Tuesday, November 15, 2005
The Smell Of A New Book
I submitted an article to Interactive Dad Magazine. It's a humorous advice article that has a serious message. I can see me writing more for them if it is accepted because I like their publication. Which reminds me, I have still to write that piece for the Being Dad anthology at Tall Tales Press.
I posted my entry in the TSDR Blog nice and early. This one is about the new initiative at The Traverse with local writers, much like Milne's Bar of old.
All before work!
At about 10:15am I returned to my desk to be told by one of the guys that my wife rang from home. Worried that something might be wrong (she's still off sick), I called Gail back. Nothing was wrong, but she had some awesome news.
Fringe Fantastic had just been pushed through the letterbox. She was holding the parcel in her hand. There was a small tear in the packaging so she could see it was definitely the book.
In hindsight I wish she had never rung to tell me. I had to go the whole day knowing the book was waiting for me. The excitement was palpable and I could barely contain myself.
My article, Edwin Morgan: Scotland's Makar was published today on Circadian Poems. I'm quite fond of this article because I like Edwin Morgan. Have a read about a bloke who's well deserving of the title of Scotland's Poet Laureate.
I worked on some more issues of Hunting Jack and proof-read and edited my press releases and query letters for the FF promotion. Then it suddenly hit me; what if there was a problem with the book and I couldn't launch it on December 2nd? It just doesn't bear thinking about. I'll have to check and double-check everything.
Anyway, with the PR templates 100% correct, I started making the individual copies to be printed and emailed to all the various publications. This is the bit I hate. It's laborious and repetitive - a bit like work really.
The journey home was as exciting as it has ever been before. After disembarking the bus in Great Junction Street, I walked through Leith and along by the Links. The full moon hovered low in the sky, lighting my route back to the house. When I got inside, the glow of the central heating in full flow hit me in the face. I shouted on Gail and made sure she was okay. Then I opened my parcel.
Fringe Fantastic is awesome, I have to say. It is slightly larger than I was expecting and a bit thicker too, but the cover quality is superb. The images used have come out pin-point sharp; much sharper that you could ever get on a monitor. The material used gives it a glorious shine and it is very, very inviting.
Inside the words of each poem met my eyes with a thrill and a buzz. The quality is as good as I dared hope and the images inside have come out really well, too.
There are some minor changes to be made though. There is a small problem with the alignment of the page numbers, some of the poems differ in distance from the edge on the left hand pages, a couple of poems need altering, and I need to shift the poems in their order so that certain images match up with their corresponding poems and so that new chapters always begin on the right hand side. These are all small things to take care of, so we are now well on track for a December 2nd launch, which is a huge relief.
Opening the book for the first time was a thrilling experience. The feel of the pages, the smell, the months of work it contains and the idea that maybe I'm doing something worthwhile is all suddenly very real.
Seeing my words in print and in a bound bound book is about as good a feeling that any writer can get. I know it's not been published through a large traditional publishing house, but the aim of this book is to appeal to a specific market, which they would never consider trying to sell to. Hopefully it will also get my name more known and be a significant step forward in my writing career.
For those who still doubt my commitment to becoming a full-time writer, and I know there are, let them speak now or forever hold their breath.
2 Comments:
And what great pictures!
