This morning I sat down at my computer to begin layout on the XDM project. It took me 30 minutes of mucking around to figure out that I did not know where to start. All of my options looked equally laborious and some of them looked flat out broken. 30 minutes more sorted things out and the process began to fall into place. Now I have a list of steps that I can follow. I have created the process by which everything else will get done. Now that the process is in place, everything afterward is just following through.
One of the things that was baffling me this morning is that the process that Howard and I have established for the Schlock books, does not apply well to the XDM project. Partly it doesn’t apply because XDM has so much more text. Partly it doesn’t apply because we have two additional parties to include. But the biggest reason is that we need to get everything done so fast. The short time frame does not allow the standard process for book creation.
If we were not pressed for time, I would use the following steps. First have the author write the entire book. Next an editor looks it over and makes recommendations. The author revises and resubmits. At this point the editor hands off the book for a rough layout and sends it out for continuity/copy editing. The layout person throws text onto pages and then tells the artist where pictures will be needed. The artist draws the pictures. While the artist is drawing, the rough layout is approved and final text is handed over for layout. Then the layout person puts everything together. The completed package gets further editing passes to catch any errors. Then the whole thing goes to press.
This will not work in the time we have. Tracy and Curtis are still writing sections the book. Howard needs at least 4 weeks to draw all the pictures. I need several weeks to do layout work. If we wait for Tracy to finish writing, there won’t be enough time for the drawing, let alone the layout. So, we’re going to have to work in sections. Each section of the book will go through the process individually. So on any given day Tracy will write Section 5, Curtis will write Section 8, Section 2 will get an editing pass, Howard will be drawing for Section 3, and I’ll be tweaking layout for Section 6.
It will all be chaotic madness that will gradually coalesce into a completed book. The last week of the schedule is supposed to be the time when we all comb over the compiled book looking for errors and things to tweak. There are going to be so many errors. It is impossible to have a process this crazy and not have errors. Many of the errors will remain unfound until after the book is printed. Hopefully this will make the first edition special and collectible. Hopefully there will be many editions after this one in which all those errors can be eliminated.
Time to get back to work.