My Book

I've been somewhat remiss of recent in my duty to my blog.  I spent a lot of time searching for and finding a publisher for my book, "The William E. "Bill" Davidson Family" which is a genealogical history of my family.  I finally found a publisher at a reasonable cost.  It was no easy task getting my manuscript into a format suitable to my publisher's process.

I wrote the original manuscript (all 500 plus pages) on my old Quadra 610 MAC using Microsoft Works Word Processor.  I had to go through two conversions to get it into a Microsoft WORD format and then onto the new iMac.  Only when I copied it to a flash drive and sent to the publisher my iMac had converted it to PAGES format which the publisher could not use.  So back to MS WORD on the PC and I sent it as an email attachment.  Each conversion was not a one-for-one.  Thus, I had to proof read the manuscript every time I made a conversion.

I coordinated with my publishing team and we designed the front and back covers and the interior of the book.  This week I received a design proof which I approved with a couple of minor changes.  The next step now is to finalize the interior text including an index and receive a galley proof for my review and approval.  Hopefully, that can be accomplished next week. Then it is a matter of printing the copies and making distribution.  That will take several weeks.

So far I'm very pleased with the way my book is shaping up.

In addition to working on my book my wife and I have been absorbed in the presidential campaigns.  Everywhere we go everyone is talking about the presidential race.  We not only have some amount of discussion at the gym where we go, but also a lot of discussion at the cafe where we go to eat after gym.  Most of the consensus is people will hold their noses and vote for McCain.  A very few say they will vote for Obama.  We're fearful Obama may be our next president if you listen to all the pundits.  God help us if he is.  We hope and pray McCain/Palin will pull it out.  Sarah was the best thing that happened to the McCain campaign until "Joe the Plumber" got Obama to reveal his real self.