There shall be a book

Filed 30/1/2015 | Tweaked (twice) 31/1/2015

The book’s being printed tonight, probably even as I type. It’s as good a time as any to announce that there is a book. The deal was signed in October, when the implication of what I’d done quickly set in...

Book deal signed. Fuck.
— Spudnik (@IrishBerliner) October 23, 2014

It’s not the kind of thing you can do lightly. Anyone who accepts a book’s invitation is making a personal investment in it. They’ll hold in their hands, feel it, weigh it, smell it, presumably read the thing. Words are no longer throwaway. As soon as words are formed they aspire for recognition in a book. This is their ultimate dream, the highest honor for a word.

I did the final proof last night, finished at 5am. Days have been stretching to 4am since Christmas going over everything again and again and again, checking for mistakes, a wrong date, a stray comma. The publishers’ team went over everything too so it should be OK. We’ve done all we can, can’t do any more. I gave the go-ahead this afternoon. “Druck mal!” No point in worrying about it now.

The book’s called “Verlassene Orte / Abandoned Berlin,” published in both German and English by the “be.bra verlag” in Prenzlauer Berg. It’s good to keep it local and they’ve been very enthusiastic about it all. They even convinced me otherwise when I was having second thoughts. 

I’m not sure when it hits the shops. Sometime in February I suppose. I’ve to figure out how to sell it here too. There’ll be a launch and at least two other book presentations that I’ve been roped into. I hope they’re quiet. I’ll have to publicize them without drawing any attention to them. Anyway, that’s that. A book.

PS – I should add it won’t impact on normal service here. The book’s done, so I can get back to exploring and reporting while there are still things to explore and report. That list won’t get any shorter by itself.