I have a collection of short fiction coming out soon. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned it before. That's what this column is about though, isn't it? Watching a small press author as he tries to grow bigger and get more and more work done? Well good, because right now we can look at the final stages of a small press book.

At least my small press book.

We're about two months out from publication, right this second. All the material for the book is written and edited. That should be it, right? I mean what's left?

This is when I break into hysterical, nervous, laughter. Let's take it from the top:

The cover has to be finalized. We debated the thing a while. And that is one of the cool small press moments -- I got to really get my hands dirty with the cover discussions. I helped pick it and shape the thing. It's 99% there, last I saw. Just a matter of shaping a bit of the negative space and smiling at it. That's the front cover, mind you. Not the back. We'll get there.

All of the pick-up pieces have to be written, still. That's my fault, I admit. The pick-up pieces are things like a dedication, if there is one, and all the little bits of extraneous text in a book that I have to write that aren't the fiction end of things. In this case, it is a dedication/thanks sort of text and a copyright notice and one other thing. Normally the copyright is nothing to think about, it's simple; but this is a collection, and many of the stories saw print before this book. So we have to list where and when for each story. I offered to take care of it; I just need to still.

The one other pick-up is the back cover text. Just about every book has a back cover blurb. I'll write a draft of it and send it off, and it will be adjusted and then sent back, and eventually (fairly quickly mind you) it will be locked down and approved.

Which isn't all the back cover gets. It also gets quotes, hopefully. Cover quotes can be really important. People pick up a book they don't know, by an author they might not know, and those quotes can actually make a sale for you. They can tip the scales just that tiny bit.

Cover quotes are gotten through a combination of who you know and who your publisher knows. It's asking a favor, and whenever you ask someone personally for a quote, you have to think if you are willing to do the same for them at some point. So just finding names and agreeing they would be cool and then asking them and getting them to say yes... yeah.

But what do you send them? Oh, that's the most fun! You send them uncorrected proofs. The text of the book before it is really fully done. In this case: before it has the pick-up text in it and before the text of the book itself has been signed off on.

Who signs off on it? Me. It is one of those great fun and great amounts of work everyone has to deal with. Your publisher sends you uncorrected proofs -- galleys, and you go over them and fix any outstanding issues.

Theoretically those are all small little things. Which makes it harder. I have to go over every line of over 250 pages of text to see if there is a double coma that crept in or a weird typo or... well... anything wrong with the text that needs to be fixed before it goes to print.

Proofs are my last chance to fix mistakes before the world sees them and hates me for them. Proofs are both the coolest and most annoying thing around.

Coolest because it is the point I really feel like there is a book coming out. I print them out (or get them handed to me already printed) and can see what the book will look like, how my words fall on a page, what fonts were used, how many pages a certain moment took -- all of those little things that the final book will show me, I have them right then.

Most annoying because I have to pour over them line by line and page by page until I am certain I’ve found every error I can find. Then I have to send them back with exacting notes so everything gets fixed.

Once all of that is done I just sit back and wait. Cover in place. All the pick-up text written and approved. Quotes in. Proofs proofed. The magic is next. The next time I'll see the book it will be bound and printed.

Gah!