Tuesday, July 25, 2017

Leaving for RealmMakers 2017

I don't know why I'm suddenly feeling nervous about leaving something important behind when I fly to RealmMakers 2017 tomorrow. Everybody there is my friend or friendly. I will be selling the textbook Writing Speculative Fiction: Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror which has excerpts from many of the attendees. The textbook is aimed at homeschoolers and 30-40 percent of the attendees are involved in homeschooling. Ah, I know, I'll be selling Advanced Reader Copies because I thought I could skip the proof copy step of publishing. I was in a hurry to get it ready in time for RealmMakers, and the publisher had hired a proofreader. And I was EXCITED.
Lesson learned: don't skip that step. I've printed up Addenda that I'll be inserting in the books but there's not much I can do about the egregious typos in a book about writing.......
The publisher has downloaded the corrected versions. I don't know how many of the typo-heavy versions were sold. What I feel worse about is the half of the contributors I left out of the recommended lists and the index after I promised the writers I would put them in there. They're there now, and there's the addenda.
If I make a textbook for the second semester, I'll be sure to add at least one chapter on publishing decisions, probably using myself as the example of what not to do.
And then to make sure I'll never become arrogant, yesterday I discovered two typos on the back cover. I need grace.

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