I just sent back “first pages” on the book— the first round of the designed pages. This is the stage during which the publisher is looking for corrections on photo captions, placement issues, recipe issues, and last minute thoughts.
I was extremely pleased with what I saw. The editor of my book is a dream editor, which I have mentioned before on this blog. But it really deserves to be mentioned again because an editor can make writer’s life a living hell. I’ve worked with almost ever kind of editor under the sun. This editor is wonderful because she works on an intuitive level, I think, allowing the writer’s voice to come through, while knowing exactly where not to. She is also grounded with all of the other word-craft knowledge, of course. And it’s a rare combination.
Magically, my vision and the editor’s vision of the book is in sync. I would venture to guess that this doesn’t happen often. When you hear authors fussing about editors, I think often it boils down to the vision aspect. When a writer receives the finished book and doesn’t recognize half of it, or wonders where the other half went, they have have right to complain. I am blessed with this project, in so many ways. I feel so confident that this book is going to honor Mrs. Rowe and that, ultimately, it will honor everyone involved, including the publisher and editor.
The other thing is that the design is lovely. It has a nice rhythmic flow to it, with interesting little graphic details. I just wanted to keep looking at it. It’s so inviting.
So, what’s next?
We’ve been working on some promotional ideas. I’ve filled out a six-page author questionaire, which was a lot of gathering of addresses and and contacts. I forwarded this all on to our publicist. We are going to have a busy fall and winter, I suspect. The book will certainly be out my October, maybe even September. I’ll keep posting.
