Yes, been there, done that. IMHO self-published authors really want two
stages of work (if we leave out the dangerous one of assessment!). 1) They
want the text copy edited and probably structurally edited, and 2) they then
want what in effect is a book designer.
I have recently done one for private client aged 90 (who happened to be very
good). He is submitting it to what I call (unfairly, probably) 'real'
publishers so it is in effect a pre-submission edit. But on the whole
private clients can be really difficult. They tend to be the ones who hang
on to a misplaced comma or wrong expression with gritted teeth and will not
let go. I prefer publishers.
"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in message
...
That's the difference between a manuscript and a book. The inquiries we
get
here are very rarely from writers who have found a commercial publisher
for
their books; if they had, they would have guidelines from the publisher
they
were looking to meet.
I'm currently dealing with a client for whom I copyedited and formatted a
manuscript, and that's emphatically all it was. The last time I gave it
back
to him, I stressed that I had done all I could, and I was through with it
(it's a terrible book, and I really wanted to walk away). Unfortunately,
he's a fellow Rotarian, a stroke survivor (that's what the book is about),
and I don't want to hurt his feelings.
Now he's back at me wanting to know (if I understand his poorly phrased
question) how to remove the header from the document for publication. I
told
him to just send the ms to the publisher and let the publisher worry about
it. He said he's self-publishing. In that case, I told him, you need a
book,
not a ms. The problem, I suspect, is that he's publishing through one of
these online POD publishers, who undoubtedly have specific submission
guidelines, which I could presumably meet if I knew what they were, but I
have no intention of handing out answers to vague questions at a Rotary
meeting when I'm otherwise *very* busy. I told him, "Now is not the time,"
but I guess I should really get back to him and see if I can meet his
needs
(despite my early disclaimers). It's just that every time I get his file
back, he's crapped it up with a lot of direct formatting because he
doesn't
know how to deal with the styles I carefully used. sigh
--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup
so
all may benefit.
"aalaan" wrote in message
...
Just one proviso. I find, working as an editor, that commercial
publishers
do not want books structured per se, but only the raw text (possibly with
coded headings and subheadings), which they then flow into their own
systems. But for self-publishing this looks ideal.
"Daiya Mitchell" wrote in message
.. .
Well, it's just a collection of other people's brilliant links, but
thanks.
For a while last year or the year before there were a number of
frequent
requests for such information, so I started by just compiling the
links,
and
then it grew and grew and grew. I need to update and edit it, but...
Daiya
On 10/27/06 6:56 PM, "aalaan" wrote:
Forget my silly post. That webpage is *brilliant* Daiya!
"Daiya Mitchell" wrote in message
.. .
Quickly? If you invest some time into setting your document, you can
get
all the TOC, Index, etc to create and update very quickly.
This page has an overview of the general process, and links to
related
articles.
So You Want to Write a Book with MS Word
http://daiya.mvps.org/bookword.htm
On 10/27/06 1:59 PM, "Barry" wrote:
How can I use Word to set up a book with Table of Contents,
Chapters,
Page
Numbers, Headers, Footers, Images, Glossary, and Index? Is there a
way
to
do
this quickly? Thanks, Barry
--
Daiya Mitchell, MVP Mac/Word
Word FAQ: http://www.word.mvps.org/
MacWord Tips: http://word.mvps.org/Mac/WordMacHome.html
What's an MVP? A volunteer! Read the FAQ:
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
--
Daiya Mitchell, MVP Mac/Word
Word FAQ: http://www.word.mvps.org/
MacWord Tips: http://word.mvps.org/Mac/WordMacHome.html
What's an MVP? A volunteer! Read the FAQ:
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/