How This Book Got from Ron’s Computer to you Kitchen
Part Five: The Negotiation and Editing Process (08/06/24)
Finalizing the Contract and Polishing the Manuscript
I connected with a long-time friend who is a retired lawyer. He offered lots of advice and suggestions for changes/additions to the contract. The negotiations with the publisher were difficult for me because the contract clearly stated in many ways and in many places that Skyhorse would have full control of the book’s size, price, color, layout, quality, etc. But they were ultimately able to assure me (through emails outside of the contract itself) that I would have the controls I needed over the book’s look and content. Still a bit hesitant but ready to move forward, I signed.
Now we had a deadline-- Labor Day.
The first hurdle was polishing “What The Rain Said,” the memoir manuscript. Once again, this proved more complicated in practice than it looked at first.
While Ron had done all he could do with the memoir, we both knew it needed a lot of editing and tightening up before being ready to be published. And, as Ron’s disease progressed, he could not always remember what he had written and sometimes would write sections again in different places. In the end, despite his wonderful, descriptive, captivating prose, the story needed an expert story editor to do their work for smooth flow. The many tangential stories that Ron included needed to be tamed into place or edited out. And, most importantly, the story was really not quite finished. Ron got close, but I didn’t find a closing or ending to the story that he had written.
It was difficult to find a writer/editor who could complete the project in our abbreviated time frame. After some searching, I did start out with one. This person had actually worked in our kitchens and had a long connection with our family and was very excited to be involved. But life got in the way. With just weeks to go before the publisher’s deadline, she introduced me to a couple in California who used to live in Seattle and who were willing and able to take it on.
Schuyler Ingle and Joyce Thompson did a phenomenal job. They were able to turn a disjointed collection of stories into a smooth line. At the same time, we had a stroke of luck: I found another file in Ron’s computer with 15-20 pages that Ron had written that would serve as the conclusion for the memoir. It was feeling very familiar, even now, for him to provide the perfect solution.