Turning in the manuscript
The manuscript of Weekend
Homesteader is officially done. (Well, until my editor sends
me revisions to look at.) Depending on my technical prowess, the
files will either be winding their way to New York via the internet
today, or taking the slower mail approach on a CD.
Here are the highlights
of the finished product:
- Days before the actual deadline: 13
- Days after my virtual deadline: 17
- Sleepless nights due to excitement: 5
- Meltdowns due to terror: 2
- Suggested word count from my editor: 60,000 to 150,000
- Final word count: 105,745
- Number of times I read each of those words: 4
- How many times too may was that: 1
- Maximum number of images my editor said I could have: 200
- Number of images I'm sending her: 229
- Most boring part: editing the index the second time
- Most exciting part: adding lots of cool sidebars while imagining proto-Annas propagating their own mushroom spawn on cardboard or using urine to fertilize the garden
- How bored my blog readers are with hearing me natter on about it: I don't know --- you tell me.
Phew! If you asked
me today if I wanted to write another book, I'd say no. But I
suspect by next month I'll already be dreaming about the other ten
projects in my idea notebook.
If you're just tuning
in, you can download the second
drafts of the first ten months on Amazon. Weekend Homesteader:
March is coming out next week, and there will be no Weekend
Homesteader: April since the last few projects are intangibles I
scattered through other months in the print book. The print book will be a full color paperback due out in the fall.
Thanks for bearing with
me!
Or explore more posts by date or by subject.
About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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Can't wait to add this to my homesteading bookshelf! Honestly, your site is pretty much the first resource I turn to when a homesteading-related questions pops into my head. Y'all are quite the amazing duo, and I look forward to many more moons of reading your adventures!
~ Mitsy
Debbi --- Thanks for saying that! It sure did feel monumental at times. On the other hand, I sometimes have trouble finishing a four paragraph blog post too.
Mizztanya --- So glad I'm not boring you! There will definitely be signed copies available as soon as they come into my grubby little hands. (I'll try to wash the garden dirt off before I sign them, though.)
Mitzy --- That's so nice of you to say! I've been enjoying reading your blog as well.
What did you use?
You shouldn't do an index by hand! If the editor or printer changes a little thing about the page layout, all your page numbers will be off.
LaTeX (or groff) could have done that for you with the makeindex program.
Roland --- I wrote it in openoffice. The index is all tagged to to specific parts of the manuscript, so when formatting changes, all you have to do is update the index, and all the numbers go back to the right places. I can't imagine the days when people did that by hand! It was hard enough with the right tools.
Paula B. --- It's about pictures too! All of those photos are ones I sent as possible cover photos, and they're in the text, so I'm glad you like them!
Very proud of you Anna for your spectacular talents and devotion to bringing your ideas, helps and thoughts to page! Cannot wait to see the finished project. Thanks also for the data on on your actuals against "the goals" - great info.