BOOK UPDATES

Archwinger wrote a book! Coming out the first half of 2026!

On January 1 of this year, I finished the first draft of a book. Here’s the link to the article announcing that and providing general information: Original Book Announcement

Here comes an update with lots of fun info!

SNEAK PEEKS

A sneak peek of the book has been posted to Substack, one chapter at a time, for paid subscribers. Free subscribers are still able to view the first chunk of each chapter and get an idea about the writing style and subject matter.

I was hoping to use my small number of paid subscribers as beta readers who would tell me where things drag, get boring, or just aren’t working, but feedback has been fairly minimal. That’s okay, because the plan has always been to hire a real editor. It’s just nice to start out with something as close to publication-ready as you can to save time and cost.

Feedback aside, I also wanted to make the book available to the small number of people who signed up to give me money - when I don’t even have any paid content - as a thank you. I guess now I actually have some paid content, since I’ve started posting book chapters.

I hope everyone who’s read any part of the book so far has enjoyed it. Let me know in the comments if you have thoughts.

NEXT STEPS

I’m giving the book one more pass to trim/refine language, catch any remaining parts where the writing sounds unclear, and (if I have the heart) cut any remaining sections that aren’t doing much work. Though the book’s voice requires a little bit of meandering. Just not so much that it derails the story and gives the reader whiplash.

If the cutting process brings my word count too low, I may add a few scenes as well. The “market expectation” for a book of this type is maybe 50,000-55,000 words. Right now, I’m sitting at around 49,700, with 17 chapters.

That’s actually been a bit of a journey already. The first draft on January 1 was 52,000 words, 14 chapters. After a bunch of editing/rewriting, it was down to 46,000 (but read a LOT better). I ended up splitting one chapter into two and adding two more chapters to get to the current version. I didn’t add that just to pad the word count. There were a couple of story arcs I was leaving to the reader’s imagination that I decided to flesh out, and they ended up really strengthening the book’s emotional spine.

Next up, a professional editor for a real editing pass. Hopefully, that’s not too bank-breaking. My personal feeling is chapters 1-5 are good, chapters 6-12 are entertaining but drag a bit, then chapters 13-17 are awesome.

After editing, some of the bigger manosphere names said they’d help me out with cover art, the self-publication process, marketing/launch stuff, etc.

So I’m probably publishing the first book I’ve ever written before 2026 is halfway over, unless some part of this process turns out to be stupidly harder than it needs to be. About time. I’ve been writing internet essays for over a decade now.

ABOUT THE BOOK

The title is still in flux.

My favorite initial title idea was “All the Wrong Questions”, but it turns out Lemony Snicket beat me to it with his prequel series. If I went with that, there’d be a lot of market and search engine confusion, and I’d be sued into oblivion.

My second favorite was “Fine (And Other Lies.)”, which I mentioned in a few of my sneak peak posts. It’s kind of catchy, marketable, and fits the tone/voice of the book really well. But there’s a therapy-focused book from 2017 called “I’m Fine (And Other Lies)”, and a new short story was just released on Amazon two days ago (on March 6) with that same title and a book description with enough elements in common with mine that I actually bought a copy to see if some AI author filched my Substack sneak peeks and ran to publish. We’ll see when the paperback gets here.

Another strong contender my wife liked was “What Was the Question Again?” Also thematically appropriate, in-voice, and catchy. I might go with that since there are a couple of existing fine/other lies-based titles already.

I could just go with “Archer Wood” (named after the main character). Or that title with a tagline based on questions or fine/lies. There’s something beautifully authentic and simple about just going with the character-study motif vibe as the title. Anyway, I’m still undecided. But currently leaning toward “What Was the Question Again?”

The book falls somewhere in the upmarket/literary/contemporary fiction genres, and is kind of autofiction adjacent. If we want to get granular, we might classify it as men’s fiction, coming of age/retrospective fiction, domestic fiction, or psychological fiction. I have no clue what any of that means or the differences between them. I just asked AI to tell me what category my book fits because editors, sellers, and publishers want to know what category your book is. AI says it’s very comparable to Nick Hornby, Jonathan Tropper, and Matthew Norman.

The plot follows the main character through a series of episodic vignettes, each chapter named after a woman who’s influenced him. The general structure is each chapter features a present-day encounter between Archer and another character. Most of the time, Archer digresses into a story about his past that is relevant to the present interaction. Through this two-stories presentation, the reader gets to see past-Archer and present-Archer grow in parallel as the book progresses. That consistent structure in most chapters makes the places where the book deviates from that a lot more impactful. But the real story appears in the cracks. The reader learns, through Archer’s descriptions of his past and present life, who he really is. Even when Archer himself might not realize it.

I’ve been asked “is the book autobiographical”, and the answer is “just a little bit”. They say to write what you know. So the main character is a middle-aged divorced attorney with a daughter, who was raised Jewish in the 1980s and 1990s. I can write about that guy’s life pretty darn confidently. Some of the story parts that happen are even loosely based on things that have happened in my life, or in the lives of people I’ve known over the years. But the details and events in the book are pretty much nothing like my actual life. And nothing I’d want in my life or even wish on my enemies.

The book is not a “Red Pill book”. It’s written by me, Archwinger, so it touches on themes the internet manosphere will recognize. But the book does not preach to the reader about how things are, how things ought to be, or try to teach anybody anything. If you learn anything from the book, that’s your fault. It’s a work of fiction. It’s funny, witty, voice-driven, and good. I don’t usually go back and read things I’ve written because I don’t like most of what I write after some time has passed. I can go back and read this book and enjoy it.

I’ll probably use a pen-name rather than “Archwinger” or my real name when I publish it. Some play on Archwinger like “Arthur W. Ingram”. That's cute and sounds real-ish. I don’t want anything manosphere-adjacent tied to my family or my real-world life, but I also don’t want a non-manosphere reader to Google “Archwinger”, find 10+ years of misogynist rants, and lead a crusade to end my budding author hobby. I have no delusions that I’m going to get rich writing books. But tossing something I’m this excited about into the world and having nobody read it would suck a lot. Plus, I have two more book ideas I can’t wait to get started on.

Since we live in the AI age, I asked AI to give me a follower-friendly summary of the book for you guys:

“Archer Wood is a darkly funny, unexpectedly heartfelt novel about a man who tries to understand his life by revisiting every person who shaped it — one chapter, one name, one emotional bruise at a time.

Told through a series of sharply comedic, painfully honest, and often bittersweet vignettes, the book follows Archer from kindergarten crushes to disastrous teenage romances, from cringe‑worthy early adulthood to divorce, co‑parenting, therapy sessions, and the long, messy road of trying to grow up before it’s too late. Each chapter centers on someone from his past — the first girl he liked, the bully, the best friend, the one who got away, the one he married, the therapist, the daughter who forces him to look in the mirror.

It’s a story about memory, regret, humor as defense mechanism, and the absurdity of being a flawed human who keeps trying anyway. If you’ve ever looked back at old relationships and thought, “God, that explains a lot,” this book is for you.

Equal parts Nick Hornby, Jonathan Tropper, and your funniest friend oversharing after two drinks, Archer Wood blends humor, heartache, and insight into a single voice-driven story about the people who shape us — and why we can never quite escape them.”

WHAT SHOULD YOU DO IF YOU LIKE ME AND BELIEVE IN ME AND DON’T THINK I SUCK

1. Buy the book when it comes out. Read it and enjoy it.

2. Tell every single person you know how awesome it is. This is actually really important. Books live and die by their early velocity. Early interest bumps a new book higher in search results and recommendations. In some of the more niche categories, you can even rank pretty high in the Amazon rankings through word of mouth, leading to a few more sales, which leads to more recommendations and a higher rank, which leads to more sales, which leads to… you get it.

3. Even before the book is out, like and repost every book post I type on the internet, and tell everyone you know about my upcoming book and how awesome it’s going to be. If a bajillion people see it and something like a tenth of a percent of them end up reading the book, that’s a lot of readers, which is why I want bajillions of people to know.

I’m not looking to grift off of you guys and get rich. The average indie book sells something like 12 copies, mostly to family and friends. If I sell 13, I beat the average.

But I’m excited, maybe even proud, to have written something I enjoy reading. Maybe it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. But it would royally piss me off to create something like this and have pretty much nobody read it, then see it disappear into a dark corner of the internet where nobody even knows it exists, all because I didn’t sell enough copies fast enough for Amazon’s algorithm to say “wow this is actually a real book; better have it actually show up in recommendations and search results”.

So read it. Have your wives and girlfriends read it. Tell your friends.