What is a book shepherd?
One who guides or “shepherds” a book from an author’s idea to final printed version. If you have ever written a book, you might know that feeling of, “Now what am I supposed to do to get this published?” A book shepherd guides the author through the options and steps of ending up with a well-written and well-printed book.
My learning about book shepherding began with self-publishing The Cabins of Wilsonia. I was my own contractor, doing all the research, photography, drawings, book design, book formatting, computer work on the drawings, and finally finding a printer. I hired a self-publishing consultant, an editor for the written parts, and had 4 friends proofread for me. (NO ONE should EVER do a final edit on one’s own writing or EVER pretend to be able to proofread one’s own work – it parallels the saying “He who represents himself in court has a fool for a lawyer”.)
This experience woke up something inside of me that said “BE AN EDITOR – YOU DO IT ALL THE TIME ANYWAY!” (Yes, it shouted at me in bold and all capital letters.) IT is something that manifests as a Typo Psycho, and causes me to twitch whenever I read most self-published books, if I can even get through the first big error of “Forward” instead of “Foreword”. These self-publishers tend to be ignorant of the parts of a book; their books are full of redundancies, run-on sentences, unnecessary and boring topics, poor grammar, typos, and horrible formatting. They bring to mind a description from my friend Jennifer: “Loving hands at home”, not meant as a compliment.
People who have a story to write need help. There is so much more involved than writing! I want to help.
When I first heard “book shepherd”, I realized that I had done this already; even though it was just for myself, it counts. My experience allowed me to share my new-found knowledge with Louise Jackson on her book Trail of Promises. This book turned out so beautifully that Louise asked me to help her with The Visalia Electric Railroad. We are nearing completion and the light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train book.)
There were more books I helped on along the way in various capacities, but this post is getting too long already. It probably needs a good editor.
You deserve a nice picture after wading through these thoughts. This is my favorite wildflower, Explorer’s Gentian.
4 Comments
Interesting and timely post. 🙂
I appreciate your willingness to help with these kinds of projects. I have a blog post (and Toastmasters speech) in the works about our need for proofreaders in our lives.
Jon, obviously this topic is burning a hole in my brain. Thank you for allowing me to practice on your book – not as editor or book shepherd, but as proofer and crash-test-dummy reader!
It’s a real honor and privilege to share this work with people like you! Thanks for investing some of your time to make my book better!
The C-Lo Tribe was a blessing to me at a time when I felt so isolated in my studio; I want to return some of that blessing to the former tribe members.
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