The Final Edits | A Lion's Head
The Final Countdown
The final spiral upward begins.
This weekend, I spent my time asking real humans what they thought of the book covers, type font, and layout.
Cover Feedback
- Dyslexia considerations, business, artwork placement, font colour.
- The writing on the spine is upside down.
- I got the spelling of my editor's name and company wrong, HOW?
I'm blessed with good friends. One exclaimed, "What do you want? It looks good—I want to read the back cover." More than one.
I'd still like to do more work on the covers. I feel like it has to feel more 'my' cover and not something I put together in Canva—beholden to the licenses therein. I have some ideas.
Writing in Books is Sometimes Good
The weirdest part is marking up the inside of a book (and it not being a textbook) for the first time. I've never done this before. It is a practice I will continue moving forward. Reading the text on the laptop, reading the text on a printout, reading the text out loud, and reading the text on a Kindle have all served at various stages of the production cycle.
And yet, I'm still catching the random typo, double word, places where Grammarly didn't kick in right.
I'm also seeing places where the paragraph would benefit from the sentences being in a different order, where I can cut a sentence . . . and recognizing blatant exposition (both Elise and I missed) that could be replaced through other means. It's also possible she didn't miss it and I failed to address her comment because I didn't see it—until now.
But having ADHD means I'm not going to cross-check all that. Fly by the worn seats of my pants being the rule.
I'm satisfied when I can run through several pages without spotting an issue. That said, there have been some 'sections' where I'm not happy and feel it could read a little tighter.
I'm guilty of too much exposition, which I will be rewriting with a focus on what needs to be known at this time.
Example: Hiranyakshipu and Hiranyaksha in Hindu Mythology
To avoid name confusion, I've left Hiranyaksha's name out of the book. I lie... I've minimized mentioning his name.
In the scene where the asura king encounters Isha, a water buffalo-headed deity with no ties to the greater gods nor Varaha, the boar-headed god who killed the asura king, Hiranyakshipu's brother.
Through conversation, Hiranyakshipu has to ascertain whether Isha is a threat. At the same time, Isha is frantically trying to find a way to handle an overwhelming situation. Hiranyakshipu's curiosity about Isha is piqued. Later in the book, it seems Hiranyakshipu uses Isha as a replacement for his dead brother at times, but it is very much a one-sided relationship. The asura king needs Isha for more than one reason. The asura king is well-versed in manipulation and entrapment.
Making the Corrections Gets me Closer to Done.
I changed my location so that I'm not in 'creator' mode. I need to be in 'revision' mode and not rewrite huge swathes of the book. I keep telling myself I'll have to print one more copy to read AGAIN if I make too many changes. The good news is that with some minor edits, the print version is easy to extract as an EPUB for the ebook. I checked.
- Have a simple format, a widely available font, and few if any images.
Final Thoughts
I wonder if I can get a few reviews to include as an insert in the book, as I see major publications do. Perhaps, we'll see closer to the end date. I would be delighted if those reviews were by fellow respected authors. I'll ask; the worst they can do is say no. I am tempted to use reviews by close friends to be honest, just a one or two liner.
If interested, leave a comment.
I send my newsletter out at the end of the month, so it'll be in the final version by the time most people on my newsletter see this.
Member discussion