The books are being printed
And that means I finally signed off on the proofs. Proof-reading is one of my least favorite occupations, and at a certain point you just have to say enough, because it seems it’s always possible to find mistakes.
I still have to do work on the book-selling website and make some decisions about mailers. But printing the books is a big big step.
Congrats Neo. A major milestone, and maybe the end to a grim duty. I know it was hard, but it needed to be done. I imagine Gerard is grateful for what you did.
Promise made, promise kept. Well done!
Congratulations. This has been a real labor of love, even if not a fun one. And you’re right about proofreading. Personally, I love the final stages of editing, once the actual writing is formed and imprisoned on the page. It’s the first part of getting those words down on the blank page that I struggle with most. Once I’ve gotten through that, I can dither happily forever, moving sentences around, substituting words, trying different sentence structures and, of course, catching errors. But it’s true that you’ll never catch them all. And beyond a certain point, it stops being editing and becomes procrastination.
Anyway, good news! Count me as one of many looking forward to the book.
Mrs Whatsit:
Thanks!
Thing is, though, this is not my writing, so part of the difficulty was deciding how much of that sort of editing to do. I wanted to remain basically faithful to what he wrote and to his style of writing, which is quite different from mine. So, how much changing and re-arranging to do was a constant question.
Turtler:
Thanks.
Also, since Gerard loved teasing me, I imagine that he might be chortling at having left me holding the bag.
Congratulations!!!
Well done!!
Good luck on the book thing.
Neo, you’re welcome, and I see your point! I imagine it helped some to rely on your memories of Gerard to figure out what he might have wanted — but that’s also a big responsibility. I’m glad you’ve satisfied it!
Congrats!
And good luck.
Well done Neo.
Now… enjoy the positive reviews and raving comments once the book hits the intended audience.
Amazon sells the majority of books in the U.S.
Using freight by Amazon where the books are stocked at Amazon and shipped by them, will reduce a lot of headaches.
I have no idea on the market for the book, or quantity printed.
The trick with Amazon is get reviews and pick the right category.
Shipping from your own website is expensive, and slower than Amazon. I ran an e-commerce book seller for over a decade. One of my major mistakes was continuing when Amazon entered my category.
And there are lots of monthly charges for running an ecommerce site. Plus the initial design cost.
Interesting statistics on Amazon books:
https://www.33rdsquare.com/the-complete-guide-to-amazon-book-sales-statistics-trends-and-insights-for-2023/
Physical bookstores as a channel are basically gone.
Many Major book wholesalers / distributors are gone.
Amazon has done an amazing job of dominating this industry.
Good news, Neo. Keep us posted!
@ Ray > “The trick with Amazon is get reviews”
No trick at all — we just all have to pitch in after we get our copy!