Independent Publishing and a Preview of Richard III

They say it keeps you young to learn new things but I think it batters your brain! Producing the text for The Children's Story of Richard III ready for publishing has been packed with new experiences and I now realise how daunting Independent Publishing can be.

It's not always the big things that catch you out. For me it's the little things like creating the Title Page.  I'd never thought about the Title Page inside the cover of a book. It's something that is just there. Fortunately Alice Povey is doing the Book Design as well as the illustrations and she came to my rescue. I'd never thought about the wording on the spine of the book either but again, Alice has got it sorted. As for the Acknowledgments Page, there is quite a lot of legal speak that we've had to include to cover copyright permissions from other people for images used and copyright claims on behalf of ourselves, not to mention acknowledging support and advice.

A preview of Richard III

One of the scariest 'almost mistakes' that I made was to not be consistent with my side heading styles.  I am eternally grateful to my publisher, Lynn Moore from The Reading Shop, for spotting this. Some of the side headings had initial capitals. Some just had a capital for the first word of the heading. Of course, I know how important it is to be consistent but I hadn't noticed the inconsistencies. So, how many more mistakes will I find before the book is out?

The illustrations have almost been completed by the amazing Alice Povey. I then get a penultimate opportunity to proof read. I'm feeling slightly sick at the thought of reading those words again but it has to be done! The final chance will be when the Printers, Soar Valley Press, produce their draft book. Once we say 'Yes' to that, there'll be no turning back. People keep reassuring me that even the most prestigious of publications have little errors but I so don't want that to happen to my book.

If that were all I was doing right now, then I wouldn't be feeling so brain battered but there's the small matter of continuing to catalogue the local cemetery and create a Website for Ancestry Research. Thankfully I have an expert in database building working with me but it's down to me to write the content of the Website text pages. This has meant a crash course in HTML coding and website design. Enough said!

So excuse me while I pop off and work out which letter to put in-between < and > to make things happen in HTML. It's all good stuff... I think!