The subject line of the email read: “(Hiking Naked) 6 to-dos assigned to you.” The message a couple of weeks ago from my publisher, Leslie Browning of Homebound Publications, alerted me that I can now check in to Basecamp.
Basecamp, founded by Jason Fried and David Heinemeir Hansson, seems like a great tool for my publishing team to divide up the work, store and organize files, list milestones and deadlines, and have regular check-ins. “Numerous small businesses use Basecamp as a virtual office when working with people spread out over the country and the world,” Leslie explains. With the Homebound office thousands of miles away in Rhode Island, I can stay in contact easily through Basecamp. Along with all the staff assigned to my manuscript, I can sign in to my project anytime, day or night, to keep track of the tasks (and deadlines) as we work toward the book’s publication in Autumn 2017.
This invitation from Leslie is just the latest of the many reasons I believe Homebound is a perfect fit for publication of my memoir, Hiking Naked – A Quaker Woman’s Search for Balance. Leslie has already posted a schedule of pre-publication tasks—some assigned to her, and some listed for me. Scrolling down the benchmarks that will turn my manuscript into both a print and an electronic book is much like the actual hiking trail markers and the metaphorical touchstones that I write about in this spiritual memoir. And it all makes the contract that I signed with Homebound back in September seem that much “realer.”
Every time I reference “my publisher,” “my publishing team,” or “the staff assigned to my manuscript,” I smile. 
When I independently published my first book, Hands at Work, I was the one directing the team that included me, photographer Summer Moon Scriver, and designer Robert Lanphear. I’m well aware of the “to-dos” (far more than the 50 already on my Basecamp list) to publish a book, and I’m thrilled to be sharing them with Leslie and others on the Homebound staff.
You can see some of the results of Homebound’s careful attention to detail—and take advantage of their winter sale— at their online bookstore. These are some Homebound titles I’ve already added to my library:
My Mother’s Kitchen: A Novel with Recipes by Meera Ekkanath Klein
The Strait – poems by Andrew Jarvis
Four Blue Eggs – poems by Amy Nawrocki
Slices of Life by Ann Nyberg
and two poetry collections by Homebound Publisher Leslie Browning:
Fleeting Moments of Fierce Clarity
and
Seasons of Contemplation
Holding these books in my hands and reading the words on their cream-colored pages makes the publication of my own book seem more real, too.
Iris Graville - Author 