Can you hear me whooping and hollering?! 🙂 Somehow, by God’s grace, I have reached the first milestone toward the completion of my book. I finished the initial writing phase this afternoon with a page count of 257. Here are the steps I plan to take at this point:
1. Read through the whole manuscript and see what gaps need to be filled, what thoughts need to be clarified, what sections need to be reordered and what extraneous content needs to be deleted. (Ideally, I want the finished book to be 256 pages, because of the efficiency it will lend to the printing process.)
2. Distribute manuscripts to the family members and friends who have offered to help with editing, proofing and critiquing the book. (I’m still debating whether to also hire a professional editor to go through the book once we finish this stage…)
3. Do a small initial print run of Advance Review Copies (ARCs) to send out for reviews and endorsements.
4. Incorporate suggestions and endorsements into the final manuscript and proceed with the first printing.
Of course, there are many other details to tend to that relate to other areas of publishing – like website design, marketing strategies, acquiring the ISBNs and Library of Congress number, etc., but this is an outline of the steps that pertain to the book writing/editing/printing. I’m probably even forgetting things in that area anyway! There is surely still much work to be done, but it’s exciting to finally be at this point!
August 27th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
Congratulations! That’s very, very exciting, and you even finished ahead of schedule! Amazing! Keep up the great work!
P.S. Might look at number two again, sis…makes me laugh. 🙂
August 27th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
Haha! Perhaps a professional editor is more essential than I realized. 🙂 Thanks for catching that, Olivia…
August 30th, 2008 at 9:33 am
I’m so excited for you, Natalie!! Congratulations! I don’t know how many people I’ve had critique my book over the last 6 1/2 years, but I still find mistakes and little typos everyone missed now and then. It’s really quite hilarious.
I love reading about your writing journey, girl. Keep us posted!
September 3rd, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Hey Myklin!
What? You mean I can’t expect perfection on the first print run??? Ahhh! I really dislike finding typos and errors in my work and can’t imagine how hard it will be to see them in a printed book! But I suppose it is inevitable. I was surprised at how many typos and grammatical errors there are even in the books on publishing that I’ve reviewed…
Thanks for your encouragement and the inspiration you’ve been to me!
September 12th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Way to go! Are you glad you’ve taken this journey?
September 12th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
Thanks, Julia! Yes, I am glad. It has been incredibly overwhelming at times, but I have learned a lot and I think it will prove valuable in the future.