David the designer didn’t know anything about rallying when we started this two years ago – he does now! But why five drafts you may wonder? The first draft is a rough layout with all the print and photographs with captions in place but the printer uses a system of ‘flow-text’. Each page is a template and the idea is you just paste, or ‘flow’ the whole text into the template. Fine in theory but when you start to add tables and photographs the text automatically adjusts itself but every time you add something, the ‘flow’ simply expands and you end up with ‘orphan’ words or jumbles where the text flows over a column, caption or heading.
David can manage this quite well but often needs someone who knows a bit about rallying and its technicalities to help him out and since he doesn’t know any one in the sport but me, he has little choice in the matter. So the first draft was tweaked and made to fit but that still upset a few lines and paragraphs in the second draft. There were fewer changes for the third draft and even fewer for the fourth and then I switched around some photos! Grrr! At least he’s still talking to me but the final draft has now been signed off.
Next step is the preparation of the printing plates from which I will get a finished copy of the book as it will appear in print, but not bound – it will come as a number of separate sheets with eight pages on each! That means another read through this weekend just to make sure that there have been no slip-ups when etching the plates.
It may sound awfy pernickety but that’s the nature of the task. David and Craig (the printer) know that and it’s a similar process for other books which they produce so I’m not their most difficult customer. Of course it would have been easier if I had sought a publishing company and just handed them the text and the foties but I wouldn’t have had the same control.
Anyway, that is where we’re at and hopefully still on course for publishing the new book in early November. Naturally I’ll keep you informed of the exact date.
As for the cover, well the decision has been made. The choice of Ken Wood for the 1980s book was dead easy, he won the title three times in that decade. Similarly the choice of Brian Lyall was equally appropriate for the 1990s as he uniquely won both the Scottish and ANCRO National Championship titles in the same year, 1997.
However, this latest book caused a wee bit of a headache. Two drivers each won the Scottish Championship twice during this ten year 2000s period, so which one to choose? Or should I put both pics on the front cover? As things turned out the choice was once again staring me in the face, it was just so bluidy obvious. Dohhhh!
Anyway, we’ll soon find out if you all agree – or not!!
