Read your book's contract. Your editor entered a number of estimated pages for your projected and completed manuscript in your contract. Should your manuscript exceed this length by 5 to l0% you should really contact your editor and ask how "firm" that length is. Sometimes you can negotiate a greater length. Sometimes you cannot.

 

Publishers make plans for their production expense and marketing/sales costs as they anticipate forthcoming books. Much of these projections are  based on contracted delivery dates and manuscript lengths. So also note your  manuscript delivery or submission date as well as the contracted length.  The manuscript  which arrives beyond its  contracted length and delivery date could cause your publisher to seriously  reconsider its interest (and investment) in your writing and work.

 

Keep writing.

The national publication for librarians is Library Journal, which is available at your local library's reference desk for the asking. Publishers hope to have their books reviewed positively in Library Journal. A positive review of a book in LJ draws the book to the attention of acquisitions librarians who, seeing the review, will be more likely to order copies for their own library's collection.

 

Library Journal provides updates on national, state and local issues of interest to librarians and their supporters. Keeping up to date on what those concerns are gives you a better understanding of the market and audience for your work ,as well as the particular libraries which specialize in your type of writing and research.

 

Library Jobbers call on acquisitions librarians and present/represent the titles of a number of publishers for whom they work. Services to librarians are increasingly managed through software programs and specialized services which know and understand a library's special interests and list and can target specific titles to them as soon as they are available.

 

Read up on the library market and industry. Target your writing and work to the most appropriate segment of the profession. Library Journal is a good place to start. And support your local library!

 

Keep writing!

The major booksellers now carry a collection of blank books in all kinds of cover designs, fabrics, shapes and sizes. You can spend a good deal of money on blank books at Barnes and Noble as well as Borders, if you want a lovely place to collect your notes, thoughts, and ideas.

 

One section of the stores' blank books collections includes travel diaries, or travel journals, generally distinguished by colorful pictures and scenes from exotic places on their covers. There are sections in these "books" for such things as: what I saw, where I stayed, and what I ate.

 

How do you organize and preserve your writing and your observations? What process best supports the way you work? Legal pads, spiral bound notebooks, post-it notes, hard drives, disks, CDs, and diaries--all provide the blank screens on which to process your thoughts, feelings, emotions, observations, frustrations, and, mostly, your visions and possibilities. The process is as individual as the journey itself.

 

Your writing itself is your travel diary. Your observations and awareness, as well as your insight and imagination, are your passport. Your commitment is your itinerary. You may or may not need the prepackaged, celophane-wrapped, imported Italian leather bound book to get you on the way.

 

Keep writing. Bon voyage.