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March '04
This will be an editing month, if all goes according to schedule, and really my last chance to get anything of substance into the book. I expect to see the manuscript back in my hands within the next week or two. I don't know what sort of deadline my editor will have, but I plan to do a pretty quick turnaround. I have a stack of notes to myself about things I want to address, a brief list of things my editor brought to my attention and then whatever the copyeditor's notes address.
The waiting is starting to get to me. As I said to someone else recently -- publication date ALWAYS seems like it's a long way away. Still seven more months to go! Arrrgh -- I'll have gray hair by then at this rate!
I'm sure, though, that before long the pace will pick up and things will start happening left and right and I'll be wishing that time will slow down a little, but right now I find myself wishing the months away so I can get to the point where I hold a copy of The Road to the Dark Tower in my hands (a bound, mass produced copy, not the usual, unwieldy, unbound manuscripts I've been dealing with 'til now) and proudly proclaim: This is my book!
Author: Bev Vincent
Still no word on when I'll get the copyedited MS back, but we've moved on to another stage in the process. My editor is working on the “in-house sell sheet.” This is used to provide information about the book to others within the company -- publicists and the sales force.
Author: Bev Vincent
I got my review copy of Song of Susannah on Friday, so I spent the weekend reading the book for what must be about the sixth or seventh time. I ended up with another page of scrawled notes to look at when I do my final round of revisions. Good quotes, details I need to confirm, things like that. Not much has changed since the final draft I'd read, though.
The color illustrations aren't present in the ARC, but the B&W illustrations at the beginning of each chapter are. Anderson's art is growing on me. Some of it is quite charming.
Author: DTUK
I like the chapter art as well in King's DT books, it adds a little more personal depth to a good book because someone has gone to alot of effort and spent alot of time making it a special volume for the reader.
Author: Bev Vincent
Okay, so a few things are going to happen in the next couple of weeks and then it will probably fall silent on this front for a while.
First, I will be getting the copy-edited manuscript back tomorrow. My revisions are due by March 31st. Then the changes will be keyed in and at some point down the line I'll get the page proofs to check for errors.
The Italian publisher has been eager to get the manuscript but we can't deliver it to them for translation until the new changes are in and proofed.
The other big change is that I'm losing my editor at NAL. Ron is moving to a new imprint within the Penguin family at the end of the month. By then, the editorial work will be essentially done on the project, but I'm sad to see him go. My agent tells me it's rare to find an editor with the level of enthusiasm for a non-fiction project as I've enjoyed with Ron and Ron himself told me that this was the most fun he's had editing a book. Ron was a lurker on this board from time to time and maybe we'll see him again since he's a big fan of the Dark Tower, too. He contributed immensely to The Road to the Dark Tower.
I will be getting a new editor for the duration of the project who will act as liaison for the marketing/promotion phase.
Apparently changes like this happen fairly frequently in the business. A writer friend of mine whose published over ten books in the past twenty years tells me he's had twelve or thirteen editors during that period. I'm sad Ron won't be there for the last stretch of the Road, but I wish him well in his new position.
Author: DTUK
It sounds as though Ron has served his purpose with you in this literary non-fiction endeavour and it is time for him to move on since the project is pretty much wrapped up except for polishing it up for the final phase of publication.
I have often found its hard saying good bye to people that have such an impact on us and with us if we share something special together. It's never easy, and I still haven't become used to this yet, but it is a necessary thing - otherwise we will never met new people to one day call friends.
The waiting is starting to get to me. As I said to someone else recently -- publication date ALWAYS seems like it's a long way away. Still seven more months to go! Arrrgh -- I'll have gray hair by then at this rate!
I'm sure, though, that before long the pace will pick up and things will start happening left and right and I'll be wishing that time will slow down a little, but right now I find myself wishing the months away so I can get to the point where I hold a copy of The Road to the Dark Tower in my hands (a bound, mass produced copy, not the usual, unwieldy, unbound manuscripts I've been dealing with 'til now) and proudly proclaim: This is my book!
Author: Bev Vincent
Still no word on when I'll get the copyedited MS back, but we've moved on to another stage in the process. My editor is working on the “in-house sell sheet.” This is used to provide information about the book to others within the company -- publicists and the sales force.
Author: Bev Vincent
I got my review copy of Song of Susannah on Friday, so I spent the weekend reading the book for what must be about the sixth or seventh time. I ended up with another page of scrawled notes to look at when I do my final round of revisions. Good quotes, details I need to confirm, things like that. Not much has changed since the final draft I'd read, though.
The color illustrations aren't present in the ARC, but the B&W illustrations at the beginning of each chapter are. Anderson's art is growing on me. Some of it is quite charming.
Author: DTUK
I like the chapter art as well in King's DT books, it adds a little more personal depth to a good book because someone has gone to alot of effort and spent alot of time making it a special volume for the reader.
Author: Bev Vincent
Okay, so a few things are going to happen in the next couple of weeks and then it will probably fall silent on this front for a while.
First, I will be getting the copy-edited manuscript back tomorrow. My revisions are due by March 31st. Then the changes will be keyed in and at some point down the line I'll get the page proofs to check for errors.
The Italian publisher has been eager to get the manuscript but we can't deliver it to them for translation until the new changes are in and proofed.
The other big change is that I'm losing my editor at NAL. Ron is moving to a new imprint within the Penguin family at the end of the month. By then, the editorial work will be essentially done on the project, but I'm sad to see him go. My agent tells me it's rare to find an editor with the level of enthusiasm for a non-fiction project as I've enjoyed with Ron and Ron himself told me that this was the most fun he's had editing a book. Ron was a lurker on this board from time to time and maybe we'll see him again since he's a big fan of the Dark Tower, too. He contributed immensely to The Road to the Dark Tower.
I will be getting a new editor for the duration of the project who will act as liaison for the marketing/promotion phase.
Apparently changes like this happen fairly frequently in the business. A writer friend of mine whose published over ten books in the past twenty years tells me he's had twelve or thirteen editors during that period. I'm sad Ron won't be there for the last stretch of the Road, but I wish him well in his new position.
Author: DTUK
It sounds as though Ron has served his purpose with you in this literary non-fiction endeavour and it is time for him to move on since the project is pretty much wrapped up except for polishing it up for the final phase of publication.
I have often found its hard saying good bye to people that have such an impact on us and with us if we share something special together. It's never easy, and I still haven't become used to this yet, but it is a necessary thing - otherwise we will never met new people to one day call friends.
Comments
Well, the editor is your champion within the publisher. He's the one who wanted the project and acquired it and he needs to pass his enthusiasm along to the publicity and sales force so they'll be inspired to go out there and talk the book up to potential buyers, both individual and corporate (bookstores). Once the editorial work is done, the latter is their primary role. Ron's already done a lot of this and, in some ways, this is a book that already has a built-in audience. It's not like a novel by an unknown author where the sales force needs to talk it up to get book buyers interested. The King factor plays out here -- the legions of Dark Tower fans already have reason to buy this book.
So, his job wasn't 100% done, but the creative part of it is pretty much wrapped up, so if this had to happen, this was probably the best place.
Author: Darth Pookie
So, first off, there is line art in DT6? Cool.
Second, you have to be done with all your editing when again? Because to me it sounded like you wouldn't even have time to put in notes when you get the ARC for DT7.
Author: Bev Vincent
I got the copyedited manuscript back yesterday. It's the same copy that I sent in to my editor last November and it's been around the block a few times! I even found a nice coffee stain on one of the later pages.
At first I was overwhelmed by the sea of red ink. Then I realized that most of it is directed at the person doing composition to denote fonts, italics, em dashes, margins, styles, etc. There are about a dozen specific questions in the margins directed at me (for example, I capitalized Slow Mutants in one place and not in another, so which should it be?) that I need to address, plus I have to check over any editorial changes to make sure the sense of what I was trying to convey wasn't changed. Then I have a bunch of my own notes to go over and make a few changes here and there. My plan is to have all this done by the end of Sunday and get the manuscript back to my editor on Monday. It's due on April 1st, but I want to put it to bed before then.
There are some issues with the draft of DT7 that I may not get to address. I expect I'll see an ARC of DT7 at about the time I get my own page proofs but that will be too late to make any major changes. I might be able to change a word here or there, but that will be the limit at that point.
Author: Lin242
It's all pretty surreal looking at it from where I sit Bev. What an honour, do you ever like sit back and go “holy *insert your fave expletive here*, I can't believe this?” You're always ever present, helping everyone with their questions and in a lot of cases lately, begging and pleading for any little future scrap of information:) - I can't imagine where you find time to write, although I do remember you saying at SKBB that you started fairly early in the day.
When I remember first reading The Gunslinger back in the day when it first came out and now looking ahead to what is a full completion of the journey BEFORE the end of the year, I just can't believe it. It's incomprehensible.
Lin
Author: Bev Vincent
Believe me, I've had my moments of I can't believe it. They come in waves. The strongest rush was at the beginning -- and I couldn't talk about it with many people because the project was still in its infancy and I hadn't yet found an agent and a publisher, but it looked very likely that I would. Even when I had both, I couldn't talk about it for a long time because I wanted to wait until the contract was signed. So I had only a limited few people I could tell about it and it was so hard.
Then I get involved in the work and I don't think about the bigger picture for a while, and then something else happens and it's so cool! Then will come the day when I see the book for the first time, and I expect the surreal factor will kick in again.
I am sure at that moment in time that the surrealism will kick in with a well deserved and big ass s-eating grin! ------->
Author: Lin242
Oh, that must have been killer not to be able to spread that news for awhile. Believe me, this is a pretty big picture -- any Dark Tower lover will tell you so.
Of course you're probably going to have a lot of people wanting their copies personally signed. I think you should have a Canadian book-signing appearance. #)
Looking forward to future news.
Lin
Author: Bev Vincent
Anything's possible. I've fantasized about passing through Pearson airport on my way back to visit my relatives and seeing a batch of my books in the terminal bookstores and going in to stage an impromptu signing while waiting for my connecting flight!
Author: Rache4173
THAT would be great!! And some lucky unsuspecting shopper will pick up a signed book.....
Author: Lin242
Just logging in briefly to say: If you get anywhere near Pearson and have this fantasy about the whole impromptu book-signing thing, can you make it a little less impromptu by letting us know about 4 hours ahead? That's how long it will take us to drive there.
Have a great weekend everyone.
Lin
Author: Bev Vincent
Will do.
This weekend I am slogging through the copyedits. It's a big job, but I fully intend to have it done by the end of tomorrow or by mid-Monday at the latest, even if I have to take the morning off work to do it. I want to be done by the time my wife gets back from her business trip!
I have to hand-write all of my changes on the manuscript. No more working from the electronic copy. If I have long passages to change or insert, I can type them on a new sheet of paper and insert that page in the manuscript as, say, page 119A. This is all to make sure that everyone's changes and comments get propogated all the way through to the final edition. I have to use a different color of pencil to make sure that the source of each mark on the manuscript can be identified.
However, no one has taken responsibility for the coffee stain on page 336 yet...
Author: Bev Vincent
Boy am I tired!
I really burned the midnight oil over the weekend, but by about 10:30 last night I was done. It was a good weekend for both my wife and daughter to be away so I could just slog away at this thing and keep my own schedule.
I started on Saturday morning, but took a few hour break mid-day to go to a Mystery Writers Association luncheon in Houston, the first time I've ever been to one, though they have them every month. The guest speaker was a former California cop and security expert. That was about my only live contact with human beings all weekend!
I worked late Saturday evening and then got up early yesterday and worked all day long, taking breaks only when my butt threatened to rebel from being sat upon so much.
I listened almost exclusively to Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells II as I worked on the manuscript. Great editing music!
Today it's off to the Courier to get it to New York by tomorrow.
Author: DTUK
Tubular Bells II is a classic
Author: Bev Vincent
Through the miracles of modern technology, the manuscript that I boxed up and stuffed in a padded mailer this time yesterday is now sitting on my editor's desk in New York. From him it goes on to the managing editor, where my weekend's labors will propogate into the working copy.
Next stop -- page proofs, I guess, though I imagine they're a little way down the line. The interior design isn't set yet so far as I know, but the request has been made for it to look essentially like the layout for the recent reissues of the first four DT books. Tom Canty's rose/gun/keyhole device appears both on the cover and also is supposed to show up inside for section breaks.
We were hoping for one photograph that never panned out, but there will be four internal bits of artwork that should cause some oohs and aaahs, I hope!
Author: Rache4173
Technology is soooo taken for granted, yet never ceases to amaze you when you stop and actually think about it. What in the world did people do before FedEx and Airborne Express (*etc) came along??
Sounds like great stuff, Bev. For those of us that are not writers (not to mention published writers), the process seems grueling and exciting at the same time.
Author: Bev Vincent
Grueling is the only word that adequately describes this weekend! But it's all a very exciting process and the work is well worth the results and most of the time it's fun. Not always easy, but fun.
Ahahahah, I can imagine how Sperling&Kupfer is waiting for your manuscript...but it's nothing comparing to me and my friends!!!
Why don't you come here for book signing and good food?
Author: Bev Vincent
Sound wonderful to me. Now if only S&K would send me an airplane ticket or two...
Author: Bev Vincent
I'd forgotten how good Tubular Bells II was until I rediscovered it last week. I also found a recording of a live performance of the entire album in London to launch the album, which is great, too. I've always liked Oldfield and have most of his albums.
My editor tells me that the keyhole/rose/gun device will appear on the book's spine as well as the front cover, but won't be used inside because it would be overkill. The inside of the book will look mostly like Viking's interior of Wizard and Glass.
He also confessed to the coffee stain and tells me that he got the earlier draft so badly he had to photocopy the last 50 pages over again!
Author: Blaine
I don't if this has been already asked but how many pages will TRTTDT be?
Author: Bev Vincent
The final page count hasn't been established yet, but I'm guessing something in the vicinity of 400 pages.
Author: Blaine
~0 sounds great Bev ~0
Author: rmartirano
416
- The Lurking Editor
Author: Original Torch
Wow. Cool to see Ron popping up!
Checking in to see how the Bev Vincent hype machine is working I suppose.
Relax; excellent promoter.
Torch
Author: rmartirano
No doubts there... I was just trawling for feedback to the cover, now that it's posted. Glad to see it's going over well.
R.
Author: Bev Vincent
Ron's been lurking quite a bit over the months and I'm happy to see him decloak so I can officially welcome him to my message board. He's moving to a new job at the end of this week so I'd like to publicly thank him for all his input into The Road to the Dark Tower. He took what I first delivered -- a loose assembly of chapters -- and showed me how to whip it into a book.
Bouncing ideas back and forth with him over the past months has been great fun and I can't imagine a better author-editor experience. He's ruined me for the future -- he's set a high level of expectation for future editors from me!
All the best with the new post, Ron and I hope you'll still hang out here.
Author: rmartirano
Pleasure was all mine - there's nothing more professionally satisfying than bringing your inner-geek to work!:D
This process from start to finish proved to be the most fun I've ever had working on a book. I felt like I was back in college, taking that same style of dialogue and discusion and watching it wrap itself around a topic that was not only a source of enthusiasm for me, personally, but was so rich with areas to explore that I couldn't stop thinking about it throughout the day (nor did I want to for that matter).
Bev brought so much to the table on this, and the best part beyond actually reading the books and the discussion, was the one-line references he'd discover and fire off to me during the day over the past few months, along the lines of “Hey, I noticed this scene in this King book and if you look at this description in this DT book, they're almost identical....” And as for the DT books themselves, reading the King manuscripts was such a brilliant experience, it was truly an honor and it made it so much easier to get up in the morning and go to work knowing that this was all a part of my job.
Author: CRinVA
OK Ron you convinced me - I want your job!
We love what Bev has been able to share with us throughout the lifecycle of this book and we are all looking forward to getting a copy in our hands. I'm trying ot figure out how to score an ARC myself!
p.s. the cover is simply awesome!
Author: Bev Vincent
I had a nice phone call from my new editor this afternoon. Gave us a chance to introduce ourselves to each other and touch base on what's coming down the line. It's good to put at least a voice to a name. She said Ron got to do all the hard work and she gets to do the fun part!