Happy New Year everyone! It’s been a while since I’ve written because I was busy publishing my first women’s fiction novel, which arrived in December. But today I have some other news.
Online class, The Basics of Bread
The John C. Campbell Folk School, where I teach bread-making classes, is sponsoring some online classes, and I’m teaching one. It will be a basic overview of bread-making. The class will meet on Wednesday evenings over four weeks using a Zoom-based platform called Lessonface. Students will do “assignments” of baking bread each week. During the class time, we’ll have lectures, demonstrations, and time for questions and feedback about assignments.
The first class is March 10, and you can learn more and register here: https://www.lessonface.com/apply/Bread-Making-Basics
In-person classes
The Folk School is planning to open in May. Everything still seems tentative, but I’m on the schedule teaching The Science of Bread on October 10–16, 2021. Currently, they have reduced class sizes and are requiring masks when indoors (no exceptions), although the rules might change by the fall. I’m really hoping I’ll be vaccinated by October and feel safe going to teach.
The registration is open here: https://classes.folkschool.org/Instructors.aspx?id=118006
A fellow Weaver Street Market baker, Jon McDonald, is teaching a Holiday Breads class in December. He’s a great guy and it should be a good class. That one is online here: https://classes.folkschool.org/class_details.aspx?pk=23855
15th Anniversary of Bread Science
I can hardly believe it, but it’s been 15 years since I published Bread Science! Self-publishing has come a long way in that time, and I’ve learned a lot.
I’ve considered how best to celebrate, given my lack of time to research new material for a “second edition.” The idea of a new edition has never felt right to me, since it excludes people with the first edition (or requires them to buy a new book). If I ever have time to spend months researching new bread topics, I would rather create a sequel (I’m thinking, More Bread Science) than create a second edition.
So for now, I’ve decided to simply get a new, professionally designed cover and call the book the 15th Anniversary Edition. I’m also going to copyedit the book according to the Chicago Manual of Style (the traditional style guide for books in the US). For a few items that I’ve learned more about, I’ll tweak the text and/or add footnotes referring to an updates page on my website (currently under construction).
I’m also considering distribution changes. It bothers me that it’s so expensive to ship the book outside the US. If I create a “print-on-demand” copy through Ingram (a giant distributor, which is available to self-publishers), the book should be available in any country that has an online bookstore that uses Ingram. I’ve found such bookstores in the UK and Australia (I know because my bike trip memoir appears in their catalog), so I’m hopeful about finding more.
Finally, once all this is done, I’ll update the ebook. I’ve finally learned how to add alt text to the images, and have ideas to shrink the file size and simplify the table of contents.
As a reminder, if you’re interested in following my women’s fiction writing news, I have a separate website using my middle name: https://janebuehler.com
There’s an e-news subscription on that website that I use only when a new book is coming. I published The Forest Bride in December, and hope to have The Village Maid out by early 2022.
Stay safe out there, and I hope your year is off to a good start!