Part II – Write Your Story
What is my vision for my work?
As we mentioned in the previous section, writing your story is the most important aspect of the process, for without the work there will be no end product. Your words can live in your mind, in your heart, or as notes on the page and with that alone, they are your story. Sharing your words is not required to feel true fulfillment of having written – it is basic and, at this point, you have to ask yourself, seriously, what are my publishing dreams? What vision do I have for my work and for myself as an author? Dream Write Publishing has experienced the range of emotional responses to this question with most people sincerely happy with holding a printed book in their hands – their words in print. Others hope for more, and there is no harm in that thought. We all have visions of sugar plums and grandeur – the sugar plums being huge advances and publishing deals and movie options, while the grandeur evokes desires of wealth and infamy. Nice dream but, for most, it will remain just that… Take a look at all the books out there and all the authors who try for that same nugget of success. Do you define this as your publishing success? You will probably not immediately find this type of success – it happens and we are encouraged by those success stories realizing they are not just fantasy. Dream Write Publishing cannot, in all honesty, promise this outcome for your book – we cannot guarantee this and, like anyone else out there being truly honest, we remind our clients there is no guarantee. Sure, we can all hope for the lucrative best and always strive for the highest goals we can reach. If getting your words into print beyond the “for your eyes only” stage is an honest success for you, then your visions are real and within our company’s capabilities.
What does my manuscript review mean?
Dream Write Publishing provides a written review with options for “next steps.” Once you have a chance to go over the comments, suggestions, input, and direction offered, you – the author – have choices to make regarding the next part of your journey. If you decide to go ahead with Dream Write Publishing, we will work with you to fulfill the direction we have discussed in the manuscript review.
The Editing Process – this could be a lengthy, back and forth, process that not only involves multiple readings by our company but also by you. It is a necessary part of every writer’s journey. To be involved in the process, there will be a review and revision of the manuscript using an ongoing interaction. This succession of improvement builds toward the finished product. This can be done via email using the “track changes” feature of MS Word and file notes to accompany the discussion or via mail using the tried and true red pen to printed page. Explanation is always part of this process as we encourage you to learn and engage during this stage of publishing. Some of you will not want to be involved to the same extent as others – this is dependent upon your comfort in applying the changes or requesting those of your own. Remember, it is always your work and you have to decide if you want to implement edits that go beyond the usual spelling, grammar, and punctuation required. There may be content and continuity issues with your work but if advised during the manuscript review, it allows you the opportunity to revise the manuscript on your own thereby avoiding, for the time being, a more comprehensive editing process. Rewrites and revisions should be part of the work you do under “writing” – this takes time and many writers know it can take years depending upon your situation in life and the time you have to invest in your writing journey. The end product of the editing process is a manuscript that is virtually error-free and is written to the best it can be.
Where do we go from here?
Once your work is edited, can we assume you will go ahead to the publishing stage? It is your decision, even at this point. Do you want to hold off for now, for whatever reason? Do you want to publish as a print or E-Book? Our direction takes us many ways depending upon the work itself and format of publishing. Other things determined in the manuscript review will come up for discussion here – does the work require illustrations? Does it require acknowledgements and referencing for information included in the content? Have you written a summary, a book blurb, a synopsis? Do you have an author bio and an accompanying photo? Are you providing a dedication in your book? Does it need a prologue or table of contents? All these things we look at every day when we read books and often take for granted – yet they are important components in the content of your book. And you thought you were finished writing!
This is the step where Dream Write Publishing will begin to format your work and design your book layout. We encourage your input even at this point as there are many things an author might see for their book that can be incorporated at this stage. You might have seen something someone else did that you like and although we do not condone copying we do encourage and enforce creativity, no matter what industry standards might dictate. Your book is something we want you to be proud of and it should be something that says THIS IS MY BOOK!
If you are going with an E-Book – this is where the difference begins in formatting. We require a thoroughly editing and content ready manuscript but the platform Dream Write Publishing uses requires a word document stripped of back code and we do that for you as part of the E-book Publishing Agreement. There are several elements of a manuscript that are much different at this point and the look of the product is variable depending upon the device used to read it. We provide a manuscript that will make it through the auto-vetting process – and from platform we use that means your book will be available through retailers such as Apple, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon/Kindle.
For a look at some of the titles Dream Write Publishing represents on E-books, check out: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/dreamwrite10 - Dream Write's Smashword's profile.
So we leave this section with an edited manuscript in hand but several decisions in front of us. We find that not only are your words important but so is how you plan to display them once you decide to publish.
Written by owner/ president Linda J. Pedley
Comentários