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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?
- Find someone to write the foreword (optional).
- Write a conclusion or an afterword (optional).
- Decide who to dedicate the book to (optional).
- Decide what type of publisher you need: full service, printing only, or a choose-your-own combination of services.
- Decide if you want hardcover, softcover, e-book, Print-On-Demand, or a combination.
- Hire a formatter (or use the publisher’s formatter).
- Proofread again.
- Find an indexer (if your book would be enhanced by an index).
- Proofread the index.
- Send the index to the formatter to add to the book.
- Get the cover designed.
- Buy an ISBN and a bar code (unless you choose that service from the publishing company).
- Decide how many books you want.
- Keep writing lots of checks.
- 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