At times while writing the second edition of this book, it felt like I had signed my life away. When I agreed to write the first edition of Moon Olympic Peninsula, I also agreed to update the book every three years. Shouldn’t be a problem, right? But there were several factors I did not take into account at the time then that, in hindsight, I wish I would have.
For example, I did not realize that the area of the world I was writing about, expansive as it may be, really would not change much in a three-year period. There may be a new shop or restaurant that pops up in one of the area’s larger cities such as Aberdeen, Bremerton, or Port Angeles, but who is to say if that shop would be worthy of inclusion?
I had a couple of meetings with my publisher to figure out how we were going to reformat the book for this new edition. We did a lot of reorganization, making the book much more intuitive for the reader.
Then when I set out to update, first thing I did was take a complete pass through my book, Googling each establishment I was unsure about to see if it still existed. If it did not, it was cut. Then, I scheduled a trip around the peninsula to see and take photos of what I saw. When I returned home, it was more computer research and phone calls–both which I had help with–and more compiling. Then I wrote, and submitted.
Unbeknownst to me, there is a computer program that can compare documents side by side to see how much one differs from the other. I also did not know that there is a benchmark at the publishing house of how much each edition must differ from the previous one. So, despite my declaration that the Olympic Peninsula does not change much in a three-year period, I did not meet that criteria (I can’t remember what that number was), so I had to return, revise, and add.
In the end, though, this edition certainly is stronger than the last one. I called upon friends for photo supplementation and that paid dividends in the end. As the time draws near for me to embark on the next update, I begin to again think about how I signed my life away for this project. But what always soothes me is that the Olympic Peninsula is my home and an area I frequently visit anyway, so any excuse to spend time there is a good one.