Who Knew?: Writing Steps

Writing this book has been a learning process every step of the way. One of the things that surprised me was the hidden number of steps in-between finishing writing and actually publishing. I thought once I finished the “hard part” of writing the book than the rest would be quick and easy. This has not been the case. This latter part of the process has taken just as much creativity and time as the writing part. Reading through edits and re-writing sections that I thought were done have been both insightful and tedious. I have learned that my thoughts which seem so clear and organized in my head are not read the same by others 🙂 I am thankful for people who have helped me take thoughts and form them in ways that can be understood by all. (Thank you Diana and Sharon!) Designing a cover is more than simply giving a graphics person a title and an idea. You need to have the back “blurb” written and it needs to be catchy. You need a picture of yourself even if you don’t have a “good side”. An author bio (It’s awkward to write about yourself so Diana helped me on this one). A barcode which is a whole process to get one assigned. In the end the cover turned out awesome! (Thank you Grace!). After many rounds of edits you than have to send the edited copy off to get it formatted for print and than re-formatted for eBook readers. Once all this is done than the publisher will send you a proof where you have to once again read through and look at everything to ensure it is ok and than send it back. Once they receive this copy then they can actually print it. I am so thankful for this learning process, and although it has been longer than I expected, I have really enjoyed every part of it. I’m excited to finish it so I can share “A Man, a Boat and Some Fish” with others, but also so that I can begin to write another one 🙂