The Proof Pages For My First Book Have Arrived

My wonderful editor Becky Zins sent me the proof pages for Voice of the Trees, whoa, it makes me feel like a "real" writer!  Now, keep in mind my friends, I know, I've been getting paid to be a writer since 2007 when I first submitted an article to Llewellyn for publication and I've been writing articles for them every single year since, and have even written articles for trade magazines and copy-writing for my day job.  The official rule is, if you receive money to do it, you're a professional.  Yes, I've seen my work in print and in the bookstore, which is a really cool feeling, but to see this whole manuscript all laid out with the illustrations in place, elegant titles, and especially the page with all the legal info, well, it brings this project to a whole new level of real!  After all, it's my first frikkin' book, and I think the writing bug has bitten me!

So is my work as a writer of this project over?  Hardly.  The next step is to pour over the proof pages and pick and polish every last aspect of this book and adjust things addressed by my editors notes, so that when it falls into your waiting hands along with it's accompanying deck, it will be perfect!  That is why we need editors, they have a great eye for noticing anything that's amiss, so she sends notes along with the manuscript for minor changes to consider, double check a piece of research, change a redundant word, switch a sentence around for clarity, that kind of thing.  I don't know what we would do without editors, I have many other authors that I consider my friends, and they all agree, sometimes when you look at that line that's been underlined in red you say, "What was I thinking?  Yep, fixing that right now!"  Sometimes we look at our own work for so long, it needs a fresh set of highly trained eyes to catch things.

So is it a daunting task?  Partly yes, but mostly no.  It's been awhile since I wrote it so it's fun to revisit it again, and Becky was my dream editor so I'm honored to work with her and actually looking forward to digging into her notes and tweaking the book.  You can learn so much from a good editor!  The good news is, it's not an overwhelming amount of edits, so I guess that means I did alright, and every author has edits.

So the press date is June 1, so I have to give this project my immediate attention.  I'll be a busy gal, sounds like pizza for dinner this weekend guys!