Dear Supporters. It’s time for a somewhat belated progress report…
The last time I wrote to you all was back in April. I feel a bit guilty that I’ve not been keeping you up to date as much as I had hoped to do since then.
The good news, however, is that my lack of updates is because I have been so incredibly busy working on the book!
The three and a half months since the book was 100% funded by your generous pledges have been a period of almost continuous work. If there’s one thing I hadn’t fully appreciated at the outset it was just how much project management is involved in dealing with a large number of contributors to an anthology. My life is dominated by a huge spreadsheet full of dates and ticks and numbers.
I’m pleased to say that this phase of the book’s development is now nearing the end though. All but two of the contributors’ second drafts are now in the main manuscript, chapters have been juggled and I’ve written the editorial backbone to the book. When those last two chapters are received (hopefully later this week) the manuscript will have been assembled, along with some amazing photos and cuttings. The whole thing tells an amazing story.
In other news, we decided to update the original working title and opted instead for the somewhat snappier name ‘Trans Britain’. Finalising the title meant we could also sort out the cover art too. We'll share the final artwork for the book cover in due course. All I'll say for now is that it is VERY striking and benefits from a lot of feedback we received on some initial (and now discarded) ideas.
So all-in-all I’m quite pleased with the way the project is progressing. There are still some steps before I can hand over a completed manuscript to Unbound, but I now know that this will be on time and it will be a cracking read! Being on schedule means the book should be in the shops in time for LGBT History Month 2018 (my ambition all along) and you should be receiving your special editions some weeks before that.
Incidentally, my work doesn’t stop when I hand over the manuscript. In fact, if anything, it becomes more intense. Producing a high quality book with a professional publisher takes many steps — which is what your pledges are funding. There are several rounds of professional editing (which feels a bit scary to be honest) and many other processes that I don’t even yet fully understand. Still, that’s what the people at Unbound are there to do — and they’re really excited by this project. They want it to be as good as I do.
More updates in due course, but I hope this one will reassure you that I’ve not forgotten you’re there. I’m working hard on the book you said you wanted.
Best wishes
Christine Burns