You would think that the actual writing of a book might be the trickiest part of the whole process.
OK, so it took me the best part of two years to finish my first book, 101 Forgotten Pop Hits of the 1980s. I’d blame the fact it took me ages to schedule interviews with the likes of Kim Wilde and Angry Anderson, but the truth was that it just took one heck of a lot of work to turn my giant notebook into something approaching a coherent book.
Once it was done, I thought that the difficult bit was all over. How wrong I was. For six months now I have been grappling with every aspect of the publishing process. For starters, there was the tricky subject of proofreading the manuscript. Reluctant to pay the £500 or so I was quoted by professionals, I must have read the thing half a dozen times myself. However, it still took a couple of friends of mine to points out misplaced apostrophes, the odd spelling error and other wayward grammar. I still don’t expect it to be 100% perfect, as I’m sure we’ll have all missed something.
Once that was all done, I then had to format the book. Issues of spacing, paragraphs and margins all took some weeks, as did making sure that there was equivalent and consistent spacing between lines. Do the margins all match? Are there equal spaces between the paragraphs? (I must confess that was quite probably the most tedious part of the whole endeavour.)
And then, I was faced with all sorts of design issues. I spent days looking for decent images to use for the exterior and interior of the book. I had to pick a design for the front and back cover, and then write a ‘salesy’ cover synopsis and a biography. I had to work out how I wanted the interior of the book to look – how big the chapter headings should be, how to format the acknowledgments page – how to italicise any song titles – and so on.
Once that was done, I then had to proof read the thing again to pick up any errors that had occurred when the publishers transcribed the manuscript (there were several, including, for example, them italicising the Auf Wiedersehen but not the ‘Pet’). I also had to re-space the whole document once more and alter a couple of the images.
To say that it has been time consuming would be an understatement. So, if you’re planning on getting your book published, don’t forget to add a few months and plenty of man hours for the administrative minefield you will encounter once your manuscript is completed….
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Nick Parkhouse is a professional writer. He provides articles, copy, press releases and books and marketing material to a range of local and international clients. He also specialises in sports writing for a number of international sports companies as well finance, property, politics and cinema writing.
