March 9, 2009

Easy Appliqué Blocks: 50 Designs in 5 Sizes officially comes out tomorrow!!!

This is the twenty-first in a series of posts about a book proposal, from concept to print. We’re almost there!

Click on the category ‘A journey to a book’ in the left sidebar to bring up all of the posts in the series.

10-21-8. Nope… not quite the last round of edits yet. I had lobbied to be able to test the CD, so I was glad to have the opportunity to try out the CD, edit the text on it, and cross-reference the text on the CD with the text in the book.

eab-cd.gifAnd OMG, may I just say that the CD is equally as gorgeous as the book. Even though you’re running off the CD and not connected to the internet (unless you hit one of the links that takes you there) you’d swear you were on a lovely website! All of the pages are colorful and beautifully decorated, and it’s easy-peasy to navigate. Adrienne, the book’s illustrator and CD developer, did a fantastic job. The CD works on either PC or Mac.

There began a series of emails back and forth and back and forth on CD operation, CD text, book text, and book illustrations. I had to stay organized… where was I looking to answer this question/evaluate that revised illustration/ consider a final text edit? It might have been the first pages or an earlier email. Personally I have curse of the detail-oriented. Your mileage may vary, and your publisher/editor may not work this way. Lucky for me I enjoy the small stuff, and I managed to stay on top of it. This workflow suits me.

My advice to all you fellow book authors-to-be: Stay organized, keep everything, and have a solid backup system in place. You do not want to lose any emails or files during this process. If you don’t have an external hard drive and an automated backup in place, get it before you start a book!!

Nov 20, 2008. Got an email from Robin crossing the t’s and dotting the i’s… last-minute checks are all done!

November 21, 2008. I heard the book went to press… today!!! OMG. Gulp, gulp. And so the concept that came to me two and a half years ago is now being set in ink and on its way to becoming something real that you can hold in your hand, and use. It’s a monumental thought.

Until tomorrow,
Kay
Quilt Puppy Publications & Designs
Easy Appliqué Blocks available for order now!

P.S. if you’ve been following this series, you may be interested in a little more information… stuff that happens after a book has gone to press and before it comes out. I’ll put up a few more posts for those who are curious about that.

Comments

2 Responses to “A journey to a book ~ Part 21”

  1. Carrie P. on March 9th, 2009 11:37 am

    A big congratulations to you.

  2. Kay on March 9th, 2009 12:39 pm

    Thank you Carrie P.! It’s such an exciting time.

    Kay

    P.S. Come on over and do a guest post sometime.