Go Ahead, Judge a Book by Its Cover (Fly Fish Chick)

I can honestly say I have never worked harder on anything in my life. I don’t know why this book project has mushroomed into such a massive endeavor, but it has. The work is rewarding and the motivation to hold the end-result in my hand is becoming more and more of a carrot. And we’re close, friends…getting very, very close to releasing Honky Tonk Debutante to the printer. I cannot wait!

I have spent the past four months coordinating the cover design, interior layout, editing, editing, editing. And proofing. And editing. And proofing. We are down to the wire and I am still tweaking last-minute mistakes. Misspellings that my eye, after 50,000 re-reads, has converted into what it wants to see as opposed to the glaringly obvious misprint that exists in reality. Apparently the only proper name I spelled correctly in the manuscript is The Ayatollah Khomeini. Which I no doubt just misspelled but am literally too burned out to double check.

And I am so sick of referencing the MLA style guide I could cry.

Except I am also secretly loving it.

This orange notebook with a frequently refreshed copy of the manuscript has become a living, breathing appendage that rarely leaves my side. (Office Depot has made a fortune off of me printing out this 448-page book. What a racket they are running!) I am also covered in red ink as I have red pens in my hand, tucked behind my ear, stashed in purses and in the car. I am suffering an advanced case of Red-pen-it is.

I have teamed with excellent partners for editing, design and production. It has been a treat working with my printer and bindery on production details. I know it seems fairly geeky, but I will admit I was ridiculously excited to receive this dummy proof of the book from the bindery.

It is as blank as my mind at this point. But it feels like progress to hold something other than the orange notebook with typing paper.

I truly underestimated how complex the photo process would be for this project. Photo permissions, credits, courtesies. It has been a goal line stand but we finally have all of our permissions in place and have shuffled and reshuffled the photo layout a thousand times. I love where everything landed.

But let’s be honest. A book isn’t a book without a COVER. And I love this one. Love love love. My talented friend Will Hornaday of Hornaday Design upped the ante with this concept. I couldn’t be more excited to share with you…..drumroll please…the cover of Honky Tonk Debutante. Tah-dah!

It feels so nice to take a break and reconnect with yall here on the blog. Am excited to get back to telling stories and sharing updates (without proofing them.) But as taxing as this book process has been the past few months, I wouldn’t change a thing. I am more passionate than ever about honky-tonk music and CANNOT WAIT to share its history and storyline with everyone. Stay tuned, we are hitting some big deadlines in the next couple of weeks. Honky Tonk Debutante is on track to release Feb 2014.

CHEERS!

Comments

I am so excited to read this. So excited! Did I mention I'm ... by Piper
thanks K8!!! appreciate the comment so much. cheers!! by The Fly Fish Chick
I love the cover and the title too! Just Perfect! by kalamityk8
Thanks for the kind comment!! what a wonderful thing to hear. ... by The Fly Fish Chick
That is the MOST PERFECT COVER ART FOR THIS TITLE that I can ... by Jack Brown

Christine Johnston Warren

Go Ahead, Judge a Book by Its Cover

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