So, I’ve just finished bleeding upon two more chapters of my XHTML/CSS manuscript, putting me at the half-way mark. I’ve come to discover one thing about this ms: I turned in a piece of crap as a first draft. I left stuff out, the grammar is poor in places, typos rule other places. It was late and I rushed it to turn it in vaguely on time. Boy was that a mistake. I’m still holding my ground that the content and style of the book is perfect but I know what I should have been saying. I can see why the early reviewers hated it so much because everything I was trying to accomplish got completely lost in the total crapiness of the ms.
So, here’s a nickel’s worth of advice for those of you considering writing a book. Don’t turn it in until it’s ready. (Especially if the publisher hasn’t paid you any money yet.) Whatever you turn in will still need to be edited but don’t turn in something you’ve not even read once yourself.
Michael Sauers is the Director of Logan Library in Logan, UT. Prior to this he was one of the founding staff and Technology Manager for Do Space in Omaha, NE. After earning his MLS in 1995 from the University at Albany's School of Information Science and Policy Michael spent his first 20 years as a librarian training other librarians in technology along with time as a public library trustee, a bookstore manager for a library friends group, a reference librarian, a technology consultant, and a bookseller. He has written dozens of articles for various journals and magazines and has published 14 books ranging from library technology, blogging, Web design, and an index to a popular horror magazine. In his spare time, he blogs at TravelinLibrarian.info, runs The Collector's Guide to Dean Koontz website at CollectingKoontz.com, takes many, many photos, and typically reads more than 100 books a year.
Unless otherwise stated, all opinions are my own and are not to be considered those of the City of Logan, UT.
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