Follow my Journey

Follow me on my Path to Publishing: “From Draft to Launch“

2023 will be my publishing year. Another memoir is underway, expected on the market in the fall.

Until then, I will share each milestone of this path with you. Starting in January, each month sees posts telling the story of my Publishing Path. From the final draft to a publisher assessment and evaluation, through different levels of editing, reaching layout, cover design, and image implementation, then copyrights and pricing, until we finally reach production and launch.

The Path to Publishing can be rugged and difficult at times, while smooth and straightforward at others. Some weeks will show blissful progress, while others can be hobbled by hurdles.

But it all will lead to the goal: The publication of my newest Memoir: When we walked on Frozen Rivers.

Join me on my Journey and experience each step and each success towards that goal.
For more fun, I will add a book-related question each month to the Facebook post, collect all answers, and draw the winner who will receive a free copy of this memoir.

For new activities, follow me here and have fun on this exciting path.
To read up what has already happened, see older post below.

September

Milestone: Layout & Pricing

Ultimately, the final milestones in my Publishing Path have been passed: Interior Layout & Pricing

The last steps on this path were taken with great anticipation, as we are nearing our goal of publication.

Finishing the exterior layout with its Front Cover, we worked on the Back Cover adding information about the author and the book’s back cover copy, also known as a summary or blurb.

Then the Interior Layout was created: Besides formatting pages and paragraphs to a readable version, we addressed the table of contents and incorporated information about copyright, ISBNS, the publisher and recent works by the author. A funky, light-blue font for the chapter titles was chosen and pictures of tiny, crossed snowshoes indicate the end of a chapter. We worked very hard to implement my old slides-cum-digitalized images into appropriate places.

All in all, it was so much fun to team up with my designers from FriesenPress and the result very much pleases me. Such a dedicated team.

Happy with the layout we proceeded quickly into Pricing.

Wholesale, Author Direct and FriesenPress Store prices were set for paperback, hardcover and e-book.

They will be announced within the next few days and the book should be available for orders soon!

So stay tuned !

Check-in back, and find out that the Journey has ended and “When We Walked on Frozen Rivers” will be available for orders.

A tentative book launch event in Whitehorse is set for the end of November or the beginning of December.

Send your questions or orders to author@elisabethweigand.com

Cover Design

June

Milestone: Cover Design

And the next milestone in my Publishing Path is: Cover Design. That means the front cover, spine and back cover.

As we are all aware, people do judge a book by its cover. Here, the front cover does most of the muscle work, it being the most visible part on bookshelves in the store, on vendors’ tables, and online portals. This first impression is then followed by information on the back of the book. In physical advertisement where the book can be handled, online or int print with a second image showing the back cover information.

When collaborating with my publisher’s cover designer, I developed a mock-up, send it to them and they amalgamated in my ideas with their expertise.

My strongest believe rests in the advertising mantra: AIDA

Attraction, Interest, Desire, Action.

Only if all four of these steps are incorporated in an advertising attempt, success will follow. One component missing – the chain is broken – the buyer lost. Each component has to be in exactly this sequence.

The goal is to move the potential buyer from the moment of attraction: “This is cool!” to his raised interest: “Oh, I like this!” to his desire: “Yes, I want this!”

The action part is played out by information such as the ISBN and the price, the publisher, and offering where the item is available.

For the “Frozen Rivers” publication, I chose an attention-grabbing image and title. To create interest I stepped it up and decided on a controversial, provocative tagline, hoping the person will turn the book and read the back. Where all is explained and desire hopefully ignited.

Challenge

The June Question is: “Who coined the quote Life, if lived well, is long enough?”

Answer

1.)

Winner

Thanks for playing and the free chapter will be sent to you soon. Enjoy reading it.

Stay tuned, come back, and see more posts about My Journey.

Send your answers to author@elisabethweigand.com or as a PM on my Facebook Page and enter the draw.
The following month each winner is announced on Facebook.

EDITING

May

Milestone: Editing

Editing is a two-sided sword. Sharp on both edges. We constantly try not to be cut by either side too much. One side: Let someone change your work. Other side: Keep it exactly the way you wrote it.

First of all, we have to remember: Editors are not our enemies. They really are our friends. They exist to help. They improve our creations – they render them more enlightening, more engaging, and more entertaining. They can bring about a wilder story arc, or maybe just a story arc. They might increase suspense. Or clear up a passage so the reader understands what you want to say. They can flesh out our characters to make them jump out from the page. They connect paragraph with paragraph—and chapter with chapter, to give the reader no way out—but to read on. And in the end, he wants more. More of you and your story.

That would be so nice. And it can happen – with skilled editing, be it structural, developmental, content or copy editing. Done by a professional.

However, to get there, we need to let go of a big portion of our ego.

Yes, any work is a baby of ours. We brought it to life, we built and formed and then chiselled away on it until it is perfect. Which it never is. We changed the content a hundred times. Or more. Until, at one point, we reverted to an older version that was written days ago. Or weeks.

Then it is time to ask: When is enough enough?

At one point we must let the professionals sweep their professional eyes over it. Let a fresh view clean it up. Because by now we have gone word-blind. Rushing over sentences we know by heart. Not seeing what needs to be seen. What needs to be changed.

So, after two years of writing, and an eternity of self-editing, after a first assessment and a thorough evaluation, after my final(?) changes, the baby went to the Editor.

Let them cut at it. Slice away, add, improve. It will be good. And if you do not think so, you can always not accept the changes. But in most cases, they have value. Even my German donkey-brain did finally accept that.

And the next milestone has been jumped.

Challenge

The May Question are:

1.) “Which animal do I hold in my arms?“

2.) “What is part of their fur often used for?”

Answer

1.) Wolverine

2.) Parka Ruff

Winner

This time all correct answers came from Pete Neilson.

Thanks for playing and the free chapter will be sent to you soon. Enjoy reading it.

Stay tuned, come back, and see more posts about My Journey.

Send your answers to author@elisabethweigand.com or as a PM on my Facebook Page and enter the draw.
The following month each winner is announced on Facebook.

Images

March

Milestone: Images

In my mind words are the bones of any written work. Sentences, paragraphs and chapters, the combining structure holding each bone where it belongs and where it works best with all other bones. If everything – words, sentences, paragraphs, and finally the chapters – are set in their best place, the story unfolds in its most engaging manner.

But what about images?

They are the blood, life, and sun of most works. They have the power to illuminate the stage, showing each act in its most vital light, revealing more secrets of the story than any word ever could.

I usually enjoy working with images for a new publication. I like sorting them, shuffeling them around on my office desk, grouping and regrouping them, and finally selecting the ones that will go into the book.

This process, often done after the final drafts is finished, is like a fresh walk down memory lane. The story comes alive with details that evoke smells, feelings, and thoughts.

As this memoir deals with an adventure of 30 years past, I had only slides to work with. In those days slides were the way to go and my office sports boxes over boxes housing hundreds of slim frames with the slide inside.

Once the selection was made, I handed the slides over to the local Printing Centre to be scanned and converted into electronic files. Specific requirements about size, DPI, and colour palette images needed to be followed.

After I received them back, I now had to decide where in the manuscript the images should be placed. Each location needed a special tag. Then the images had to be renamed in chronological order and in accordance with the tags I had placed into the manuscript.

The first snag.

While looking at the pictures repeatedly, finding their best placements in the text, I suddenly realized there was something wrong with some of them. On closer inspection, I saw some images got scanned mirror-inverted.

What now?

Apparently, lack of attention had led to some slides being scanned correctly and some mirror-inverted. With some, I could not even tell which way they would be right; such as some landscapes, or where my dog and I were pulling toboggans through mountains of snow.

Should I leave them just the way they were?

Who besides Rainer, my partner on the trapline, would even notice?

In the end, I decided in favour of the truth, as always.

I found a free online program that helped me flip the images in question to their right orientation. My images were of very high resolution. Their big file size made the process crash repeatedly while working with my unstable Internet.

In the end, I did leave a few images the way they were, not quite sure if they were inverted or not. Such as one inside a cabin showing how Rainer skinned a wolverine pelt.

Satisfied with my work and my decisions, I named the images accordingly to their tags in the text and uploaded them all to the Author Account Centre of my publisher.

That was when I realized that in this specific picture, Rainer was skinning with his left hand.

Oh well.

Challenge

The March Question is two-fold:

1. “Which workshop is required for being eligible to obtain a trapping concession?“
and

2. “What is the exception to this requirement?”

Answer

Question 1.) The workshop is called Trappers Education Workshop

Question 2.) If the applicant is 65 years or older he/she is excused from this rule

Winner

Surprisingly we received no answers at all. So no winner this month.

Send your answers to author@elisabethweigand.com and enter the draw.
The following month each winner is announced on Facebook.

Stay tuned, come back, and see more posts about My Journey.

The finished Draft

February

Milestone: Finished Draft gets Uploaded

Two years of writing and, rewriting, of remembering and maybe not remembering correctly. After hundreds of hours of amending, changing, and improving. Through uncountable days of doubts, despair, determination;

Finally, the manuscript is finished.

But that’s not true. No manuscript is ever really finished. One just has to find the courage to stop, to find an end that is logical, appropriate, hopefully satisfying.

The courage to say, this is it and send it off.

I am still reeling from how hard it was. The decision to stop and give it away. It’s not that I did this for the first time. It’s not that I hadn’t read through it a million times, and more. It’s not that I hadn’t given it to Beta Readers and faithfully tried to implement their feedback.

I did all that. But still, I could not let it go. After one full day and a sleepless night, I agonized. Walked endlessly through a snowy forest, returned to my desk, looked at the laptop. And never punched the send-button.

Until I finally did.

Which sent me into another fretful night. Was it too soon? I could have still…, should have….

When in the crisp morning hours, with the young light touching the tips of spruces, a bunch of grosbeaks fluttering at the window, my dog’s wet nose taps encouragingly at my elbow. As if she knew!

And I felt OK.

With my publisher chosen, a contract signed, and the manuscript uploaded, I am truly on my Publishing Path.

Challenge

The attached image shows the dog that accompanied Rainer and me during the first winter we spent on our trapline. He was not as young as in the photo when we went, (nor was I) But by that time he was well-versed in flying with me. Had he not travelled with me anywhere I was going in those days: on all horseback and canoe trips, on every walk or hike, to town and to all my friends?

And then way up to the trapline.

The February Question is: “What is the dog’s name?“

Answer

This lovely dog was named: Smokie

Winner

This time quite a few answers were right, so I pulled one name out of the “challenge hat”

The winner of the February challenge and draw is: Kathy Elliot.
Congratulations, Kathy, and thanks to all who took part in this fun game.

Keep following me on My Journey!

Stay tuned, come back, and see more posts about My Journey.

Send your answers to author@elisabethweigand.com or as a PM on my Facebook Page and enter the draw.
The following month each winner is announced on Facebook.

A new Memoir

January

Milestone: A New Memoir

The decision is made. 2023 will be my Publishing Year.
Another colourful fragment of my life’s kaleidoscope will be transformed into a book. I have written another memoir with Frozen Rivers the unconfirmed title.

After two years of mind mapping, writing, rewriting and revisions, the draft is going to my publisher in February.
By fall, I expect the book to be on the market.
Until then, I invite you to follow me on this journey: From Draft to Launch

Challenge

The first question in this challenging game is: “What is this memoir about?”

Answer

The correct answer to this challenge is: “The new memoir will be about life on our remote fly-in trapline.

While many answers were right that I, again, will retell a life story describing my love and intimacy with this country, the outdoors and Yukon’s backcountry, the actual theme of the memoir is more factual: Trapline.

Winner

The winner of the January challenge and draw is Ulrike Levins. Congratulations and I will happily sign a copy in the fall, once the book is published.

Stay tuned, come back, and see more posts about My Journey.
Send your answers to author@elisabethweigand.com or as a PM on my Facebook Page and enter the draw.
The following month each winner is announced on Facebook.

Stay tuned, come back, and see more posts about My Journey.