… 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).
Stephanie Trick says
Totally putting this book on my wedding registry!
Ann says
Congratulations! I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy.
Tiffany says
Awww, definitely cause for celebration!
Marie Gagne says
Bonjour,
I just pre-ordered your book… from Canada : Quebec City precisely. So, maybe I’m the first French speaker to order it! :)
I love your blog. I read it all over three weeks… beginning from the end (those three weeks include one holiday week) at page 700 something. Since last wednesday, I’m up to date!
I’m very eager to read your book. Thank you for all the time you put in it, I’m sure I will love it!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw, you’re so sweet Marie! Thanks so much!
xo,
s
Andrea says
I can not wait! :)
Katie says
I can’t wait! I pre-ordered it on Amazon the day it showed up on there a while back — just wish November wasn’t still so far away :)
YoungHouseLove says
Me too! I’ve never looked forward to summer being over before. Haha. It’s so weird!
xo,
s
gia says
PLEASE please come to NJ! Sherry, you have to, you are from New Jersey! I will be in line with my copy!
Can’t wait to add this to my shelves.
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, we’d love to! Will keep you posted!
xo,
s
Jillian {Her Split Ends} says
I have no idea why i have waited…but you are officially pre-ordered! So pumped about your book and so excited for you and your family! What a fabulous endeavor. Congrats!!
Cheers
~ Jillian
http://www.hersplitends.com
Theresa W says
I pre-ordered months ago with an Amazon Christmas gift card – and when it arrives I’ll be reading it cover to cover. No cooking dinner that night! So excited for you guys!
YoungHouseLove says
Oh man, that’s so sweet I might have teared up. This feels so unreal guys. You’re all amazing.
xo,
s
Kelly says
This is so Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious for y’all. It’s awesome to see how much your blog has grown of the years and that you were able to create a book with even more new creative ideas. Definite going on my amazon wish list for when it comes out.
Amy in Pittsburgh says
Congratulations, John and Sherry. Just thinking of how you balanced writing a book, remodeling a house, and maintaining a happy, healthy family without missing a blog beat makes ME tired! You deserve all the success coming your way.
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks Amy! There were definitely sleepless nights in there (we might have been walking zombies during those three weeks of book shooting in our house) but it was all worth it! We can’t believe where we ended up. Crazy! Still doesn’t seem real.
xo,
s
Alicia says
Great cover! Obviously, it’s a totally different book, but the way there are different fonts for Young, House and Love kind of reminds me of the Eat, Pray, Love cover. And since everyone judges books by their covers, that’s a good sign for you!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha- that’s so funny! It’s true! Now I have to go google that cover. I think it had flowers and prayer beads on it right? Loved it.
xo,
s
Meagan says
I AM SO EXCITED!!! This seriously made my day. Placing a pre-order now.
Jaye @ Just Trying to Make Cents of it All says
Just pre-ordered my copy! I’m so addicted to the internet that it will be so fun to have an ACTUAL paper book for a change. Can’t wait to see all the goodies you guys have included in the book!
Kate says
I’ve had mine pre-ordered for a while, and I’m so excited to be able to support what you all do in a new way! I’ve been a daily reader and big fan since you refinished your floors in your old house. I’m just so proud of you two! A book! I can’t believe it!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks Kate! You’re so sweet. We appreciate the support!!
xo,
s
Joanne B. says
Love the cover! Is it too late to photoshop Clara peeking out between your legs? Congrats on all your hard work…
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, I wish! And Burger just sitting there on one of the letters.
xo,
s
Rachel says
Just ordered my hard-bound copy today! Hooray!
Krystle @ ColorTransformedFamily says
Congrats! The cover looks great… it totally takes on your personality. It’s really cool that you were able to work so closely with your publisher.
Casey says
Very excited for you all… congratulations. I love the cover, too (and I’m a designer so I like to think that counts for something). :)
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks Casey! Yay!
xo,
s
Casey says
It doesn’t, by the way… haha… I just like to think it does. :)
Hannah says
Super excited! You guys have such great dedication to not just reproduce what you already had on the blog for your book. Can’t wait to get my copy in my hands!
Ellen says
I am basically telling my husband tonight “you know that blog I keep telling you about? The one where you’re all ‘they get to work on their house full-time as their job? I’m so jealous!’ Well, they wrote a book, and if you love me you need to buy it for me ASAP.”
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, thanks Ellen! I think husbands everywhere semi-loath us for all the projects we add to their wife’s list. Haha.
xo,
s
Ellen says
I don’t know about that! You all are great models of the fact that house projects can be done by both men and women! <3
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks:)
xo,
s
Stacey says
I had a good chuckle at this comment! I pretty much said the same thing to my boyfriend!
Krystle Clark says
This is so awesome! I’m so excited for ya’ll!! Congratulations on finally having a finished product after 3 years of hard work — can’t wait to have a copy in my hands!
Sayward says
BEST NOVEMBER EVER!!! I’m so excited for you guys, and I’m dying over John’s Frankenstein drilling hand. I guess he needed a manly prop to balance out your sweet red shoes.
Is this baby coming in sleek glossy hardcover? You know, so I can watch the candlelight gleam off its front when we snuggle together at night. Seriously, your book is going to be everyone’s new go-to housewarming gift. Totally exciting!!!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, it’s called flexi-bound which is basically not paperback at all, but not one of those super fancy cloth hardcovers (we wanted to keep the price down, so we didn’t go crazy fancy with it). We actually haven’t seen it yet but they sent us other books that had been done that way and it was nice. Chunky and solid but still casual and not too fancypants. Haha.
xo,
s
Tracey Bartula says
Pre-order….Done! Can’t wait till November!
GretchenF says
Pre-order done! Can’t wait to get the book in my hot little hands.
Susie says
I’ve already pre-ordered my copy…woo hoo! For your book tour may I suggest a stop in Indianapolis? It’s a great city and we have one of the best Children’s Museum’s in the country so Clara would love it! Congrats on this awesome accomplishment!
YoungHouseLove says
That would be fun! We’ll keep you posted when we know more!
xo,
s
Ashley@AttemptsAtDomestication says
I’m so excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And the cover looks GREAT!
Ashley W says
Your book is going to be my first decorating book purchase, ever! I kinda wanna gift them to a lot of my friends and family because I’m sure the book will be a blast to read. I really hope I can pop over and see you in one of your book tour cities (and probably act like a complete weirdo-dork) but during Nov-Dec I’ll be moving from Norfolk, Virginia to Seattle, Washington. I hope I can see you guys before then!
Jules says
Top of my Christmas list for sure! So thrilled for you guys this is just super exciting
Gilit says
PLease please tell me you’re coming to NY on the book tour!! I’m gonna get all blustery and awkward, but it’ll be worth it.
YoungHouseLove says
I think NY is the one confirmed location so we’ll definitely be there! More news about all the other cities when we know more!
xo,
s
Cori says
SO excited!!! Pre-ordering it right now!!!!
katie says
I am crying here. So happy for you guys! The book looks awesome and I cannot wait to read it. I am going to ask for it for Christmas. I am looking forward to Christmas morning and reading it by the fire.
YoungHouseLove says
Oh Katie. Now I’m crying. Love you. Thanks for being so sweet.
xo,
s
Vonda says
I am just so excited for you! I’ll be pre-ordering very soon from B&N, so if you do a book signing in town, I won’t feel bad bringing in a book I ordered elsewhere! I can’t wait to get it – my newest coffee table book on display!
Karin K says
What can I say? Congratulations! You two deserve it so very much. Enjoy the ride!!!!
Kitty says
I cannot wait for the book! Do you know whether it is going to be sold internationally on Amazon.co.uk or whether I’ll have to pre-order from .com and import it?
It looks amazing and I am so excited for you – your blog is such a big part of my daily routine and you give so much inspiration that a book version is essentially heaven to me.
YoungHouseLove says
It’s available internationally (via amazon.co.uk, etc). Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Annelies says
Just wanted to add that it’s also available in France via amazon.fr (for around 20€ including shipping). Can’t wait !!!
YoungHouseLove says
Yay! Thanks Annelies!
xo,
s
Cora says
I’m so excited for this book!!! You guys deserve every good thing that is coming your way!!!
Elizabeth says
BOOK TOUR!!!!
YEA!!!!
And I pre-ordered this so long ago I can’t believe we are only one trimester away!
Emily says
WAHOOO CONGRATS FRIENDS!!
So super exciting! Also, I think it would be awesome to have someone filming your experience when you tour for the book. I can just imagine your faces when you see how many people take time to come meet you!
Love!!
Em
YoungHouseLove says
That’s a really fun idea actually! Hmm…
xo,
s
Nikki G says
Oohhhh yes! I second this idea! You could use all the footage to create a little montage, and share it on the blog when the tour is over. Then all of the readers that didn’t get a chance to come to a signing can see what it was like! Plus, it would be a great way for you guys to look back on the experience and re-live the excitement all over again, years down the road!
YoungHouseLove says
That would be really fun you guys. I love the idea! Maybe we’ll just have to bring a tripod and the FLip and set things up. Haha. Grass-roots style.
xo,
s
Emily says
Or…you know… I could just come film it for you guys. Cough cough. I am jobless and, you know, willing. ;)
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, I wish! We don’t even get a budget for Clara to travel (we’re paying her way). But in my dreams, we’d totally fly you along to tape us! Haha. That would be so much fun!
xpo,
s
Stephanie says
Congrats! Definitely pre-ordering this book.
I’ve taken to stacking books on one of my side tables and you guys will definitely get a place right on top of my memory books from my travels. :)
Nat says
Looks incredible!! I’m off to preorder my copy now. :)
Reenie says
Woot Woot!!! Can’t wait. Love the cover. :)
Jenny says
Congratulations! My friend just messaged me that she saw my birthday gift and sent me a link to the your post which I also happened to be reading at the exact same time. Looking forward to your book tour!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, I love that.
xo,
s
audra says
Yay! Congrats on the book! I cannot wait for it to come out. I’m thinking christmas is coming early for me this year. Not to sound stalker/deranged celebrity fan-ish, but in my head, we’re all BFFs and this is the best news ever!
Stacey says
*SQUEAL* I cannot wait! I’ve been rereading the blog from Post 1 and I’m nearly up-to-date! When I’m done I can start on the book! And the 6th of Nov is my little sister’s birthday! I wonder how I can get her to give me a present on her birthday?! CONGRATULATIONS!
Maureen @ The Parkland Project says
Going to pre-order a copy as a wedding present to myself! Love you guys.
YoungHouseLove says
Love you too Maureen! Thanks for ordering! And happy wedding!
xo,
s
Heather says
Congrats Sherry and John. I just placed my order. Can’t wait to see it. Based on the expected delivery date, it will be my 10 year wedding anniversary gift to myself.
Cheers!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw, happy anniversary!
xo
s
Claudia says
Congrats!!!
Can’t wait to see if I can pre-order it here… and I love the cover and also to see the two of you on there in a fun, non-serious way.
Stewart says
I don’t even know you guys, but I’m so PROUD!! Congrats!!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks Stewart!
xo,
s
Crystal says
Yeah you!!! I. Can. Not. Wait!!!!!!
Judy says
I have already preordered some for my libraries. You will be able to log into many automated library card catalogs and see your names listed as authors. How exciting!!!
YoungHouseLove says
That’s so crazy!!
xo,
s