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| Sunday, 1 September 2002 |
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Hassles of book publishing by Therese Motha It took me a long time to make up my mind. Should I put together 200 of my articles that had appeared over a period of twelve years 1986 to 1997 in a book? Readers kept ringing me asking me to do so. I felt I had an obligation to these my fans. After all, I thought to myself, if Sir Winston Churchill wrote "A History of the English Speaking Peoples" when he was 82, I took courage and thought to myself "Why not?" And besides, "To stay youthful, stay useful" I remembered reading somewhere. At last, on May 1st, 2000, I had made the decision. On May 3rd, I sent all the articles to be photocopied as a first step. Then began the laborious task of eliminating recipes and snippets of information in those articles that had been repeated over those twelve years, whilst still keeping to the format of a weekly diary. All this took me many weeks. It was the beginning of October before I handed in my manuscript to the publishers (having first agonised over the decision "Who should be the publishers?"). They told me on the phone that normally they do two proofs and in exceptional cases, a third, but maybe because my book was exceptionally large, (456 pages) I had to do as many as 6 proof readings. The first proofs were brought to me on November 15. During December 2000, January 2001 and February 2001 I was proof reading at nights till midnight at least 4 times a week. Then on February 25, I had an attack of vertigo, which, the doctor said, could be the result of loss of sleep. The second proofs were brought to me in February, the third in March and the fourth in April. Comprehensive In late March, I started work on the Index, which was a very comprehensive one indeed. That took me almost two months to complete. On the 10th of May, when I was handing over the 6th and final proofs, I discovered a few instances of repetition, but by then, I was so tired of proof reading that I was in no mood to delay it any further. The proof reading that I was in no mood to delay it any further. The proof of the cover was okayed on 15 May, and on May 23, one thousand copies of "Cabbages and Things" were delivered at our house. If not for the gentle proddings of my son-in-law who kept asking me every few days, "Mummy, have you finished?" and the combined help of the rest of the family, this book may not have seen the light of day. In the nine months that have passed since the publishing of my book, I have been receiving phone calls practically at the rate of one a day from delighted readers, both known and unknown, male as well as female. One reader said she keeps the book near the TV and reads it when the commercials come on. Another said it is on her bedside table, ready to be read as she gets into bed, but sometimes she finds that her husband is engrossed in the book, and chances of reading that night are nil. A bachelor friend of my daughter and son-in-law whose work place is in Anuradhapura came home one day and went into raptures about the book for a full 45 minutes. One caller asked whether I was a doctor because I had written so much on health topics, while another caller wanted to know whether I was a nutritionist since I had stressed nutrition so much. Another caller said it was permanently on her pantry shelf, as she has to refer to the cookery hints or the recipes practically every day. A doctor rang and commented "A very unusual book - quite out of the ordinary." A family of four told me they keep the book on a shelf in the toilet, so that each of them can refer to it when they go in there. One housewife said "Now I can throw away all the newspaper cuttings of your articles that I collected over the years, because now it is all there in one book." Practically everyone who bought a book, came back a second time to buy another to give as a gift. There were two women who each bought ten books to give as gifts. Now in the evening of my life, when I look back on the many nights that I burned the midnight oil till one a.m., proof reading, while the rest of the house was asleep, I feel that it has certainly been worthwhile. All the hours I spent garnering snippets of information have not been in vain I feel. To know that the knowledge contained in that book has enriched the lives of others is indeed a humbling thought. And now the latest. An E Mail from my brother-in-law in the States "Why don't you think of writing another book - this time on the Bharathas of Sri Lanka?" That proposition indeed merits careful consideration. Will it bring on another attack of vertigo? Let me think it over. |
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