I’m super excited — and more than a little bit scared. My book project is beginning to seem very very real. My publisher just finished laying out the manuscript yesterday, and this morning I received a printout of Your Money: The Missing Manual in its current state.

For some reason, seeing the book laid out makes the project more tangible than it has been before. There’s just something about holding this pile of words that’s now coalescing into something that other people will read.

It also makes me giddy to see the book listed at Amazon. I know this won’t ever be a best-seller like a Suze Orman book or a David Bach book, but it’s fun to see it climb from #540,000 on the Amazon best-seller list to #17,777. I have to say: If I even crack #5,000 I’ll be happy. (Honestly, I’m happy already!)

Ultimately, though, my goal isn’t to get rich by selling a ton of books. (Good thing, too, because that ain’t gonna happen.) My goal is to reach some folks who need help with their money: If I can give them the info they need to turn their financial lives around, then my work is done. I feel like that’s what I’ve been put here for. (Well, that and reading comic books…)

Here’s the copyright stuff and the table of contents:

I’ll spend the next week hunting for those last pesky errors. I’ll read the book aloud (at least once, if not twice), check for typos, double-check my links (the book has tons of links), and make sure my facts are correct. (I’ve been working with FICO, the credit score people, to correct a couple of charts, for example.)

Have a good weekend, everyone! The sun’s out here in Portland, so I’m going to take my first bike ride of the year…

This article is about Administration, Books  Friday, 5th February 2010 (by J.D. Roth)