When I was approached back in 2021 by Search Press Books, a long-established publisher of art and craft books, I’m sure you can imagine my excitement – and when they asked me to write a book on linocut printing, I was well up for the challenge!
Since I had never written a book before, the prospect of producing a full-blown manuscript, complete with ten specially designed and made linocut printing projects was pretty daunting! Fast-foward to 2024 and I can scarcely believe that the long wait until I finally get to hold that first copy in my hands is so close to becoming a reality…
If you’d have told me back in 2021 exactly what will be involved, with the hard work and long hours I’d need to put in before the book was completed, I’m sure I’d have thought you were exaggerating! Don’t get me wrong, writing this book is up there with my most exciting achievments to date – but the amount of work that goes into producing a book like this – not only by the author (me!), but the whole team at the publishers – my lovely editor Emily, Mark the photographer and Juan the designer to name but three – is quite mind-blowing.
Designing and making the ten projects was the really fun and creative part – after all, this is what I do – so I was fairly well in my comfort zone. Writing was enjoyable and submitting the finished manuscript was very satisfying! However, this was by no means the end of the book-producing process…
There followed a rather gruelling (but oddly enjoyable) week-long photoshoot, during which every stage of each project had to be photographed…and then the proof-reading…oh yes, the proof-reading…thankfully, the whole responsibility of the proof-reading didn’t fall solely on me! It was certainly a red letter day when I went to Search Press’s offices to approve the final colour proofs and my book finally went off to print!
Now it’s 2024 and time to receive my first advance copy – I really cannot wait!! “Nature Imprinted” will be released on 31st March 2024 and is available for preorder now.
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