The Process Of Publishing

Writing a book is one thing. To get it published is something completely different. With Kalapati  had the luck that Amsterdam Publishers was doing all the work. All the work? Technically yes. But that didn’t mean I could get my hands off the project. 

First of all, the whole manuscript had to be edited. That means, going through the story again and try to find the errors. This is very tricky because it is very hard to find your own mistakes. The computer I was working on at that time had a spelling checker. For (American) English. My story was in Dutch and no way could I figure out how to change the spelling checker. But then again, this tool is useful for sure but it never tells you that you change have into had. So it does not underline have. After all there is nothing wrong with the spelling. It took quite some time to finish because, truth be known, it was hard to go through the story again. The content brought back memories of events I’d rather leave behind. 

After all was finally done we had to work on a cover. It is easy enough to find free pictures on the internet but I absolutely wanted to create my own. The picture of the old half painted and weathered wall was just too beautiful. Well, that of course is in the eye of the beholder but I was more than happy with it. The publisher sent it back. The color of the title ‘sank’ in the background and the letters were too small. Sure, for a printed copy all looked good but since it was going to be published on the internet the people would only see a small picture. My friend and I made changes over and over again until in the end I told the publisher “Since we ‘know’ each other I know I can rely on your good taste so please do as you see fit. As long as the picture will remain.” 

Here I thought all was settled now. Nope! Final check. So I had to go through the content again. There was some more sending back and forth but finally in October the book saw the day of light. 

With all the checking I noticed that I had written down things that I already had forgotten. This got me thinking. Was it really that bad? Or was I just too negative when I wrote it? Should I write it in a friendlier way? But, the publisher had chosen my manuscript as the winner of the contest. Making changes would possibly do more harm than good. And of course it was all a reflection of how I felt back then, when I wrote it. Circumstances might had changed but not the story. We can’t change history can we?