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Writing, Editing, Publishing, Chapter Three

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As promised yesterday, today we continue The List of tasks in writing a book. (This ought to be numbers 15-29, but I can’t get the blog to obey me.)

Today’s list begins with finding someone to write the foreword. IT IS NOT A “FORWARD”. Got that? One of the quickest ways to tell if a book is self-published by someone without experience (or money to hire experience) is if their word at the front of the book (FOREWORD) is self-written and is titled “Forward”. This is what my old friend Jennifer referred to as “loving hands at home”, and it was not a compliment.

Shall we proceed?

  1. Find someone to write the foreword (optional).
  2. Write a conclusion or an afterword (optional).
  3. Decide who to dedicate the book to (optional).
  4. Decide what type of publisher you need: full service, printing only, or a choose-your-own combination of services.
  5. Decide if you want hardcover, softcover, e-book, Print-On-Demand, or a combination.
  6. Hire a formatter (or use the publisher’s formatter).
  7. Proofread again.
  8. Find an indexer (if your book would be enhanced by an index).
  9. Proofread the index.
  10. Send the index to the formatter to add to the book.
  11. Get the cover designed.
  12. Buy an ISBN and a bar code (unless you choose that service from the publishing company).
  13. Decide how many books you want.
  14. Keep writing lots of checks.
  15. FINALLY, when you have the book in hand, start the hardest part which is. . .

. . . to be continued tomorrow

As Solomon wrote “. . .Of making many books there is no end. . .” Ecclesiastes 11:10

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