Clarkman wrote:Corazon de Leon wrote:Asked for, and was given, an extension on my book which was due on Monday, and when I e-mailed to confirm that the extension had definitely been given I got the response of "Err, no?" Queried that and have been asked to get the manuscript in as soon as possible. I am legit hyperventilating.
Breathe my dude. In terms of real advice, this is an occasion where emails cannot replace phone calls. Get your commissioning editor/closest ally on the phone and speak about what's realistic and what's not. Tell them what you have read that can be sent by the deadline. Give them something to work on while you finish the rest. Finally, give them a realistic new date for when you're confident the rest of the work can be completed, that's the best way to abate them.
I think people are misunderstanding when I say it was due on Monday. I meant it was due last Monday.
Thankfully the editors have been pretty OK about it given that there has been massive upheaval - the commissioning editor left in September and I only heard back from them about a replacement one week before the deadline. I still have a bit to do, but they've told me I can take a little extra time to sort out the last few things, add the last few thousand words and break up the literature review (which is nearly 80 pages long) across some of the chapters.