A book launch junkie’s list of ten real-life “ouches” and “ahs”

• The author decides it is a good idea to have a few drinks before his launch and gets into a fist-fight with the bookseller.

• She refuses to attend her own book launch unless the publisher pays her to read.

• The publisher detests book launches and hides amidst the book stacks in the back of the store, alarming some of the guests.

• The first-time author believes if you build it they will come, and against all advice reserves the auditorium at the local library, which seats 250 people; 9 people (including his editor and the bookseller) show up. 

•The bookseller thinks the author is buying the wine and vice versa so a youthful employee rushes off to a local liquor store. Only thing worse than a too-long reading is a too-long reading followed by “porch-climber” vino.

• No one is assigned to pick up this elder statesman/author from his hotel to bring him to his book launch. He cannot secure a cab because there is a freak snowstorm. He walks the nine blocks to his launch in his dress shoes.

• The author launches her book at a huge family reunion / town homecoming. News spreads like wildfire.

• This launch is at a seniors’ home. Staff and residents are so delighted to host the event that apparently every available soul has turned out. Two male residents even “play the spoons” for additional entertainment. The author (who lives at the home) warmly greets and chats with each and every attendee. The bookseller keeps running back to his store to get more books and sells more than 300!

This long-time independent bookseller reads every book launched in his store; his introductions offer superb background to the writer and the genre.

I have read his books, lived in their worlds, marveled at the language—“never simply beautiful for its own sake but exists in the service of the story he is telling” (says one reviewer)—language so lovely that I must read passages over and over for the sheer job they bring. He is finally here. I gather my books and sit in the dark theatre as he reads passages I know so well. He signs my copies. I am in heaven.

© 2012 Kingsley Publishing Services

What are ISBN, CIP, and Legal Deposit and Do You Require Them for Your Book?

Library and Archives Canada (LAC) offers ISBN, CIP, and Legal Deposit services as ways to preserve Canada’s published and recorded history. Should you take advantage of these for your book? Yes.

ISBN stands for International Standard Book Number and is an internationally recognized identification number, akin to a “fingerprint” for your book. It is NOT involved in copyright registration or protection, but it does provide a fool proof ID that can be entered by anyone searching for information about your book and, as a scanned barcode, instantly identifies your book and its publisher, etc. Most books list the ISBN in a barcode on the back cover of the book. I liken it to the Latin name for a plant, in that, unlike searching for a title or an author, searching by ISBN - like the Latin plant name -  identifies that book and that book only. (Try it now by typing in the ISBN of a book from your bookshelf into your web browser.) You can attain an ISBN by visiting http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/ciss-ssci/index-e.html

CIP stands for Canadian in Publication and provides a preliminary description of your book before it is published. The CIP gives librarians a headstart on cataloguing your book and provides dissemination of information about the book before it is published (meaning that the book information will show up on various searches about your subject matter because of the metadata the LAC makes available for your book) and the incorporation of the cataloguing data in the book when it is published. The CIP is placed on the copyright page of the book.

Below is a typical CIP provided by Library and Archives Canada for a recent textbook.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Masliyah, Jacob H. (Jacob Heskel), 1942-

            Handbook on theory and practice of bitumen recovery

from Athabasca Oil Sands / Jacob H. Masliyah, Jan A.

Czarnecki, and Zhenghe Xu.

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Contents:  v. 1. Theoretical basis -- v. 2. Industrial practice.

ISBN 978-1-926832-03-6 (v. 1)

            1. Oil sands industry--Technological innovations--Alberta.

2. Secondary recovery of oil--Alberta. 3. Bitumen--Alberta.

I. Xu, Z. (Zhenghe)  II. Czarnecki, Jan A. (Jan Adam)  III. Title.

TN871.37.M38 2011           622'.33820971232          C2011-900185-3

Visit http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/cip/index-e.html for more information. You will require and ISBN in order to apply for CIP.

Legal Deposit is Library and Archives Canada’s principal means of assembling our nation’s collection comprehensively. Once published, you are required to send two copies of your book to Legal Deposit within one week of its publication. (Single copy if print run is less than 100.) For more information, visit http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/legal-deposit/index-e.html

The information provided here (which has been copied or paraphrased from the LAC website) is introductory only, as many of my clients have asked for a simple explanation of the above services. For full information on all of these services, please visit the appropriate LAC links or speak to one of their helpful librarians. Feel free to post a comment to expand this basic overview.

How Long Does It Take to Publish a Book?

My clients are often surprised at the length of time it takes to move from a final manuscript draft to a finished book. "How could it possibly take so long?" "I need it for a conference in five weeks." "Our annual report took only one month." It comes as a shock to them to learn that it can take as long to publish a book as it does to write the manuscript. Why?

Publishing a book is a creative process. Quality and creativity take time. Can you generate a finished book in a couple of months? Sure you can, and the end result often reflects that schedule. Why spend months, sometimes years, creating a manuscript and then not take the time to have the manuscript properly edited, designed, and printed? You will be wasting your time and your money if the quality of the writing and the aesthetics of your book are sub-standard, no matter how important your topic.

Most manuscripts require substantive editing (and unless your friend, your cousin, or your secretary, etc., is a professional editor, they don't count). A professional editor is just that: a professional. She will take the time to think about what it is you are trying to say and work with you to say it in the best possible way. This process frequently takes two to four months as the edited manuscript moves back and forth between you and the editor and each and every suggestion and query is dealt with. You need to allow time for thinking, for you and the editor.

Once the substantive edit is complete, the manuscript is copyedited - line by line - for consistency, style, sense, grammar, spelling, and to ensure that all its various parts (scans, graphics, bibliographies, footnotes, etc.) are edited and properly prepared for a designer. This is not an automated process, and it requires more back and forth between you and the copyeditor. It is a critical collaboration, whether it is a complex novel or a straightforward how-to book.

A designer also needs time to lay out a design that works for this particular book and appeals to its audience. She will take the final edited file as prepared by the copyeditor and work with it in a design program, such as InDesign. Manuscripts with numerous parts such as graphics, charts, and footnotes can take more hours than will straight text. Image scans have to be checked, sized, often enhanced, and the printer's profile added to each scan. Designed pages are proofread by the author and by a professional proofreader, and those changes are sent back to the designer to make corrections, which will require further checking. There are often three or even four sets of designed-page corrections generated until everything is perfect. Throw in an index, and that can take anywhere from a week for a memoir to a month for a technical book.

The printer receives the files from the designer and runs an automated "pre-flight" check to ensure that all is well: no missing fonts, no low-res images that would mar quality, no conflicts with the quote for the book. The printer produces proofs that are sent to the publisher or author for checking. The finished book usually takes four to five weeks to print and ship.

What is an average time to produce a book from a manuscript that arrives on the editor's desk in decent shape? About nine months. But if there are substantive content issues to address, incomplete fact-checking, low quality images that require replacement or enhancing, rights or permissions to seek, graphs/charts/maps to create, author schedules to work around (we all have lives), special printing needs, or a host of unforeseen circumstances, it can easily take longer. In a world where the process of creating a book is no longer a mystery known to a select few, it is even more imperative that your book stands out for its quality. So invest in quality, which means spending time as well as money. Your audience will thank you.

The Journalism of a Benedictine Monk

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Truth to Power, Intro and Chapter 1

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Writing in Style

You're a writer, right? Why should you have to concern yourself with style? And why does your editor insist on those blasted serial commas? Does he ever need a life ...

"A foolish consistency" may be "the hobgoblin of little minds," but there is nothing foolish about saving the writer or the company time, money, and face. A good editor will follow the house style of the publishing house or follow one particular style guide, because it provides clear standards for producing documents. No time is wasted in settling arguments or checking to see how something was treated ten pages ago. (Was it "Solicitor General" or "solicitor-general?" And, damn it, shouldn't that question mark come after the quotation mark?) If every editor on the project (from the substantive editor to the proofreader) knows which style guide to follow, the result is a consistent and professional manuscript. If you insist on exceptions, do not be surprised to see errors in the final product.

Contrary to what your grade five teacher may have told you, there are no editorial absolutes. One style guide will differ from another. Your editor is not insisting on being "right" all the time, but on being consistent. She does not want to reinvent the wheel.

The first publishing house I worked for followed The Chicago Manual of Style (now available on-line for a subscription). I bit the bullet and shelled out $75 some twenty-five-odd years ago, and practically memorized its eight hundred pages. Mind you, The Canadian Press Style Guide may tell you that should be "800 pages," but the point is that if I say "eight hundred" on page 40, I want to stick with "eight hundred" on page 275. Get the idea?

I recall my Roman history prof telling the class that he had already "forgotten more about the Gauls" than the class would learn about those feisty ancients that semester. And the same goes for your editor. That stylish devil using Word's tracked changes has crammed into her brain the fifty ways to use your capital letters, and forgotten more about full caps vs small caps than you will ever need to know. And more than that, she has done this so that you can concentrate on what you do best: write. So give it a rest.

Fashions change, but good writing has a style of its own.

The Manuscript Review

A “reader’s report” or manuscript review from a professional reviewer can help you decide whether your book project is worthy of general publication and to which market. A review can also suggest if the work would be of interest to a traditional publisher or whether your topic, background, and objectives make it more suitable for self-publication. Never rely solely on the opinion of friends and family for an assessment. As well meaning as they may be, they are inevitably biased.

A well-prepared review can become the basis for promotional material that follows. You should supply an outline of the manuscript to the reviewer as well as a one-line, one-paragraph, and one-page synopsis of the project. The manuscript review is not an editorial review (which suggests how editorial problems should be fixed), though it will contain overall editorial comments.

A solid review should be 3 to 4 pages and contain:

• synopsis, facts (pages, sections, visuals, maps, etc.)
• summary of strengths and weaknesses
• timeliness of the manuscript
• analysis of the audience and the market; what is the competition?
• recommendation for or against publication and in what form

The reviewer will look at the theme or purpose of the manuscript and determine whether the information supports the theme.

Is the manuscript organized and clearly and logically structured?

Is the scope too broad or too narrow?

Have any pertinent topics been left out? What will the reader want to know? What is the author not saying?

Is there anything that should not be there?

Is there anything that is potentially libelous? (Do you require a lawyer’s opinion?) Is there racism or sexism?

What is the writing style: wordy, terse, abstract, appealing, dry?

Would some text be better suited to another form, such as a chart or graph?

Are any elements missing? Introduction, glossary, index?

You may not agree with everything the reviewer says but be determined to learn what you can from the review.

©Kingsley Publishing Services 2008

Mary Kingsley travelled to Africa alone, with no knowledge or experience of the languages and cultures she would encounter. She marched, climbed, and hacked her way through the Congo in the early 1890s, "a Victorian Lady in Africa." And she wrote about it in an absorbing, witty, and intelligent manner.

I was introduced to Mary Kingsley as a student, by Professor Laurence Kitzan, who taught history at the University of Saskatchewan. Her spirit has moved me ever since. Thus, the name of my company, Kingsley Publishing Services. If I could travel back in time, it is Mary Kingsley I would choose to meet.

Kingsley was born into a distinguished literary family and yearned for a proper education. Instead she was required to play the role of a Victorian lady and perform domestic duties and care for a bed-ridden mother and, later, an alcoholic brother. When she was orphaned at age thirty she ventured into the heart of Africa in her black dresses, crinolines, and white blouses. It was such a wildly unusual thing to do and she did it with engaging eccentricity. Some scholars have suggested that she had a "death wish," but I do not believe for a second that this woman who set out to collect "fish and fetish" did not embrace life, despite heading to the "White Man's Grave."

Books by Mary Kingsley

Travels in West Africa (1897)

West African Studies (1899)

Book about Mary Kingsley

A Voyageur Out: The Life of Mary Kingsley by Katherine Frank

A Victorian Lady in Africa: The Story of Mary Kingsley by Valerie Grosvenor Myer