Confessions of A Bedridden Slug
August 7, 2015
The Cinema Obsession Pipeline
September 3, 2015
I’m getting closer and closer to publication of the essay book, and it feels great. Today’s posting is a missive about that venture. Wrote it this past week during a free moment.
Word Count: 689
Collecting
The Laughs
(Part III)
So now she has everything. By this I mean Lindsay Nyquist, the owner/operator of Raven’s Eye Press. The small publisher helping me put the book together so it can achieve the radiant light of publication. Feels good to have finally reached this phase in getting the book of essays out.
I had originally wanted this publication to come out just before the 4th of July. Let’s be perfectly honest shall we? This bit of wishful thinking on my part was only achievable during deep bouts of REM sleep, delusional visions of my future as a writer, and other fantastical scenarios playing themselves out.
Getting a book published takes a lot longer than most people think. Unless you’re planning a bare bones minimum, self-published project which involves putting out a publication that’s just a set of random ramblings (and hasn’t been edited in any manner), things tend to happen at a geologic pace. The speed route also happens only if you’re going to advertise the book in a few places on the Internet. Just planning to make it available in one or two spots, and without any type of promotion either.
As befits my delusional visions of grabbing onto the brass ring one day though, I wanted more. True, this is a self-published project, but luckily I had a few factors working in my favor so it sort of wasn’t. A big one was the fact that all of the essays had already been written, line edited, and published in one form or another once before.
A theme for the book had already been chosen and fifty-six essays were culled down to thirty. This past winter I had the missives further downsized to twenty by picking a group of friends to read the essays and choose their favorites. These missives were the ones that “made the cut”as it were. Things would happen fast and furious, right? How naïve of you my son.
At that point the “hurry up and wait” phase of the operation totally kicked in. First Lindsay e-mailed to tell me she needed the cover shot. After wasting three or four days day-dreaming about a photo that would hopefully match the theme of the book, I contacted a photographer friend. Specifically to set up all the elements and take the picture. That phase of the operation took about a week and a half, and the mold had been set.
I finish one task only to discover that now we’ve moved on to the next part of the process. Soon things get drawn out and one month turns into three. Is this why it often takes two or ten years before a story ever makes it into book form? Then another decade or so before the tale makes it onto the big screen (sometimes never)? Probably.
I want this book to get done right and strongly feel its better to take the extra time to do it correctly rather than rush into things. By speeding into it, you more or less end up with a finished product that looks half-baked. Getting back to the Hollywood analogy, all you need to do is look at some of the detritus the movie studios put out. “Haste makes waste,” as the old saying goes.
All sorts of minor jobs have been carried out over the last few months. This includes finding quotes for the back cover (coming up with mythical statements-yes I did that), getting old photos for the various essays, creating “Acknowledgments” and “About the Author” write-ups, finding out from Lindsay that the book looks a bit thin so I’ve added a few more photos and an additional essay or two to bulk it up. Finally taking a look at the finished layout before it goes into pre-production and printing. Not bad, all this minor logistical stuff has only pushed back the estimated publication date by a few extra months. Could be worse, over the past decade or so I keep altering the dates of my plans to achieve world domination. That may end up taking longer than anticipated, but I still persist.
