It's been a busy month. In earlier postings on this blog, I told you about the book my cousin and I have been writing about our paternal grandmother. Yesterday our manuscript was delivered to the publisher! We hope to have the finished product in our hands before the holidays. We've learned much in the process, and more lessons undoubtedly await. 

I'll share a few thoughts now while the experience is still fresh in my mind:

1) Producing a Quality Family History, a book written by Patricia Law Hatcher, was extremely helpful, despite its 1996 publication date. She presented timeless advice on a wide range of topics.

2) In the beginning, I considered myself the sole author of the book (with my cousin as collaborator). Later, when I realized how much she was contributing, we agreed she should be credited as co-author. That's about the time our "comma wars" began. It's a matter of style. I like commas, and I sprinkle them liberally through my text. To me they're like road signs. You don't slow down to read a road sign, but if the road sign is absent, you might get lost and have to turn around. My cousin Carol, on the other hand, is a comma minimalist; she uses them only if they are absolutely required. I thought I had a fairly good command of spelling, grammar and punctuation. Suffice to say, I frequently was checking out of the library a copy of the Chicago Manual of Style to prepare for discussions with Carol. There were so many rules to double-check. I found I was "out to lunch" when it came to proper use of en and em dashes. For 40+ years, I've been placing periods and commas outside the closing quotation mark (in the "European style"). Consistency is critical. Many of our "bumps in the road" could have been avoided if I'd followed Hatcher's advice about creating a style sheet.  One should record decisions about punctuation, preferred spellings, nicknames, fonts, date and number formats, abbreviations and any other style choices. If I'd had such a list to share with my cousin, we'd have had a clear understanding about the "rules of the road" from the beginning. 

3) Our book is peppered with old family photos. We opted to place them within the text, next to the section to which the photo referred. I engaged someone to help with formatting and paid her by the hour. Lesson learned: make every effort to identify all potential photographs before you start paying someone to place them in the text. As an example, our page 31 was re-done at least four times. Time and money could have been saved.

4) Indexing! I had no idea how complicated it can be! Research the topic of indexing long before you are finished writing your book. I may have opted to omit some obscure individual and place names if I'd realized they'd need to be included in the index. (Well, maybe not. That would be over-reacting.) Don't wait until the last minute to start indexing. It takes time to proof and test your index.  We're self-publishing our book. More lessons about that process await!