20 or 30 Corrections. Then 8. Then 2. Then we go

Late yesterday, I received from Koehler Books the most recent edited copy of the book, Looking for Lydia; Looking for God.  It incorporates my latest changes and corrections.  I can no longer call this a manuscript; it is undeniably a book.  The email from my publisher, to which the book is attached, reads:

“Dean,

Here you go. I expect you will narrow this down to 20-30 corrections. Then 8. Then 2. Then we go. That’s how it works.

Rock and roll.”

I worked until nearly midnight, slept an hour or so, worked again, and again around 3:00.  I actually said ‘No’ to keeping my grandson for a couple of hours today.  Now it is 6:03 AM, according to my oven clock, and I am about to walk to the market before the heat closes everything down.  Then back to work until I can send the book back to Koehler Books for the next round.  I am getting into the rhythm; I get it.  This is how it works.

The clock has ticked and it is almost 2:00 in the afternoon.  I am only halfway through.  I have washed my favorite bathmats, put together ingredients for a crockpot meal for tomorrow, talked at length with friends in Louisville, Kentucky, and Grand Rapids, Michigan, arranging with them to arrange my “dates” for book signings in their cities.  I can’t make plane reservations until all these travel  arrangements fall into place.  The falling dominoes need to begin in Texas.

I believe this telephone and email activity falls soundly into the category of “marketing” which I vowed not to tackle, or even approach cautiously, until the book work was complete.  Yet here I am.  And I really want to get the book back today so they can turn it around and back again to me quickly.  All this work and pressure stem from one fact:  the faster I work, the sooner the book will appear.  The sooner the book appears, after the miserable two + months’ delay, the surer I can be of getting enough copies for the book launch and signing on September 12.  Yes, I know.

Back to work.  Phone ringer is off.

Thursday 18 June 2015 (yes, it’s still 2015)

I finished the job and shipped it off.  I got a very formal phone call from my publisher.  Way, way, way too many “edits” (as opposed to what I was supposed to be doing–“corrections” only.  What author can resist the opportunity to do just that little bit of tinkering, that tad of rewording (checking the Thesaurus one more time), that addition of a few sentences, possibly a short paragraph which really does enrich, clarify, improve?  Don’t we want it to be the best it can be??  Apparently I had the chance for rewrites a while back and it’s now time to PUBLISH A BOOK.

Like a wasting flame, in well under an hour (closer to a half hour), I blitzed through and zapped as much excess as I could even spot at that speed.

And sent that sucker back.

Now I’m waiting.  Spent a delightful couple of hours with a friend discussing a fascinating book we both just read, Ishiguro’s Buried Giant, stirred my crockpot meal, washed a couple of dishes, made a couple of calls (yes, about marketing), and am now definitely going to watch a couple more episodes of “Grace and Frankie.”  I’m even considering a nap.

Life is still good.  And certainly it’s not boring.