Entry #3

Nearly three months have passed since my last entry, but not because nothing writing-related has been happening. Quite the opposite. In the midst of a move from Pennsylvania to the Arizona desert north of Phoenix, I've been working on the line-by-line edit with a woman from Memphis, TN. I really lucked out when Gardenia Press hooked me up with Laura Vadney. She worked for eleven years in a Jewish nursing home, where some of the residents, like my main character, I. Joseph Kellerman, were Holocaust survivors. So she has some knowledge about that subject, which gave her a deeper understanding of my Joseph.

Basically, this is how the editing process worked:

First, Laura read the manuscript once through to get an overall feel for the story. Then she went through it again, this time with her red pen in hand. When she finished editing, she sent me the first three chapters. Laura prefers to work in batches, rather than overwhelm an author with the whole manuscript all marked up, looking like it has a very bad rash.

As I was going through her suggestions and corrections, we corresponded by e-mail, sometimes several times a day. Many things I didn't question at all. Her eyes caught errors I'd missed, regardless of the many times I'd read the thing. Typos, punctuation goofs. She pointed out some run-on sentences (Who? Me? Write a run-on sentence? I know, hard to believe, huh.) and put an occasional question mark and comment next to a confusing phrase. Often when I re-read those same sentences with her questions in mind, my words were confusing even to me.

There were some things I didn't change so readily. Laura and I discussed various ways to rewrite and occasionally shorten certain sentences, ways to break up lengthy paragraphs, alternative punctuation and so forth. Gardenia Press discourages beginning too many sentences with "it" or "there," so Laura and I e-mailed about those cases as well. Sometimes the end result was different than what I'd originally had, and different from her suggestion also. Occasionally, I explained to Laura my reason for writing something a certain way, and she agreed that I should leave it as is. So the editing process was very give-and-take. I never felt that my "voice" was being compromised. I. Joseph Kellerman is as much my story now as it was to begin with, only better thanks to Laura's input. I'd love to work with her again.

The entire process with Laura took approximately two months. When I'd finish a batch of chapters, which after the first three was ten or twelve at a time, I'd mail that batch back to Laura along with her red-penned copy, so she could do a side-by-side read and see if anything more needed attention, while I worked on the next batch. Did that make sense?

So, anyhow, last week I put the fully-edited manuscript on a disk, along with my little author bio and the back cover blurb (which Laura helped me with, also), and sent it to the publisher. Now I wait for the copy editor to go through I. Joseph Kellerman, looking for typos even Laura and I may have missed. (Ha! I doubt it!) Then I'll receive an electronic PDF "galley," which I'll read through, carefully word by word, comma by em-dash and period--my last chance to check for errors that might miraculously have appeared. I send that back to Gardenia Press with any corrections. And then I wait for the book.

As far as the cover goes, I'd chosen to hire a photographer rather than go with Gardenia's graphic artist, which wouldn't have cost me a thing. I had a very clear idea in mind for the image, and, though Gardenia Press welcomes author input, I was set on using photography and exactly what was stuck in my head. I'd seen a number of covers done by Gardenia's artist, many of which I liked, but I was nervous about seeing the final result and not being happy with it. So I looked for a photographer who would be willing but not too expensive, and found him at a gallery in Cumberland, MD. I was admiring a couple of photos, said so to Rolfe, the man who was minding the shop, and it turned out he had taken the shots. I explained my idea for the book cover and he enthusiastically accepted the work. We went back and forth via internet and phone for months, he sending me updates and me sending him comments. Change this, add that, tweak this. What a pain I was!

A couple of weeks ago, I had to tell Rolfe there was no time to make further alterations, that I needed to get something to my publisher. Their artist would then add the title, my name and perhaps some type of border around the picture. When I received Rolfe's final copy, however, an up-close look revealed a number of "issues" that I wasn't happy with. Basically, it looked too cut-and-pasted, which he understood. Luckily, my husband's family has a friend who is a graphic designer and teaches PhotoShop, and she agreed to touch up the composite image (with Rolfe's knowledge). When I went to her home and she saw the photo, Monique pointed out that it was a very challenging project that I'd given Rolfe, who, as I'd found out after he started working on the cover, was just beginning to learn PhotoShop. He did a great job of finding and putting together the various elements, however. Had this been a regular photo--setting up a scene and taking a picture--I'm sure it would have been perfect.

Anyhow, Monique is doing a fantastic job of touching up the image. I should have that back next week on a CD-Rom, which I'll then send to Gardenia Press.

What else? Well, as I wait for the next step, the galley, I'll turn my attention to the workshop I'll be leading at the next FirstNovelFest in October. It's entitled "Showing versus Telling: the art of description." Lucky for me and those who'll attend, Laura Vadney will be co-leading it with me. Phew! I've never lead a workshop before.

And now I need to muster the courage to walk myself into bookstores, ask for the manager, owner and/or buyer and plug my book. Signings, readings, my book on the shelves. I. Joseph Kellerman will be available through all bookstores and online (amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, etc.), but that doesn't mean it will physically be on the shelves. Not that easy when you're published by a small press.

So the adventure continues....

--Deb