Unveiling: An Inner Journey in Final Edit Stages

After discussion with Travis Craine, my Publishing Consultant with CreateSpace, we’ve decided on some reformatting to reduce page count, and still maintain readability. We’re also going to go with a slightly larger standard trim size.

In the meantime, I have my full galleys in front of me. Earlier, when I was working with CreateSpace on the “Interior Design Layout” – the first stage of getting the book actually published – the material that they used to illustrate the “layout” was up through the first page of Chapter 2. Exciting to see it all “look” like a “real book” – but I could only proof that material as far as it went.

CreateSpace got the full book laid out Thursday, which was when I realized that (Oi!) the page count was more than 600 – with an Index still to be developed and included. That caused me to rethink my “readability” priorities. Now it’s balancing “readability” with “page count.” All these things that we authors get to think about nowadays, in this realm of small-press and do-it-yourself publishing!

I got the crucial Chapter 7 reworked yesterday, along with the much easier (on you, and on me) Chapter 8. Chapter 7 is one of the big “theory” chapters in the book; it lays out our core archetypes. I wanted to rework the references a bit, so it took extra time. This morning, up since about 2:30 AM, I’ve finally finished editing the chapters up through Chapter 7.

We won’t have this book physically available before Christmas. I keep working with a “best case” scenario – and right now, even “best case” – the current proofing/editing round will extend the timeframe.

But – “worst case” scenario – the book is complete. My edits are of a largely superficial nature; minor reference tweaking, word-smithing, and the (still finding a few) grammatical checks. If something were to happen to me, the book would still go forward. Crucial people are in the loop, and are empowered to make this happen, no matter what. So – Unveiling is on its way!

Stay tuned for further developments.

yours in dance – Alay’nya

P.S. – I didn’t blog at all while in the final book rewrite/edit stages; before submitting the manuscript to CreateSpace. Now, I’m sharing the “what it’s like” story to produce a book. One of the strongest recommendations that I’m making, to all of my friends and colleagues who are seeking to “recreate” their lives, is to leverage their knowledge and expertise by putting out some sort of a “product.” It might be a book; it might be a program, a DVD, or a music CD. (All of these, of course, can be online versions.) The point is that I’m urging all of them towards the goal of mixing in a little “product” together with their “service” offerings (which may be teaching, consulting, or working at a full-time job – or even a series of part-time gigs).

That said – and I’ll stick with my advice to become a “product company” (even if this means being a “company of one”) – I’ll have to tell everyone to never, EVER underestimate the time involved for product launch. It is significantly more time-consuming than can EVER be imagined. This is a time-commitment that is NOT producing an active income, and yet requires huge amounts of the highest-quality time that a person can give.

Moving on from that point, my goal right now is to share the “details” of the product production process; to let people “look over my shoulder” (so to speak) as we go from finished (or nearly-finished) product (the completed manuscript) to actually making it available to you.

I haven’t talked openly about CreateSpace, or my relationship with them, up until yesterday’s blog, mostly because I was very new to working with them. Now, we’ve gone through a few rounds together. The Coordination/Production Team that I’ve been working with has been sweet, and as time-responsive as they could possibly be. My Publishing Consultant, Travis Craine, has both given me consistently good advice, and has stepped in for me when I’ve needed help bringing some matters to the Team’s attention. (Largely, this has been a matter of “artistic fuss” at my end, and I’m thankful that they’re used to working with temperamental writers — and I try to get over my “stuff” as fast as possible so we can all get on with getting the job done.)

We are, all things considered, moving ahead fast.

You should be able to get your copy of Unveiling soon. Maybe not for Christmas, but certainly early in the new year.

And for those of you who are thinking about perhaps doing a book or some other creative product of your own someday — well, it’s always interesting to see someone else get the project through to completion!