Update on Gerard Vanderleun’s book
I finished the final copy editing, one of the more tedious tasks. It’s my third go-round on what is an approximately 250-page book. It’s astounding how much concentration is needed to copy edit; I keep finding errors even though I’ve gone through it over and over. I think at this point I have to arbitrarily declare that aspect of things finished.
But there are plenty more tasks ahead. I need to get a few blurbs from other writers. I need to make the final decision on the covers. In particular, I have to decide what company to use to print the actual books (there will be an ebook version too, but that will be done through Amazon). Then I need to set up a method and webpage for taking orders and a way to get the books to the readers. There are many possibilities, much too tedious to mention here. I’ll keep you posted and also let people at Gerard’s blog know, plus I have a huge list of emails of people to inform.
It’s a surprising amount of work. I had hoped to get the book out in time for people to buy it for Christmas presents. That’s still theoretically possible, but I’m not at all sure it will happen.
Are you copy editing or proofreading? Once you have the galley printed, you’ll want to give it one more go around. It’s amazing what you’ll still find
Take lots of breaks.
The last 12 years until I retired, I wrote technical manuals for a construction equipment manufacturer. The department required that all the writers proof each others work– so I would end up with five pairs of eyes (some open, some not so open) looking at my work, which was a great benefit.
If you know someone who has done that in the past, that would be a great option (the proofreading).
Thanks for the update, Neo. Proofreading is very tough work and having a second or third set of eyes is advisable, especially one who is not going to “read” the content but only look for typos, errors in syntax and formatting, etc.
I used to be pretty good at proofreading, but I would not be a good candidate at all for the job at hand. GVL’s writing meant so much that I would get caught up in each essay and thus be ‘blind’ to what I was supposed to catch.
I’m still down for at least one hard copy and eBook as well.
Regarding proofreading (as contrasted with copy editing):
I discovered recently that once I am “finished” proofreading, copying the text into a different font uncovers still more items that otherwise may/would have been overlooked.
It encourages me to muse, is a reviewer ever truly “finished” proofreading?
I’m sure you have but it’s not bad to rehash and brush off any redundant suggestions.
Have you read it aloud? I do it for two reasons.
The first is spelling and grammar. In your case, probably more to match the original as vernacular influences those.
The second you won’t be entertaining is that in mine it helps to ensure my character’s “voice” is correct. Raising a question: Do you find each poem has it’s own voice?
As I use Amazon for e and paper, they handle everything and the versions are linked on the landing page.
If hardback and/or a different paper printer, you can still set all the advertising up on Amazon but sell those versions as an independent seller. I don’t produce hardbacks so I don’t know if you can link to elsewhere.
Sorry for any redundancies.
@M J R:
copying the text into a different font uncovers still more items
Interesting idea. Won’t work on my series as I only have two of twenty-too left and I have a “ritual” to the writing and proofing, so screw messing with that. Those are also highly formatted and stylized and I have dictionaries and auto-corrects set up which take care of lots of editing issues.
But I will definitely do that with my Oz fantasy. It’s a stand alone and not half way done yet. I’ll see if I can remember to report on it.
It encourages me to muse, is a reviewer ever truly “finished” proofreading?
I STILL find errors in the books that have been available for a decade. Trivial but there. Not enough to warrant a 2nd edition.
Some typos and such don’t require a new addition. That’s supposed to be for changes that shift the meaning of the writing although I have no idea if anyone checks that sort of thing to verify.
Oh, I think advertising inside the book can change.
All of the above only applies if you own your own ISBN, I believe.
If not, the way that book looks is under someone else’s control. Again, I believe.
It encourages me to muse, is a reviewer ever truly “finished” proofreading?
M J R:
_____________________________
A poem is never finished, only abandoned.
–Paul Valery (1871-1945)
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You’re quite right about the font observation.
I lurked on GVL’s blog for a few years and found yours, Neo, by another route without a clue of how you got to know him.
Could I trouble you for an explanatory link – a blast from the past perhaps?
Neo, I always thought it took a great deal of work to put a book together. Reading your post and the above comments helps me to understand just how much work it takes.
Sure, a Christmas release would be nice. But taking your time and getting things how you want them is important-if not to anyone else, then to yourself.
Thank you for all the work you are doing!
I was shocked at how much effort it took to put together a vanity press pdf of my collected poems.
Then the printer decided I didn’t know what I was doing on the cover and “fixed” it. Grr!
It was a small printing house, more in it for love than money, so I let the fix go. But still.
Grr!
Bill K:
I don’t recall ever writing about it. But we met in just about the way you might expect. Initially, when I first started blogging seriously in early 2005, I wrote to a number of more established bloggers with samples of my work, and some of them were kind enough to link to me and show interest. Gerard was one of them. Then, just a couple of months later, when he and his wife had split up, he did some confiding in me through email, perhaps because he knew I had a degree in marriage and family therapy. Over time we got to know each other through emailing, and ultimately (we were both divorced) we ended up having a romantic relationship that lasted many years. For example, I was the person who happened to be there when he had his cardiac arrest, and I gave him CPR till the EMTs arrived.
huxley:
Yes, at least when you do it yourself you have control over things – including your mistakes. I have little doubt there are plenty of mistakes in the book of Gerard’s I’m doing, but at this point I think I’m done with the copy editing. It’ll have to go out there, warts and all.
Brian E:
Write now I’m copy editing. I don’t think I could bear to do the proofreading, but I don’t know anyone else who might take over and who would be willing to put in the time and effort.
Neo, thanks!
I’ve been involved in many codes over the years of my practice, but never with someone that close to me. That’s really tough!
It’ll have to go out there, warts and all.
neo:
Real artists ship.
–Steve Jobs (maybe)
Bill K:
I thought he was dead. He was in arrest for 7 minutes but made a full recovery. Only something like 4% of people who have a cardiac arrest outside of a hospital recover fully. The odds aren’t so very much better in a hospital.
It’s hard to release isn’t it. I know it’s trite but Neo you need to let go. Until you do you are dead also.
Get other eyes on this stage of the work. Even when you have gone over and over the piece, it will change somewhat when another pair of eyes looks it over. You may accept the new version or not, but at least you have a second way of seeing the work and thinking about how you want it on the page.
Thank you,
Neo, I congratulate you on evidently doing quite effective CPR!
You mention the odds, so here is from the latest review on UpToDate, a subscription medical reference for physicians, (SCA = sudden cardiac arrest): “Among a nationwide cohort of 547,153 patients in Japan with out-of-hospital SCA between 2005 and 2009, survival to hospital discharge with favorable neurologic status improved approximately twofold in several groups over the five-year period (from 1.6 to 2.8 percent among all patients with out-of-hospital SCA, from 2.1 to 4.3 percent among bystander-witnessed SCA, and from 9.8 to 20.6 percent among bystander-witnessed SCA with ventricular fibrillation as the initial rhythm). However, in spite of this doubling of neurologically favorable survival, overall survival following SCA remains poor.”
Among 70,027 United States patients prospectively enrolled in the CARES registry following out-of-hospital SCA between 2005 and 2012, survival to hospital discharge improved significantly from 5.7 percent in 2005 to 8.3 percent in 2012. Improvements were also noted in pre-hospital survival and neurologic function at hospital discharge.
The reasons for the continued poor survival of patients with SCA are not certain. Although some aspects of acute resuscitation have improved over time (increased bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation [CPR] and shortened time to defibrillation), these positive trends have been off-set by adverse trends in clinical features of patients presenting with SCA (such as increasing age and decreasing proportion presenting with ventricular fibrillation.
Kudos for your efforts, Neo. And yes, copy editing is a tedious, and frustrating job. I’m very much looking forward to getting the book when it’s availble.
JWM
@huxley:
I do my own covers. They are subject related to the contents so no one else would even know what to put on them. And they’re covered by the ISBN and copyright.
I had it happen with LuLu. They did, however, recognize it was a huge mistake on their part and fixed it without delay. One of many reasons I left their service.
@huxley:
Quoting a tech/business geek about what an artist is is much like quoting Steven Hawkings about what it takes to be an MMA champion.
I suggest you look into Lulu and their book pricing tool; https://www.lulu.com/
Also suggest and .epub as well as Kindel ebook, perhaps through Smashwords.