Muddling By – Eighth Draft Begun

Authors get to celebrate being ‘done’ with a book several times: the first draft, every subsequent draft, the book build (internal), the built book (internal and external), the upload, the publication, the initial receipt, the entry into the Library of Congress, and whatever other hurdle a writer wants to proclaim as an accomplishment. Muddling By has entered the draft that seems innocuous but can be maddeningly complex. The words are done (mostly), but getting them arranged on the pages happens now. So much to do, and so few will notice – unless I leave those steps out.

The book is done! Yeah. But, I have to generate the title page, copyright page, table of contents, acknowledgements, bio, marketing text, cover art, headers, footers, page numbers, front cover text, back cover text, cover art, all that margin stuff (which has required several iterations and hundreds of dollars for previous books), and then…

…all the little details and notes I’ve written for myself for things that Grammarly won’t catch. A partial list:

• italicize book titles
• indent (go back and fix titles)
• delete lines between most (but not all) paragraphs
• data table format
• inter-chapter page breaks
• internal chapter sub-section titles: Generally, Personally, Thoughtfully
• name SECTION BREAK -> TOPICS
• page breaks for internal chapters
• size for text
• size for chapter’s titles
• lines after title
• Heading/Section/Title
• headers (title and Tom Trimbath)
• footers (page numbers)
• extra pages
  • title
  • copyright
  • table of contents
  • acknowledgements
  • bio
  • marketing
• font – Garamond
• eliminate double spaces
• define Triple Whammy ( MVIS )
• spelling
• Walmart not Wal-Mart / Wal-mart
• Saks
• My Triple Whammy not my Triple Whammy
• Carhartt not Carharrt
• coffeeshop v coffee shop
• class-less v classless
• Master’s v masters
• head start Not headstart
• users manual or User’s or etc.
• middle-class v middle class

Get the idea? Simple stuff. It can take a long time to pick up simple stuff. Picking up one grain of sand is easy. Picking up an entire beach is an effort. And, I’m glad I’m doing this with a computer to organize the work. Imagine having to do this fifty years ago. Ugh. This might also be why the gatekeepers ruled for so long, and why so many stories weren’t told.

This stuff is important, and also may not be. Readers liked the story within Firewatcher. Editors beseeched me to edit it more, to fix it. It took some effort, but hiring an editor, adding page numbers, and redesigning the cover to note the difference cost about half a year and a few hundred dollars. The resulting sales didn’t cover the cost, and the majority of the comments are from people who liked the story. Those other bits matter, but I’d prefer to concentrate on the story while missing some formatting issues, instead of perfect formatting wrapped around an incomplete story. There are enough calls for the third book in the series that I’m already imagining the story for it. But that’s next year.

Before I do that, I have to spend a few weeks fixing these same small details I just dismissed because, while many may not believe it, I want the book to look good enough, and read well enough to not have artifacts distract the readers from the story and message of a roller-coaster ride through America’s wealth classes.

And I want to finish it this year, so I can get on to the next book for next year.

There’s always more to say (and write) and do, so I’ll leave this post as-is, after editing, of course, so I can get back to doing.

PS Shift pages to start on the Right page and other such things after I’ve fit this draft into the publisher’s template. Ninth draft?