OK. You know you never publish the first draft of any book. I found that out the hard way last month. My former assistant edited my work and pulled it to pieces. Another person had already edited it and I was working on it but my assistant did not pull any punches. She is my former assistant by her choice as she is writing her PhD thesis and my work took too much of her time. That is unfortunate for me because even though she was rough and made me cry I respected her edits as I did those of my other editor. She also got started on all the other stuff that one must do to produce a book. Since nothing that I write is new, I have to get permissions for everything! Therefore, I have asked my editor for a one-month extension. He agreed that I must give him a good book.
I have been doing stream of conscience writing so I just plugged in the citations but not in Chicago Manual of Style. I finally downloaded the 16th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style and I am following it. I am also paraphrasing more material rather than direct citations. I will have a reference section in the appendix. I wish I had someone to follow up on the permissions because having to do rewrite and also follow up on permissions is time consuming. It is hard to get some of the women in the book to send me back permissions in a
timely manner.
timely manner.
I still have one woman whose oral history that I must take by phone. I have tried for two years to get to her but she never responds to my phone calls or when she does, she does not have time to talk. I will have to push harder because she is one of the original Double Bind women and the only information I have about her is in another book. I would like more information.
I always wondered how celebrities turned out books so rapidly. I now know. They hire people to help them write. I e-mailed one woman who is too busy but when
she does have time, her fee is $100.00 per hour. I do not have money like that. Academics can write grants to support their publications and have graduate students who may work for them for nothing or very little. Independent scholars have a problem. I did note that the National Academy of Science send out proposals for independent scholars to write a book. That is how Margaret Rossiter got her money for her books about women in science. However, if they are doing this now, I do not have the time to write the proposal and wait for funding. I suppose I should have been writing when I was at the Chemical Heritage Foundation, but I was still doing research then. In fact, I love research, I hate writing. I guess
that is the problem! I write like a chemist is trained to write in the passive voice. It is so hard to change that.
she does have time, her fee is $100.00 per hour. I do not have money like that. Academics can write grants to support their publications and have graduate students who may work for them for nothing or very little. Independent scholars have a problem. I did note that the National Academy of Science send out proposals for independent scholars to write a book. That is how Margaret Rossiter got her money for her books about women in science. However, if they are doing this now, I do not have the time to write the proposal and wait for funding. I suppose I should have been writing when I was at the Chemical Heritage Foundation, but I was still doing research then. In fact, I love research, I hate writing. I guess
that is the problem! I write like a chemist is trained to write in the passive voice. It is so hard to change that.
Having said that I am pushing on. I cannot stop now. So the publication date of the book will be later than August, but it will be published. That is my goal for 2011.
Oh, here is a comic that I saw today. It refers to me. http://www.gocomics.com/ziggy/2011/01/01/ I need a book writing for dummies.
Jeannette Brown
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