Saturday, October 3, 2009

Another Reason to Love Dream Press

So, for those of you who are embarking on that first book project, here's a bit of information you may or may not know. Even if your publication process goes incredibly smoothly, you will "finish" your manuscript several times**:
  1. An approved and filed dissertation
  2. A fully revised book MS to send off for review to press(es)
  3. Once under contract, another version, revised according to the press readers' reports
  4. A version that you correct after the press' copy editors have had a go at it
  5. A final version where you make any (very few!) last-minute changes to the galley proofs
  6. A book
My "I'm finished" statement of 6 weeks ago referred to stage 3. As you can see from the above list, there is actually quite a ways to go. But a few days ago, one of the editorial assistants at Dream Press contacted me, and informed me that I should be expecting my copy-edited MS sometime next week, and that if I turned it around within a month, I should have galley proofs by January.

As many of my fellow bloggers and commenters know (from both good experiences and bad ones), this is blazingly, unexpectedly, lightning-fast. Best yet, it could mean an actual book on the Dream Press table at Kalamazoo this year.

Lucky, lucky me.


**It perhaps goes without saying, but you should celebrate each and every one of these milestones, with cake and/or the beverage of your choice.

8 comments:

medieval woman said...

Congratulations! It would be great to have it on the table by K'zoo! And it's such a lovely, prominent table - huzzah!

Historiann said...

You thought you were through...but they keep pulling you back in!

Dream Press is disturbingly efficient. They should at least wait until your latest slice of cake and glass of champagne have been digested/slept off before shipping your ms. or page proofs back!

Susan said...

What you left out is that page proofs also includes indexing :)

Notorious Ph.D. said...

Crap. Thanks for reminding me, Susan. ::sigh::

Good Enough Woman said...

Indexing sounds like a nightmare. But yay for the light at the end of the tunnel (which shines up the book table).s

AliceAcademic said...

Congratulations! These are the gifts of meeting your deadlines (even closely). Enjoy the cake and beverage and cheers!

Bavardess said...

How exciting. Is this your first book? And yes, a glass of bubbly stuff is surely called for after each and every one of those milestones!

Notorious Ph.D. said...

Thanks, all! And yes, Bavardess, this will be my first book. I'm hoping that I'll have the strength for another one.