People often ask “how long did it take you to write this book?”
The answer is never simple. The process of creating a book takes a long time.
The research. The organizing. More research. The writing. The developmental editing. More research. Re-working the manuscript. Early readers and re-working things based on their feedback. The deep content editing. The proof-reading. The index creation. The blind editing review. The book design. Oh! And the cover design process and all that it entails, too.
For this second book, the above covered three full years of effort, though four years on the calendar.
Midway through the process, I stepped away to get both knees replaced (November and December 2021). Once I finished PT (end of January), I ran amok, catching up on years of lost hiking. I even went out to the Black Hills and did several days of winter hiking, on snow and ice, a week out of PT! It was wonderful. That year away from the project also allowed me to come back to it with clearer intent, making it easier to hone in on the core of the story.
Then, several months ago, the final stage began.
This stage may be the hardest of all!
It’s when the designed book is on the precipice of becoming an actual physical book. A Library of Congress number is applied for, as well as the ISBN. Metadata is created. Big distribution databases are updated. Lots of background detail work.
There are more people involved during this final step as well (the project manager at the publisher, the distributor, the press/printer, and of course myself and the book designer, all working in conjunction).
Thus, more waiting.
This phase is peppered with numerous hurry-up-and-wait activity. Prior to this stage, it was usually myself and one other person focusing on a specific task before moving on to the next person in the chain. But now there are many people, all coordinating schedules and attention.
So, just as an author can envision the finished product that culminates years of work, the wheels slow down. It’s a critically important step. It also feels like being a child during the final days before Christmas.
Yesterday, at long last, the book’s pre-press proof arrived on my doorstep (after an additional delay due to an addressing error at the shipping source in Illinois which sent the package to west-central Minnesota instead of my town, three hours to the southeast). UGH!
But here it is, and it is an exciting day. This is the last chance to review every character and image to ensure that all is well. Once approved, the print run can begin.
This is an incredibly exciting step, and well worth the wait!