Tag: proofs

Getting Closer to Publication

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It’s Celebrate The Small Things Day. Something I’ve achieved each week, no matter how small. If you’re interested in doing the same thing sign up here at Vicki’s blog. But before I launch into my celebratin’ I want to thank Vicki for having created a way for me to keep a hand in blogging while I sort through what is turning out to be a crazy-making journey to getting my memoir Loveyoubye published.

What I want to celebrate today is getting to the end of the second round of proofs. It was grueling, because I really want it to be mistake-free. Sure, the manuscript has been proofed by a professional, but hey, everyone makes mistakes. And now this second round is up to me (a friend helped). So there I was scouring every page for misplaced commas, correctly hyphenated words (“black-and-white eight by ten”–is that right?), missed corrections, spacing between words.

This time the photos had been inserted. Very weird actually seeing parts of your life on the page. Maybe that’s what made me come undone (again) at the thought that in just six months, me and mine are going to be . . . <gulp> Out There.

Okay, let’s get back to celebrating. That friend I mentioned above who helped me proof Loveyoubye . . . She loved it! The first pair of eyes other than my reader, my editor and SWP to read my story. Whoo-ya!

Lots To Celebrate

Posted on by Admin

It’s Celebrate The Small Things Day. Something I’ve achieved each week, no matter how small. If you’re interested in doing the same thing sign up here at Vicki’s blog. The idea is to post the blog on a Friday, but I’m doing it today, Thursday, because I’m taking off for the weekend.

What I’m celebrating is completing yet another couple of steps in getting my memoir, Loveyoubye, ready for its March 2014 publication. All of a sudden there were deadlines. I had proofs to finish, photos to copy and convert, and I also had to indicate where I wanted them in the manuscript. Then I had to come up with “comps”–books/authors that are similar to mine in some way–for booksellers to figure out what shelf it would go on.  I truly didn’t have a clue. So, I threw it out to my publicist (Gawd, that sounds hot, doesn’t it? Yes, I hired a publicist, one of the best decisions I’ve made) and bless her brilliant little heart, she came up with some doozies, in like half a day. Check ’em out:

  1. Follow My Lead: What Training My Dogs Taught Me About  Life, Love, and Happiness–Carol Quinn (July 2011)
  2. The Wrong Dog Dream: A True Romance–Jan Vandenburgh  (April 13)
  3. When A Crocodile Eats The Sun: A Memoir of  Africa–Peter Godwin (April 08)
  4. Falling: The Story of A Marriage–Alexandra Fuller  (March 12)

Next step was to send letters to famous authors asking them to please blurb my book, you know,  Loveyoubye is brilliant, honest, painful, funny and real, that type of thing, which will go on the back cover. It’s a long shot. That took coming up with tweaking the synopsis of Loveyoubye, a different angle. Those summaries are killer.

Oh. And then there’s the cover. I just got the final version back. Drum roll, please . . . I LOVE IT! Be prepared, it’s kinda wild.

Celebrating My Book Cover

Posted on by Admin

It’s Celebrate The Small Things Day. Something I’ve achieved each week, no matter how small. If you’re interested in doing the same thing sign up here at Vicki’s blog. But before I tell you what I’m celebrating today, I have a little catching up to do since I’ve been missing from this spot for an entire month. And I’ve got to thank Kate Larkindale over at Fiction and Film for commenting on my last blog and inspiring me to get back in the game. Thanks Kate!

I’m blaming my absence on summer. I just gave into it. I put off all my writing projects, including finishing the proofs for Loveyoubye and choosing the final cover for the book. Instead, I danced my ass off at Laguna’s “Music In The Park” every Sunday, sometimes after which me and my girlfriend Laural would stop at this or that little rooftop or beachside bar and have a nightcap before heading home. Then there were those sunset dinners with friends and that wonderful spur of the moment day spent in Studio City with my five brilliant writer girlfriends, the trip up to Sierra Buttes in northern California (woods and lakes and cooler than here) with my son and two granddaughters—damn those little girls are fun!

But then I got an email from She Writes Press; my decision on Loveyoubye’s cover was due on Friday. Time to call it. Now, I’m not that hot on making decisions anyway, but this one has been agonizing. What if it’s crap? But time was up. That’s where the celebrating comes in. Yesterday, I took a deep breath and in the early morning chill of approaching fall, I submitted my book cover proofs!