Update: I WILL Be Taking a Break to Work on My Book Next Week and also WILL NOT Be Going to the Second Blues Blues Brothers Convention Because It Was Cancelled
I’ve mentioned this before but I spend a lot of time wishing that I was Michael Keaton in the poorly received 1996 science-fiction comedy Multiplicity. That’s because in Multiplicity Keaton is able to clone himself, which is something I would love to do, although, to be fair, it seems like society isn’t crazy about a single Nathan Rabin so I don’t know how it would feel about a whole bunch of us.
If I did one day wake up in the world of Multiplicity I would create various Nathan Rabins to handle the various aspects of my life and career. One of these Nathans would be able to devote all of his time and energy to getting a job so that my livelihood is no longer dependent on unsuccessfully asking strangers for money to support my career as a writer.
One of these Nathans would work full-time on my Substack newsletter Nathan Rabin’s Bad Ideas and one would work relentlessly at finishing The Fractured Mirror, my highly non-awaited upcoming tome about films about the film industry.
Unfortunately I do not live in the world of Multiplicity. There’s only one of me and his time and energy are stretched painfully thin by the enormous amount of work I have to do every day.
So I am going to take a week-long publishing break so that I can focus on finishing The Fractured Mirror. I’ve done an enormous amount of work on it, but I still have to watch and write up a final 55 movies for it. That is my big project for the year, a mammoth encyclopedia covering a rich vein of American movies.
I had a good experience with Grammarly when they copy-edited The Joy of Trash so I am going to go with them again with The Fractured Mirror. Unfortunately the longer your book is, the more they charge and my book is going to clock in about 600 pages. They also charge more if you want them to do it quickly and I’m guessing there will be a very tight turnaround in terms of finishing the book, getting it copy-edited and ready for publication by November.
At the end of the book-writing process I generally have to spend five thousand dollars or so for copy-editing, printing books and buying copies of my other books to fulfill the Kickstarter campaign.
That in itself is daunting, particularly since there’s no guarantee whatsoever that I will see a dime of that back.
It could be worse. Like a real idiot, with The Weird Accordion to Al I foolishly charged something like eight dollars for international shipping when it costs 22 dollars just to send a single book to Canada. You can imagine how obscenely expensive it is to send three big-ass books to Australia. I unfortunately sold a LOT of books internationally, which meant that I probably lost a good five thousand dollars just shipping books all over the world at a sizable loss with each book.
But I keep writing books all the same because, at the risk of being immodest, I’m damn good at it, and there’s something deeply satisfying about holding a book in your hand for the first time with palpable pride and thinking, “I did this. I made this happen. I brought this book kicking and screaming into the world and now it will be available forever.”
I keep hoping that the next book will be the one that really puts me over, that will allow me to stop struggling and failing and give me the life of stability and security I desperately crave but will probably never have as long as I am a full-time pop culture freelancer.
So I’m going to devote all of next week to doing as much work on The Fractured Mirror as humanly possible.
My last book, the Flaming Garbage Fire extended edition of The Joy of Trash ends with a chapter on my trip to the first ever Blues Brothers Convention in Old Joliet Prison.
I had a blast and got a piece out of it that I think is one of the best things I’ve ever written. So when I saw that a second convention was planned I was psyched.
I wanted to cover it for this website and Nathan Rabin’s Bad Ideas and started a Gofundme for it. Alas, the convention was cancelled due to the writers and actors strike so it looks like I will be staying at home.
I was really looking forward to the convention but these things happen and I probably should have seen this coming.
So if you were one of the 23 or so people who donated to my Gofundme I will happily refund your money or roll it over for next year’s convention.
In conclusion, I am going on a book break/publishing hiatus next week and I will not be going to the Blues Brothers Convention because it’s not happening. It’s almost as if this celebration of the work of John Landis and John Belushi, set in a spooky prison full of angry ghosts, is somehow cursed or haunted or something.
If only Dan Aykroyd knew someone who could take care of a situation like that.
See you in about a week and a half! I’ll be running reruns next week but if you’ve never read them then they’re new for you!
Keep the faith and please don’t withdraw your support. I promise the book will be worth it.
It’s going to be special, a real labor of love utilizing zero AI and yes, that is a shot fired in the direction of my old employers at The A.V Club. I’ll have something to say about that situation as well. You’re just going to have to be patient.
Pre-order The Fractured Mirror for a very reasonable price over at https://the-fractured-mirror.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders
Check out The Joy of Trash: Flaming Garbage Fire Extended Edition at https://www.nathanrabin.com/shop and get a free, signed "Weird Al” Yankovic-themed coloring book for free! Just 18.75, shipping and taxes included! Or, for just 25 dollars, you can get a hardcover “Joy of Positivity 2: The New Batch” edition signed (by Felipe and myself) and numbered (to 50) copy with a hand-written recommendation from me within its pages. It’s truly a one-of-a-kind collectible!
I’ve also written multiple versions of my many books about “Weird Al” Yankovic that you can buy here: https://www.nathanrabin.com/shop
Or you can buy The Joy of Trash from Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Joy-Trash-Nathan-Definitive-Everything/dp/B09NR9NTB4/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr= but why would you want to do that?
Check out my new Substack at https://nathanrabin.substack.com/
And we would love it if you would pledge to the site’s Patreon as well. https://www.patreon.com/nathanrabinshappyplace