The text for World Adventure Kids 2-1 was finished ages ago, and all of the illustrations were completed a few weeks back.
Now I am working on all the page layout and typesetting, and my goodness... really starting to miss those good friends at Pearson Longman who (during the production of Boost!) would take my manuscripts and turn them into beautiful well-presented pages ready for the printer!
Getting your book pages ready for the printer takes as long (if not longer) than the actual content writing. I have to admit it is fun (and interesting as a writer to have so much say over how things look on the actual page), but right now I'm struggling a bit. It's a LOT of work!
Doesn't help when the lozenges you're taking to help you quit smoking kick in with such a violent nicotine hit that you get massive doses of the hiccups and your mouse starts streaking all over the screen...
This kind of project also means I have double or even triple the work to do, as once the print version is ready (in black and white format), I then have to transfer over to a colour online format, and then record and upload audio files for each and every page (the online version includes an option to hear the author reading aloud the story while the children read along).
Tough going, though I shouldn't complain of course - wonderful being your own boss and all...
:-)
