Hello!
Sorry about missing my monthly update in August. I got sidetracked with work on FPSDoc, The Life & Times of Video Games, and The Secret History of Mac Gaming Expanded Edition.
Since my last update I've gone through the notes, comments, corrections, and suggestions from the development editor. I made loads of revisions that improved the flow and clarity of the manuscript, and at the editor's suggestions I added some subheadings to better signpost the text as you read through the chapters.
I also wrote a glossary of key terms and drafted the "developer spotlights" that we promised in one of the stretch goals. I hope both will provide helpful context you can refer back to as and when needed.
At the moment I believe we're going through copyediting, or subediting, which is where a professional editor with a great command of grammar and excellent attention to detail carefully checks the manuscript to ensure consistency in style and spelling (both within the book and according to the publisher's own style guide), to fix any outstanding flow or clarity issues, and to double-check that names and terminology have been used correctly.
Then next we'll move on to the fun part (for me), which is where the designer does the typesetting (text layout and design), visual design, and image layout. I consider this the fun part because a) I get an excuse to spend more time playing these old games for the purpose of taking screenshots and b) I get to see my manuscript turn into an actual book. There probably won't be as many images as in my previous book, due to budgetary constraints, but that bit will still take a while, and I'll be sure to let you know when we're up to it and give updates on how it progresses.
If any of you have visual material that you'd like to offer up for possible inclusion in the book, now would be a good time to mention it. I have some things already, but I would be delighted to have more material to draw from. You'll be credited in the book for anything you provide that gets used. Some examples of what I mean:
- high-resolution photos/scans of game packaging and other marketing material
- behind-the-scenes documents and photos (though if they're not yours I'd need to seek permission from the owner) such as design sketches, pictures of programmers at work, letters and memos to potential/current business partners, etc
- screenshots
- shareware catalogues and compilations
- anything else that's interesting/cool and relevant — if you show/tell me what it is, I'll let you know if I think it might be a fit
(If I interviewed you for the book, I'll be in touch about this in the coming weeks.)