Ether or……….
Tuesday, August 5th, 2008My book Hey Boomers, Dust Off Your Backpacks: Travel The World On A Limited Budget, is getting close to its production time, and yet at just this moment, it feels to me more out in the ether than ever.
Ether – (aithein, to burn) 1. an imaginary substance once thought to pervade space. 2. the upper regions of space 3. a volatile, colorless, highly flammable liquid used as an anesthetic and a solvent.
That’s where books come from, you know… the ether. Where is any mental creation before its owner pulls it in from outer space? You think up a thing and then you set about bringing it into creation. And it is a burn. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. But, it’s worth it. Whether it’s a book or a baby or a blog that we are talking about.
I thought it might be time for a Book Report. Literally. Everything is written and it looks very good to me when I proof it for the umpteenth time. But, I’m stuck in the home stretch because I’m a computer dummy and I need to locate a geek to hire and I haven’t found one yet and I have company coming for a few days and everything goes on the shelf for the moment. So, I have to run in place with my beautiful book just hanging there in space waiting to get headers and page numbers put in.
“Is that all?” you say, “Piece of cake!”
“Well, not to me!” sez I.
Unlike the rest of you, I wasn’t born with a silver thumbdrive in my mouth. I still don’t get it, even on the simplest of the complex operations. But, I must rave about a book that has taken me by the hand and walked me through some complicated procedures. You see, to make a book, it is necessary to design your Book Block. To do that, you must Insert Section Breaks into your manuscript. Then, you have to Unlink them. Then, you have to put in your Roman Numerals in the Front Matter, your Invisible Numbers, your Even Page Numbers, and then, your Odd Page Numbers. And then, you must write the Text in your Headers. Whoosh!
Believe it or not, I have done half of that all by myself. I bogged down on the numbering but maybe if I had the time to return to the task, I could actually make the rest of it happen too. But, I think I’ll find somebody with brains to help me figure it out. Gotta hire a geek for this. If you ever self-publish, you need to get this book because if I can get results, anybody can.
How To Self-Publish Your Book With Booksurge For $99 by Edwin Scroggins. It’s sold on Amazon.com and is a very boring read because it is full of “put your cursor here, click here, you will see this, do that…” But, it’s not meant to be a bedtime story, it’s a detailed guide through Word 2007 and Word 97 on how to prepare your manuscript for the printer so that it will come out like a book.
To do what I’m doing, an author becomes the publisher and takes on all the hidden tasks that usually happen deep inside of a New York book operation. It is hard, at least the first time around. But, we have the means to do it right there on our PCs, nowadays. We also have the means, because printers are willing to work with individuals as long as we are willing to take this responsibility upon ourselves, become small publishers, and provide print-ready covers and inside material. This book will train you to do that.
Almost anyone is more computer comfortable than I am, so my learning curve may be slower and more agonizing, but I will have one beautiful book to show for it when I’m finished and one that I will be so exquisitely proud of, because when I finally hold it in my hand, I will have an even greater sense of wonder than many awestruck authors. “I actually DID this?!!!”
So, it feels slow, drawing this thing out of the ether. I printed the manuscript out yesterday. Got a look at it on paper, and there are chapters, and everything stayed where it should. Just no page numbers or headers yet. It reads like a good story. You’re going to like it, I know.
My cover is finished now and is very beautiful. But, it must wait until this stuff is finished on setting up my Book Block because the spine width might change a little still. Headers may crowd the page and a font that I’m considering changing to, might make the copy longer, as well. Subtle ripples are sent down the entire length with every small change.
Creating something from nothing is very labor intensive.
But, life itself is either Ether or Creation. I’m gonna go with Creation.
lindajbrown