hands as early as the first week of December, if all of the stars line up and nothing goes wrong (I know: what are the chances?)

And that's where things stand today.