… birthing this book baby of ours! Seriously, somebody get us to Lamaze class. Yup, it’s coming in early November (our official “due date” is the 6th, although it varies slightly depending on where you look). Excuse me while I practice my deep breathing (hee, hee, hoooooo, hee, hee, hoooooo).
Perhaps the craziest part about it is that this might be the longest baby gestation ever recorded – over three whole years! Seriously. Labor of love could not apply more. So for everyone who has been asking about pre-order details, you can click on any of the logos below to pre-order from any of these affiliates. And of course don’t forget the local guys – the book will be available at your favorite bookstore, and if you stop by, many local bookstores can pre-order it for ya too. Fun fact – pre-orders don’t just score you a discounted price, they’re also good for us authors too. And we hear they can show up before the actual release date, so that’s another added bonus.
Speaking of a nice long gestation, this was John’s Facebook status almost exactly a year ago (and yes, that’s the Jamie you know from this post).
But today somehow we’re holding a 336 page mocked-up book full of hundreds of house-sprucing ideas that are about to go off to the printer this week to be made into a real life book. Like one you can hold in your hands and read and put on the coffee table. Actually lots of them since it would be weird just to print one. As for what it’s about, it’s definitely not a formal decorating bible with designer terms and upscale rooms. Please, we’re not that fancy. It’s more of an idea book for folks like us. A heaping portion of doable and affordable suggestions to pick and choose from – and adapt to fit your home. Some are more involved, some are super easy. Some are free, some might be something that you’d save up for. Basically it’s the blog. Only a book. And instead of getting a post or two a day, you get 243 ideas with photos, checklists, tutorials, and illustrations galore (along with bonus tips, sidebars, and added commentary). And a little dorky humor a la us.
Wait, and did we mention that we packed it with over 200 photos and 100 illustrations that have never been seen before on the blog? I guess we just did. In fact, none of the tips in this book are just regurgitated from our blog posts (zero cutting and pasting here!). Some of the general ideas and basic tutorials may be familiar (how could we not include must-have how-tos like painting furniture or upholstering a headboard?) but we wanted to present them in a fresh way. So instead of seeing the same table that I painted three years ago for the blog, you might see a brand new dresser makeover that we secretly completed back in January. Sure it was extra work, but we really wanted the book to look fresh and be full of different “takes” on a ton of decorating ideas – both classic and unexpected (and pretty much everything in between).
It’s so funny because we distinctly remember every single phase: signing on with an agent well before Clara was born, writing a 100 page proposal in 2010, pitching it to publishers and picking the right one for the job right after moving in 2011, turning our proposal into a complete book outline and then a complete manuscript right around New Year’s, shooting for three straight weeks in our house back in February of this year, and then refining and proofing and proofing some more, and finally – finally! – sending this baby off to be printed. Whew.
Whirlwind? Yes. Lots of fun? Yes. Lots of work? Yes. Still feels like it’s all a dream? Yes. One big, flipping-the-house-upside-down dream…
So needless to say, when we look down at the final layouts and triple check that we didn’t write something like “hang your fart” instead of “hang your art” (don’t worry, we have proofreaders) it really is sort of a chest-swelly moment. Not in that “we’re a big deal” way, but in that “we didn’t know we had it in us” way. I mean, of course when we signed on to write a book we thought we could do it, but as we went we kept saying “ooh, wouldn’t it be cool if we added this too?” – and every time we did we’d worry if we had just bitten off more than we could chew. But oh happy day we didn’t! We survived. We lived to tell the tale. We wrote the book we were dying to write. And I think it’s going to feel even more unreal when we’re actually holding it in our hot little hands. There might be tears the ugly cry.
And since the final cover has officially been pinned down, we thought it would be fun to chat about that process, since it was completely different than we thought it would be (as was almost every aspect of writing a book – did you know you edit the entire thing with a pencil on printed layouts over about five to six rounds of revisions – there’s no computer involved at all?!). I’d say the two overall most surprising things about writing this book were:
- how little the publishers changed the inside of the book (aka, the meat)
- how much the publishers have to do with the outside (aka, the bread)
Isn’t that funny? Every time we submitted outlines and even the final manuscript we expected tons of crossed out stuff and rearranged stuff and suggestions about what to move/do/change. But other than typos and grammar fixes, it was really all us. Which is kind of awesome. I mean, in the book we’re the same pun-loving weirdos as we are on this blog. I guess we somehow thought they’d try to “polish us” but they totally let us be us. Our freak flag is waving, baby. And we’re so grateful.
Then when it came to the cover, we learned that most authors actually only get to give “feedback” but the publisher always has the final say. Thank goodness we love our editors and they seem to like us back, so it was a pretty collaborative process in the end. First we shot some of their initial concepts amidst our three-week photography extravaganza back in Feburary, and out of all three cover concepts there was one that we did our darndest to wiggle out of: putting our mugs on the cover.
We just didn’t want to be sitting there (or standing there) posing in some styled room because… I don’t know… it just felt so… serious. We really wanted the cover to feel playful and happy and fun (it’s not a lofty book about box pleats, it’s a happy-go-lucky home idea book). So after we shot all three concepts, including some terribly awkward photos of us sitting on the sofa like this…
… we heard they officially weren’t going with the pose-on-the-sofa idea for the cover (they agreed that it was looking really forced). Wahoooooo! We celebrated. There might have been an entire box of Oreos that were sacrificed to the We’re-Not-On-The-Cover Book Gods (by way of our bellies). Then about a month later we heard they were going with a fourth concept that a new designer came up with (with us on the cover, but not as big, and not us posing in a room). Whaaaaa? Here was the very first draft they sent over just with initial ideas from their team:
We opened the PDF while holding our breath… and then we stared at it for a while. And then we realized that we kind of liked it. Not because we’re on the cover of course, but just because of the vibe. The playful look and feel of the different typefaces, the wood letters, the blue stitched spine detail, the paint can in the O – they were all fun and cheeky and definitely not stodgy or serious. Of course the designers asked us for feedback, so we gave it lots of thought, still kind of cringed at the idea of seeing our faces on the cover, and offered up a few general suggestions like:
- what if we made the spine more of a teal tone and less of a baby blue?
- what if we added some house keys hanging at the bottom from the “e” in the word love?
- what if we used wood letters in a chunkier, more modern font?
- what if we took ourselves off the darn cover? (this became a joke, how many times we tried to weasel our way out of it)
And they came back with:
- Sure! Color picks are just preliminary, so you can definitely weigh in on those!
- Sure! We love that idea!
- Sure! We’ll get them hand-carved by an artisan in the typeface that you pick and then shoot them in a studio so they look real and have real shadows (how cool is that?! they were made just for the book, and yes we have totally begged them to send them to us so we can keep them forever!)
- Nope, you’re staying right there. Everyone here loves that it makes it personal and it’s not a giant stiff looking photo so hopefully you’ll learn to love it too.
Oh and some other changes happened over those months of development. Some tips got changed to bonus tips instead of numbered tips (to help keep the page count – and therefore the price – from getting too high). So we ended up with 243 tips, which is our lucky number (it’s old pager code for We Love You, which we thought was fitting). The subtitle also got more specific thanks to some focus-group feedback. So here’s the final design – mocked up to look 3D:
Clean and still fun. Not too kid-ish, but still playful and cheeky with that awesome zing of color down the spine and a few more pops on the front and back. We also love how there’s a mixture of masculine (the wood letters) and feminine (the scripty ones). And everything from the stitched spine to the paint can and the house keys feels – I don’t know – homey?
Just for kicks, here’s the front, spine, and the back (the back is so much fun up close since our website’s heart background is subtly worked into some of the colored boxes):
Thanks to that teal spine, we think it’ll look so cute on a coffee table, or even stacked between our horse head bookends with the other decorating books that we love. Can’t you picture it squished in here?
As for why the book cover doesn’t look like our blog header, we actually thought that wouldn’t be a good idea since:
- It’s kinda boring if it’s a direct lift from our blog
- The book isn’t just repackaged blog stuff, so we didn’t want the cover to look so much like our blog that people assumed it was just the same stuff (all of the projects that we photographed were secretly done just for this book, so they’re all never-before-seen images)
- We love to redesign the blog every few years, so we didn’t want the book to look dated (to us and our readers) once we outgrew the current design
- It’s actually a really fun process to see what a professional book designer can do with your “look.” They know what they’re doing and have so much interesting reasoning behind certain choices that we never would have even thought about. And it’s not everyday that you get to see yourself through a book designer’s eyes.
So that’s the story of being completely convinced that we had successfully weaseled our way out of being on the cover (we even said we had done it in this post) and then ended up there anyway. But at least we’re not sitting on the sofa smiling. Haha. And there are bunny ears. And I’m wearing red shoes. And we’re little. So if we put a cute little paper weight over that part of it when it’s on the coffee table we won’t even be visible. #crouchingtigerhidden$herdog
Another fun fact? That photo actually wasn’t shot for the cover. It was just a random portrait that we snapped back in February while shooting all of our projects (just in case they needed an author photo for the back or something).
Oh, and what’s the funny thing you notice about John’s hand in the original pic? Yup, no drill. They cut his arm holding a drill from another process photo in the book and stuck it on there. We love that. I don’t know why. It’s like one of those behind-the-movie tidbits about the magic of book cover building. John’s Frankensteined Drill-Arm.
Oh and while Clara and Burger pop up inside, they didn’t make the cover because our editors rightfully pointed out that the Young House Love title was in danger of looking like it was some sort of relationship/family book, and not a decorating book (which is also why the designers chose to emphasize the word HOUSE with wood letters). But we made up for it inside the book. Seriously, Burger is without a doubt our favorite part of the book. He basically walks in and out of chapters and says hilarious Burger-esque things (yes, he talks to us when nobody’s around) and Clara got in there more than a few times too (she even got to do a project with us).
So in the end we feel like the book really represents us and our blog. There’s tons more that we’re itching to tell you about this, but we don’t want your head (ok, our heads) to explode. So we’ll occasionally be diving into more behind-the-scenes details about finishing this book of ours, sharing a video that we shot and edited with some sneak peeks, and finally dishing out the dates and cities for our book tour once that’s all set in stone. For now, all of this jabbering is just to say: holy cow this book baby is actually coming out and we love you all for the amazing support and encouragement that you’ve shown us during this intense and incredible journey. Couldn’t have done it without you. For reals, guys. Love, love, love.
Psst- You can check out a bunch of links to other book-related happenings, like when we announced that we were writing a book, how we picked a publisher, how we prepped for photo shoots, and how we shared a little photo-shoot sneak peek. Plus you can swing by our new book landing page with more info that we’ll update as soon as we know more about things like book tour details (along with other fun behind the scenes stuff).
Ashley says
YES! I just pre-ordered the book and can NOT wait for it to arrive. Now I need to start saving so I can implement some of your fabulous ideas :) My apartment and I thank you!!
jessica says
Can’t. Freaking. Wait. So exciting! And a big congrats to you guys…I don’t know how you did it. It’s clearly your awesomeness :)
Jenn M says
Congrats! Wow, you guys ROCK!! I can’t wait for your T.V. show debut, as I am sure that will be next!!
Jasmin S. says
Congratulations! I just pre-ordered my copy. I don’t remember how I stumbled across your blog last year but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading it daily since. I can’t wait to read your book!
Alicia says
This is so exciting! I absolutely love the look of the book and can’t wait to get my hands on a copy! The changes y’all mentioned totally updated the cover and made it look like “you” and the picture of the two of you is perfect.
One last thing, after following a blogger for a couple of years and faithfully reading all her daily posts I was so excited when she published a book last year. I immediately ordered myself a copy and then was rather disappointed when it was basically just her blog in book form. The exact same sentences and pictures had been lifted from her blog to her book. I’m bringing this up to say “THANK YOU” for not doing that. I’m sure it was a ton of work to come up with all new material, but it’s going to pay off for y’all, I just know it!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks Alicia! There were definitely moments we second-guessed our
ambitiouscrazytown goal to do all new stuff, but we think it was all worth it! Especially if we get to go to bed at a normal time again for the next few months while it’s printed. Haha. Gotta do some catching up…xo,
s
Dana B. says
Just pre-ordered – SO EXCITED! Thanks for sharing all the inside info!
Sarah says
Congrats, guys! That’s so exciting. I was wondering how you all are going to handle the secret book project posts once the book comes out. Are you allowed to write about book projects on the blog? Show pictures? Post entire tutorials from the book? Just curious if your publisher has any “rules” about what can go on the blog once the book comes out!
YoungHouseLove says
Good question! We won’t be posting full tutorials from the book on the blog (we really worked hard not to make the book a duplicate of things on the blog, so we’d like to keep it that way) but we definitely will be sharing behind the scenes pics (but the details of the projects will still only be found in the book). Perhaps we’ll do a book giveaway and reveal some behind the scenes stuff in a fun little write up all about the weirdness. There was so much weirdness. Haha.
xo,
s
Nikki T says
Yay!! Your (book)due date is the day before my (baby)due date!!
YoungHouseLove says
Fun! And Katie Bower’s too! I love it!
xo,
s
Cathy says
Wow, congrats to you guys!! I’ve been a long-time follower of your blog, and it has become a daily ritual for me to read your blog at 10am every morning. Cannot wait to read this book!
Emily Anne says
Pre-ordered on Amazon! So excited!
Chrissie Whitley says
I’m very happy for you both. Congratulations! I’m going to preorder one, not only because I’m happy for you two, and not only because I really want the book, but also because November 6th is my birthday and I love to preorder a birthday present for myself.
YoungHouseLove says
Aw, happy birthday Chrissie!
xo,
s
mollie says
So exciting, Sherry and John!!! I just pre-ordered my book and can’t wait for the release. Great job! And so much fun reading about the process, and happy that the ‘real you’ will shine forth from the pages. Congrats!!
Krysta says
Seriously, congratulations! That is amazing and I love the cover and all the thought behind it. Beautiful!
Amber says
So excited for you guys! Can’t wait to get my copy!
Kelly says
Woohoo, this comes out on my 30th birthday that I’m sharing with Election Day this year :) Definitely getting it as a birthday gift to myself – congrats to you two on this amazing accomplishment!
Chelsea says
Already ordered it like in June? I am SO excited for it to come out!!!! Counting down the days :)
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, I love you for being an early bird! Thanks for ordering Chelsea!
xo,
s
Elizabeth says
YAYAYYAYAYYA
saVUryandsweet says
WOOT! just pre-ordered mine estimated delivery NOVEMBER?! i can’t wait to pore over your new baby :) Congrats you two!
Kim says
Pre-ordered! I have to tell you guys that visiting your little home on the web is one of the highlights of my day. You are so talented and inspiring. Congrats on the book! What an accomplishment.
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks Kim. That’s so sweet.
xo,
s
Alice says
Can. Not. Wait.
Melissa Mitchell says
….Come to Raleigh on your book tour? Pretty please with a Cherry (scratch that…Oreos) on top?
I would be deeee-lighted. :)
YoungHouseLove says
Oreos? I’m there. Haha. Here’s hoping!
xo,
s
Amy says
Pre-order…check! I can’t wait! Congrats on the book! Maybe this will actually inspire my husband and I to finish our small bathroom that has been half completed for oh, about 3 years now! HA!!
Julie says
So excited for you guys – what an amazing accomplishment! Just preordered too. It’s scheduled to come out right before my birthday, so thanks for the best present! I can’t wait to read it. Though adding 243 new projects to my “must do” list right before Christmas is a little bit mean! ;)
Natalie says
I’m so excited for your book!! I hope you come to Seattle on your book tour!
Janice says
whhoooohooo! CONGRATS!
Off to pre-order.
B, b, b, but, what about SIGNED copies???? I want one of THOSE. Do you/will you have those? Cuz I love me some Young House Love and really want a signed copy. :)
Just sayin’.
YoungHouseLove says
We’d love to orchestrate that but just ran out of time (nearly missed our deadline about ten times- eeks). We’d love to do a giveaway with signed copies in November though! And hopefully hit as many cities as we can for the tour!
xo,
s
Ann says
Have you thought about having people preorder/buy on your blog and as an added bonus they get an autographed copy?!
YoungHouseLove says
We’d love that, it just wasn’t something we could orchestrate (we nearly missed our deadline like ten times, so we didn’t have time to do anything fun like that). Next time!
xo,
s
Teresa @ wherelovemeetslife says
I can’t wait!! This will be my first real “design” book purchase :)
Teresa @ wherelovemeetslife says
Oh, and my real due date for this baby is the the day before your book’s as well.. lol and the same as Katie’s!
YoungHouseLove says
Love it!!
xo,
s
Ann says
Oh by the way, the book looks amazing! I’m getting a copy even though I’m DIY challenged. Like severely challenged lol. Congrats on everything Sherry! There was never a doubt that you were going to be incredibly successful :)
Carrie says
Pre-ordered my copy today! So excited for you & your family! Wishing you all the sucess & good fortune you deserve! Hope to see Wisconsin as a stop on the book tour! Wisconsinites love cheese, beer, the Packers & the Petersiks!!!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha- we’d love to come! If nothing else but for the cheese. Love me some cheese.
xo,
s
Christina says
It looks FANTASTIC!! And not that I Needed extra endorsement because I’m sure I will love it, but I love Gretchen Rubin and The Happiness Project so that speaks volumes extra to me. Cngratulations you guys! So excited to see it :)
Nicole says
Eeek! I just pre-ordered. What steal on Amazon. I sure hope you guys come to the Dallas area so you can sign it for me. :) How exciting.
.ivy says
Love love love love love the cover!!! It looks so “you.”
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks Ivy!!
xo,
s
Kate Leonard says
Looks like you guys are shutting down the websites! BAM website is running super duper slow and B&N says “408/409 Server Busy”!!! When everythings running again, I’ll be pre-ordering! Congratulations, wonderful news all around!
YoungHouseLove says
Oh no! So sorry about that! Hope it’s up again soon!
xo,
s
Kristen Kool says
Just pre-ordered it! Can’t wait!!! Can’t wait to meet you guys on your book tour… I know you don’t have the dates and places yet, but since you are a Jersey girl you must have it on list!
YoungHouseLove says
We’re definitely campaigning for Jers! Will keep you posted!
xo,
s
Ginny @ goofymonkeys says
YAY!! I’m so excited for the book and am putting it on my Christmas list this year :)
Maria says
i haven’t been this excited to pre-order a book since the last harry potter book was published!
YoungHouseLove says
Woah- that’s high praise! We’re blushing.
xo,
s
Sayward says
Same. And I’ve gone to B&N at midnight to pick Harry up. In costume. I would totally show up at B&N and wait till midnight to pick this up… my costume would probably be a white ceramic animal… or I’d just print out a screen shot of Katie B. chest bumping Sherry to the ground and tape it to myself. Best costume ever. Also, I would be discreetly wearing adult Care Bear underwear underneath the costume. Naturally.
YoungHouseLove says
Bwahahahahahahah. If you dressed up as a white ceramic animal and sent me a picture I might faint. Or laugh for ten seconds and cry tears of joy. And if you added a chest bump or Care Bear reference I’d die.
xo,
s
Taya says
Can’t wait to get home from work and pre-order this baby! I’m so excited for you guys!
tracy a says
Woo-hoo! Can’t wait! It should be easy enough for me to remember because it wasn’t that long ago that I was waiting for Nov 6 to arrive so my little guy could be born! Well, actually, I was waiting for Nov 2 and it came and went…he decided to show up on the 6th. Anyhow, seriously looking forward to adding your book to my collection! Congratulations!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw, that’s sweet! Our book baby and your real baby will share a birthday!
xo,
s
Angie says
I love love love that you guys did all new projects, and didn’t just regurgitate your blog! So many bloggers do, you know. Can’t wait to get a copy!!!!! Love your stuff!! :)
Sara Ross says
I just pre-ordered this book! Been looking forward to it since you guys started talking about it! Can’t wait! I’ve been working on some fun projects around our house and can’t wait to get more ideas from you book! Congrats on your big accomplishment!
Breanna says
Wow! Congrats! I just pre-ordered mine! I hope you come to Michigan on your book tour (Grand Rapids or Kalamazoo….just sayin ;)
Maureen says
It’s funny you mentioned how it will nice on a coffee table because the first thing I thought was “Yay! It will match my living room colors!!!”
I pre-ordered this a while ago, and am really looking forward to getting it! So excited for you guys!
Morgan says
Will be sitting on my bookshelf November 8th!
Maria says
Just pre-ordered mine!! Yahoo! Can not wait to read it and get inspired! So proud of you guys!
Alison says
I love your behind the book posts. It’s so interesting to learn the publishing world. Excited for you guys and for us to get to buy it!
Katie V says
Do you guys get to track how many books you’ve already sold even though its not even out yet? I pre-ordered it a couple weeks ago & super excited!!
Also, definitely noticed the (perhaps unintentional?) RH New York book birthing reference…
YoungHouseLove says
I wish! We were beginning to think we were the only ones who ordered it (yes we’re nerds and we ordered our own book). We’ll have to ask our publisher if they can look those things up!
xo,
s
Leah K. says
Congrats! Take that baby to market! :)
YoungHouseLove says
Bwahahahahahaa. Comment of the day.
xo,
s
Sara says
SOOOOOO excited about your book!!! Congratulations to you both!
Stephanie R.Smith says
Sherry and John, I just pre-ordered my book today and because you love bargains you will love this! I pre-ordered using Books A Million and because I have a Millinaire Card I received FREE SHIPPING!!! Plus, a discount on the purchase price for the pre-order. I love you guys and can’t wait for my book. Doing the Humpty Dance in your honor….
YoungHouseLove says
Love that! Yay for saving money!
xo,
s
Suni says
Wha-hoo!! So excited for my copy to arrive in the mail. I’ve actually been stalking the book on Amazon and have had mine pre-ordered since June 6th. So excited for all 4 of you for this new adventure!!