I did it! After eight years, I finally finished my cat stories book. I’m going to publish it as an ebook, hopefully this month. Of course, I’ll make the BIG announcement in this blog. So be watching for it.
The book is called, Catscapades, Tales of Ordinary and Extraordinary Cats. That’s all I’ll say for now—the hype will follow in another blog.
I do want to comment about the process of completing a book, however. I tell hopeful authors that the hardest part of writing a book is starting it. And the second most difficult part is finishing it. How do you know when your book is finished—when you’ve included everything necessary, when the self-editing is complete? That’s a tough one. I kept hoping to and planning to finish this book each day for weeks. Every few days, I’d think, “I should be able to finish it today.” And then I just kept writing and writing and adding and editing. It wasn’t complete. It didn’t feel finished. I hadn’t yet come to the end of it.
On Saturday January 3, 2009, I started what would be my last go-through. As I read through the chapters one-by-one, making only an occasional minor change or adjustment here and there, I knew. I was very close to ending this book. Sunday morning I got up knowing that I would finish the book that day. I added two little points of interest toward the front of the book and then, after many distractions, finally sat down in the late afternoon to read through the last 4 chapters.
That’s it! I shouted to myself. It’s a book. It feels complete. It is complete. Now to decide on a photo for the cover. For this, I consulted Dennis. He generally designs my covers and he shares my love for our household kitties. It took us only a couple of minutes to agree on the one photo out of hundreds to use on the cover. It is a picture of our white odd-eye cat, Winfield. (For those of you who don’t know, an odd-eye cat is one with two different coloredeyes. Winfield had a green eye and a blue eye.) He is featured throughout the book, along with dozens and dozens of other wonderful, quirky, smart, adventurous, clumsy, beautiful, spirited, spiritual and delightful cats and kittens. Winfield died of cancer 2 years ago this month. The photo we chose was his glamour shot. But there’s nothing superficial about it. You look into Winfield’s eyes and you see into his soul. To me, this photo represents the cat in all of her magnificence and dignity.
There’s more to finishing a book than the sense of accomplishment and closure. There is loss. The process of writing is so magical, personal and pleasurable that it is sometimes difficult to complete a book because you just want to keep writing forever. It takes as much discipline to stop writing as it does to start and continue. Would any of you disagree?
So today, while I am celebrating my accomplishment, I am also grieving the loss of the process, even though it was an emotional one. You see, many of the cats I wrote about were my own cats and most of them are gone. So bringing them back to life was an emotional trip. I loved spending time with them again. But I had to let them go again, too. That’s tough. When I’d spend a long day doing the writing, self-editing and rewriting, I’d sometimes have to take a long walk or meditate in order to realign my emotions afterward. Those of you who are writing your memoirs have probably experienced something similar, as have some of you who are writing a gripping novel.
I’d love to hear your experiences related to completing a book and the emotions that are awakened while writing. Also, is there anyone out there who will purchase my Catscapades ebook? I think I’ll set the price at $15. I did some research this morning and this seems like a fair price for this book.
In the meantime, I’m happy to report that my book sales are on an upswing this month. Amazon is placing orders. I’m getting orders through my website. This is excellent news. If you are writing a book or even thinking about writing a book, be sure to read my book BEFORE you enter into the competitive world of publishing. The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book.
http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html
I share your sentiments on writing a book I didn’t want to stop. but I finally stopped and it was a feelings of ” Did I write everything I intended to!”I had to let it go within my time line.
I just got back my book from the publisher and there is no copy right, I thought they would meet international standards. What must I do now?
I am so disappointed.