The process, part 9 - Experts
Now, here’s the thing. I’m a story teller, a creator of alternative history, a writer of speculative fiction.
I am not an artist. I am not a graphic designer. And I am not infallible.
So, because I want to present my work in the best possible light, I work with a fabulous, talented team of creatives who help to turn my manuscript into a book suitable for publication.
For the second book in the trilogy, I retained the services of author and editor, Aime Sund of Red Leaf Word Services and artist and cover designer, Rena Violet of Covers by Violet, both of whom I collaborated with on The Connickle Conundrum. Author and book interior formatter, Julia Scott of Evenstar Books has also joined the creative team for this, and future, projects.
It’s a pleasure working with such talented folk without whose expertise, the book would not reach its potential.
So what does each expert bring to the process, how do I work with them and why I consider them invaluable.
Editor
Aime and I met through a Facebook group of which we are both members. For The Connickle Conundrum, I asked Aime to evaluate my manuscript to determine whether it needed a developmental edit. As she was happy it didn’t require one, she suggested a copy edit and proofread.
During the copy edit, she provided me with a style sheet for The ABC Chronicles, which confirmed to which style the trilogy adhered (Oxford Style Guide, second edition) and author choices which deviate from the standard, such as speech and quotation punctuation. The style sheet also listed other word choices specific to the trilogy, such italicising airship names - Dragonfly - Latin phrases - Dulce periculum - how the meks refer to themselves - this ‘kin, and vernacular or archaic words such as mitherer, knockerupper, pea-souper, collywobbles, flibbertigibbet etc. and words that have unique spellings, such as shugah, Connickle, mekamanikin etc
She also listed every character and their role in the story (eg -Gilbert Sparks - MC), each location (The Praetorian pub), every object (Tick Tock Tram) and, of course, all the differences between British and American English spellings.
For book two in the trilogy, she expanded the original style sheet with the new characters, locations, objects etc and added more detailed punctuation and grammar usage notes. For example - the phrase how on earth is lowercase, and an em dash may be used as parentheses to draw attention to what is after or within them. No spaces are used on either side of the dash. Exclamation points or question marks may precede a closing em dash, but other punctuation may not.
The style sheet is a useful reference resource during the writing process and ensures consistency across the trilogy.
Aime also writes useful notes on the manuscript and makes suggestions where there may be confusion or to improve the prose, as well as explaining why certain edits are required. I consider myself very fortunate to have found, in Aime, someone who is easy to work with, professional, and very helpful.
When I receive the copyedit, I run through all the amendments and suggestions, and sign off my approval, or otherwise, to each before returning it for the final proofread. When the manuscript is returned, all remaining issues are resolved and I embark on a final read through the manuscript before presenting it to Julia for formatting.
I encourage new authors to work with an editor, preferably for a copyedit but for proofreading as a bare minimum. A new author will learn so much from a copyedit and a fresh, professional pair of eyes will pick up so much during a proofread.
Book interior format
What is formatting? Well, this is a process which determines the overall look of the book interior. There are lots of decisions to be made which affect the reading experience and although it’s possible to produce an acceptable interior format using a word processor, my personal preference is for a professional finish.
So what decisions must be made? Here are a few examples -
Font. There are several fonts that are standard for publishing. It’s important to select a font which fits genre.
Line spacing. The bigger the spaces between lines, the easier to read but the more pages will be required and, therefore, be more expensive to print. A comprise has to be made.
Top and bottom of page spacing. How much is needed depends on what headers and footers are used. Text should not be pushed against the top and bottom of each page.
Odd number and even number page margins. The margins nearer the spine need to be a little wide the outer margins to make reading easier. How much wider is personal choice.
Odd number and even number headers and footers. Where to place page numbers, author name, book title etc are aesthetic choices.
Chapter pages. Should the chapters be numbered, titled or both? Is a fleuron required? Should a chapter always begin on a right-hand page? How low down the page should the text begin? etc…
Drop caps. Are drop-aps required for the first letter of a chapter? Style of drop-cap?
There are many more decisions to be made and, in Julia, I am happy to have a fellow author and super-talented formatter to help me to make them.
Cover design
Never judge a book by its cover, so they say, but everyone does! The book cover is the single, most important marketing tool available to the author. It’s the first impression for any potential reader and can either make or break a book.
What does a good cover need?
With my limited knowledge, I can only state the obvious - a cover that is recognisable for the genre - the book title, a tagline and the author name - a design that is readable as a thumbnail - centred text on a spine that fits the page count - and a killer blurb on the back.
Thankfully, I have the talented and experienced book cover designer and artist Rena Violet as an important member of the creative team.
For The Connickle Conundrum, she produced many potential designs which revolved around the Victorian Steampunk theme, which over a period of months we whittled down to a final version.
For the second book in the trilogy, we are working on a variation on the first book’s theme to maintain a consistent ‘look’ for the trilogy.
This week’s writer and musical artists are -
Isaac Asimov - Professor of Biochemistry and science fiction writer. Writer of the Foundation trilogy and formulator of the three laws of robotics.
Beyond the Black - German Symphonic metal band.
Next week… Publication