Todays post by Karen McAulay follows on from her first, and discusses her experiences of publishing her thesis as a book. At the end of Part One, Karen had received the contract for writing her book and Christmas 2011 had arrived. So what next? This is when the Planning, Prep and writing really began.
Planning and Preparation
Although I hadn’t been asked to rewrite anything, I wanted to go through the manuscript with a fine toothcomb, looking for anything too wordy, unclear, or where a footnote could be pared down or incorporated into the text. Adopting the same approach that I’d taken with my thesis, I counted the chapters, introduction, appendices and bibliography, and allocated a set portion of time to each, with a bit more for the new chapter. So long as I kept to my own deadlines, I knew I’d be fine. To ensure I wouldn’t come unstuck, I booked a couple of weeks’ leave from the day-job, in the run-up to submission day.
Now, I know that sometimes one fixates on trivial details as a form of procrastination. In my case, I awoke on 2nd January, after a dreadful night’s sleep, convinced of just one thing: I needed a new laptop. Showing resolution over and above my customary bloody-minded determination, I went online, checked the PC World website, then leapt in the car and bought one. (In my own defence, I have to explain that my very old PC had a couple of problems that I’d been unable to resolve. USB drives and dependable internet connections are somewhat crucial when it comes to writing a book!)
And I treated myself to a new mug (featured in the image above): ‘Writer’s block – when your imaginary friends refuse to talk to you.’ I’ve often said that I know more dead people in Edinburgh than live ones. Since they were all getting an honourable mention in the book, I decided my ‘imaginary friends’ might just as well sit right there on my desk with me while I wrote! I only used that mug when I was working on the book, as a point of principle. Don’t knock it: it worked for me!
That sorted, I was able to get on with the job in hand. I started a blog (another blog) for the purpose of monitoring my progress, in the hope that friends and colleagues would occasionally murmur the odd word of encouragement. ‘True Imaginary Friends’ has been a useful outlet. It provided me with somewhere I could write informally, and jot down any problems I came up against. Such as the day I realised that the new chapter was far from the walk in the park that I’d anticipated …
On the whole, the existing chapters didn’t take long to tidy up, but I had to pare down the chapter that would precede the new one, add some of the pared material to the new chapter, and rearrange the entire new chapter to accommodate the work I’d done in recent months. Apart from the intellectual exercise involved, it was also rather time-consuming.
Time
Having a full-time job places constraints on my writing time – I’ve become used to that. I did my PhD part-time, after all. I just book annual leave when the need arises. Where I nearly came unstuck, though, was when I then got the opportunity to do a few lectures at another institution. I was already committed to the book; and to writing and presenting two conference papers; and now I had lecture-plans to prepare. There followed an invitation to speak to a local piping society. (Bagpipes, that is. I’m not a piper myself, but my subject interests pipers.) Could I say no? Certainly not! It’s all advance publicity for the book, after all.
Images, Maps …
Whilst I had no illustrations in the thesis, I thought a few well-chosen images would enhance the book. One per chapter … so I scanned some of my Victorian song-collections. The scans weren’t quite up to publication quality. I ordered up the appropriate images from the uni library. They, and another one, had permissions to be sought. Gradually I whittled away at the list, until there was just one problem: finding a map. I didn’t want just any old map – it had to have the names of various Hebridean islands and key Scottish locations, but nothing else. If you want a map drawn, Daniel Dalet, c’est l’homme – he’s the French cartographer who runs D-maps.com. And he’s very helpful indeed!
And an Indexer
As I worked on the manuscript, questions kept occurring to me. One concerned the indexing. Find out what your publisher prefers: I had the choice of having the indexing fees subtracted from my royalties; doing it myself using the facilities available on a pdf; or engaging my own indexer. Conference networking proved its worth, when I was lucky enough to be put in touch with an indexer actively looking for indexing in my general subject area.
Looking Ahead
At the time of writing, my book has an ISBN; is in editorial/production; and is advertised on Ashgate’s website. Oh, and it has a publication date: March 2013. It’s really happening! There’s only one problem: what shall I write about next?
Websites and Contact Details
- True Imaginary Friends: http://trueimaginaryfriends.blogspot.co.uk
- My website at Academia.edu: http://rcs.academia.edu/KarenMcAulay
- Whittaker Live, the performing arts blog I do at work: http://whittakerlive.blogspot.com
- Tweet me @Karenmca
- Email: K.McAulay@rcs.ac.uk
