Category: Book updates

I am on the final-final-final edits. I am making my way through the 207 page of text. I am over halfway through at page 122. I am not finding too much of anything anymore – a few word choice changes here and there. Once these edits are complete, I will upload the Amazon Kindle version. After that, I will get to work on integrating the images into the book. That will be some photo editing and alignment work. I am still thinking that September 14th is doable for publishing.

A Facebook Overland Trains page follower commented on an article I published; he was asking how much the book will cost. I replied, “It should land somewhere between $35-$50. The Kindle book will be $10. Amazon’s pricing model varies significantly based on paper type, number of pages, and color. I will make around $5 a paper book at the most. I want the profit margins to be as small as possible to make sure it is priced reasonably. I have a day job, which is my primary income source, so it’s not designed to be a money maker. I love history!“

Last month, I printed out three draft copies of my book – sans images. One copy was for me to read and edit, copy two for a Historian in Texas that I have been working with, and copy three to a man and his wife that has had a significant impact on this book and the Sno-Train and Sno-Freighter’s history. I just finished my edits and started cleaning up the working draft this morning.

Get Your Ego Out of the Way

Since delivering the copy three, they have emailed me a couple of times with questions and corrections. Their observations have improved the timeline quality and helped me clarify events sequences. When his wife first emailed me with questions and corrections, she was hesitant. She did not want to question my work. I wrote her back and told her:

Any time that you can improve upon your work, do it. You have to put aside your ego and let the data do the talking. As an author or professional [insert title here], if you are not open to criticism and willing to make changes, you’re in the wrong biz.

I just drove back from a local printer with three copies of the near-final Overland Trains book. I am sending a copy to a Historian who has been helping me over the last two and a half years. He will review the draft and suggest corrections. I will read and edit one of the copies in tandem. The other copy will be given to another major contributor to the Overland Trains story. Once the final edits are made, I will be formatting and publishing the book on Amazon with two versions: (1) Kindle (sans images) and (2) a color paperback. I expect the book to be out mid to late summer 2022.

A few moments ago, I submitted my proposal to the Alaska Historical Society’s 2022 Annual Conference (http://alaskahistoricalsociety.org/about-ahs/conference/). The book should be published by October 2022. If not, I have other problems 🙂

I am working on final edits for chapter 10, the TC-497. With that chapter nearly complete, the remaining chapters won’t take more than 2 more weeks. Once complete, I am printing three copies, with one going to a Historian in Texas for review, one to a couple that had a significant impact on the story, and one for myself to review.

There are two book versions that will be available. The first version will be Kindle. It will not have the rich images, close to 200, that are available in the color paper book. I am up to 190 single spaced pages of content without the images.

I stopped major writing around 4 months ago. Since then, I have been working through each chapter, editing each chapter over and over again. I started this journey a little over two years ago. I have collected over 33GB of data for the project and book, which is all synced with Nextcloud to my PC and backed up locally to a USB thumb drive. Who would have ever thought that there would be so much information? I completed near-final edits on Chapter 6 this morning. The monster chapters are the Sno-Freighter, Sno-Train, and TC-497. These are individually 40-45 pages without images. Once I complete all of the near-final editing, I will print each chapter and send it away for final edits.

Unlike some of the more prominent authors, writing is not my day job. Most weekdays, I get up a little before 0500 hours and start editing first thing… Well, coffee and letting the dog out take priority. I get in around an hour of editing per day. The weekends are a balance between house chores and 4-5 hours per day of editing.

There will be two book versions, one Kindle and one color paper. The Kindle version will not have more than a half dozen images. If you read a book on Kindle that is image heavy, you’ll know why. Otherwise, viewing images on Kindle is not a great experience and tends to break up the story. The color print book will have around 200 images, most of which have never been seen.