Crafting a Book: The Big Reveal!

I just want to thank all of you who have followed along with my posts chronicling my writing a book with Stash Books over the last year+. (Hard to believe that it’s been that long–it feels like it’s gone by in a flash!) I reached the ostensible culmination of this process on Friday–I received my advance hard copy of the book from my publisher!

First off, the book is incredible. The editors and designers that I worked with shaped my raw input into a beautiful book that I’m truly proud of. I’d had some sneak peeks of electronic versions, but the physical object is really something special, and holding my book in my hands was something that I’d been looking forward to from that very first discussion with Roxane back at Quilt Con 2013. C&T did a fantastic job of making it memorable, too (they sent me flowers!!!–only the third time that someone has sent me flowers ever, and the other two involved childbirth). They also sent me a card signed with the sweetest messages from everyone that I’ve worked with. I’m truly lucky to have been (and continue to be!) working with them.

As you all know, I’m a little wordy, and my so my acknowledgement page in the book is exactly as you would expect. I don’t know if everyone reads book acknowledgements as obsessively as I do, and just in case they don’t, I wanted to reiterate the names of some of the fantastic people I worked with. I’ve mentioned a lot of them throughout the course of this series, but they all deserve another shout out.

My first thanks go to Amy Marson, my publisher, and Roxane Cerda, my acquisitions editor (who worked with me to craft the book proposal that grew into Modern Applique Illusions). They got the ball rolling, and put me in the capable hands of my developmental editor Michele Fry, and her colleague, Karla Menaugh (Karla’s got her own recent book out, written with Barbara Brackman, and it’s also about applique! It looks fantastic and I can’t wait to get my copy!) I worked intensively with my technical editors, Alison Schmidt and Nanette Zeller to make sure the project instructions in the book were accurate and easy to follow, and I learned so much in the process. (Thank you, Alison, for making me a better pattern writer!)  In the design phases, the book was passed along to my photographer, Nissa Brehmer, who took the pictures of my (mostly white!) quilts–I know from experience how difficult it is to shoot my work, and Nissa did an amazing job. Mary Peyton Peppo and Diane Pedersen also contributed to the photos, and illustrator Kirstie Petterson translated my rough Adobe Illustrator (and hand!) sketches into clear, easy to follow diagrams. April Mostek was put in charge of designing my book, and came up with something that was surprising to me and takes the book in a completely unique and beautiful direction. Seriously, folks, she and her team did an amazing job! Although I didn’t work with them directly, Creative Director Gailen Runge and Art Director Kirsty Zacharias also deserves many thanks, here. Finally, it was a joy to work with my Production Editor and Coordinator, Joanna Burgarino and Rue Flaherty (who I suspect had something to do with the flowers! So thank you again!)

As I mentioned in my last Crafting a Book post, I’m now on to the publicity phase of book writing, and I have even more wonderful people to thank for their support and patient answers to my endless questions. I especially want to single out Megan Scott, who is overseeing the publicity for my book, Lynn Merrill, who is helping me coordinate the upcoming blog tour (mark your calendars for November 10-23!), and Jocelyn Portacio, who is helping me navigate the crazy excitement that is to be International Quilt Market 2014. Many thanks also go to Allison Rosen, who helped me organize the Crafting a Book blog series! And many advance thanks are due to the participants in my book’s blog tour, which will kick off on November 10! Keep an eye out, because there will be *lots* of giveaways. ;)

I worked with amazing quilters for this book, Angela Walters and Ann McNew, and I can’t wait to work with both of them again on future projects. I also did a little long arm experimenting quilting of my own, and the staff of my local quilt shop, Merrily We Sew Along were there to guide me. My friends Jane and Jenny, the proprietors of another local quilt shop, Janie Lou, were there at least once a week to give me feedback on designs and help me pick out fabrics (and for anyone who’s local, they’re hosting a book signing and trunk show for me on November 1!!). And my fellow St. Louis Modern Quilt Guild members were there each month in person and every day online to help keep me motivated. My husband Barrett, and our sons Julian and Simon, were fantastically supportive, as were my dad, sister, grandmother, and parents and siblings in law. Sadly, my Gram, Margaret Gardonio, passed away before the finished book arrived, and it’s to her enthusiasm, support, and motivation that I dedicate it. She was an incredibly special person, and I’ll think of her whenever I open my copy. (Another shout out here to April and her team for the perfect dedication page!)

Finally, thank you to all of you readers who have read along with my musings, commented on my posts, and generally followed along with my journey through the book publishing process. I couldn’t have done it without your support, and knowing that I could share with you was consistently motivating. I hope you will be as excited to see the final book as I was, and you only have a little longer to wait! (You can get a sneak peek at Amazon, here, if you’re as impatient as I am!) Many thanks for reading!

 

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