A few weeks ago, I officially began working to finish Book 3 of the Palmetto Pioneers series. Though I hadn’t planned to begin editing until March, I started early because I had new material which needed to be incorporated into the story.

Because people have asked about the steps needed to bring it all into a landing, I thought I would share my formula.

The Palmetto Pioneers Series

This award-winning series of three books, and there will only be three in this series, is based on historical evidence; and because it was so long ago when all of this happened, that evidence continues to surface as people digitize their resources. The new information I found did not change the story, but it expands on happenings within the story.

For those who have read none of the series, it is the life of Mary Adeline Walker. It is nonfiction. She came to this area of North Florida in 1829 as a seven-year-old girl. The series follows her life until 1871, six years after the Civil War. All three books follow Mary’s life in Florida’s history, and she, through her husband, has a front-row seat.

The Third Book in the Series—Yankees in the Courthouse

The time period for this book is 1862-1871. The Civil War began in 1861, and Florida was the third state to secede from the nation and join the Confederacy. Eighteen seventy-one is six years after the war. The story follows Mary and her husband William as they try to hold their family and community together throughout the rest of the Civil War and through reconstruction afterward.

I titled this book “Yankees in the Courthouse” because Monticello with its large freedman population, became militarily occupied after the war.

Editing

Editing is a problem for me because my biggest weakness is my overuse of words. I use superfluous words—sometimes, more than a thousand per chapter. But there is much more editing to be done than this. And there are different editors that help me.

Overall Editing – I do this myself using online help from apps such as Grammarly, ProWritingAid, etc. But mainly this is when I fix my biggest weakness. I weed out all the extra words. I fix my sentence structure, and I look for awkward sentences which need to be rewritten. I take my time and give myself a full week for each chapter. I read and reread each chapter eight or ten times. I do this before anyone else gets to see my writing.

Content Editing—This is where I ask myself—how do I know my information is correct? And I like to turn to experts for this answer.

A Family Editor—Because this is a family story with lots of family still living in or near this county, I used a family editor. I chose a distant cousin who is in his 90s and who still lives in the county where our family first settled. In fact, my family editor is now 99 years old. I chose him because he had done some of our family genealogy himself. I figured he would find the mistakes I made in recalling our family’s lore.

A Local Editor—I looked for someone who knew the local history, and our county’s local historian offered to help with the first two books in the series. She once owned the local newspaper with her husband, so she was perfect. Sadly, though, for this book, I will have to find someone else. She passed away just before Christmas.

A State History Editor—Because the first book in the series centered on our state’s earliest history, I asked a historian friend from Tallahassee to read and edit it. The second book, though, centered on the Civil War, secession, and the first year of the war. So I knew I needed a Civil War Editor for Book 2, instead of an overall state history editor.

A Civil War Editor—I asked a friend who I’ve known since we were young to help. He has written many books on the Civil War, including Florida in the Civil War, and many consider him an expert on the subject. I knew if I made a mistake, he would let me know. Incidentally, he found some in Book 2.

Full Read Through—After these editors finish and I incorporate their suggestions, I do a full read through – from cover to cover out loud. I did Book 1 in Thomasville, and it took me three days. Book 2, I did at the coast. No plans yet for where I will do Book 3, but I will go off somewhere alone.

Final Editor—I pay for this one. I pay a friend who charges 2 cents a word. This edit is for final printing, so you need someone who understands the printing process, too. She likes to work in the Chicago Style, so I follow her lead. Chicago Style follows guidelines such as 1-inch margins on all sides, double-spaced texts, indention of new paragraphs by 1/2 inch, etc.

Making the Final Manuscript 

After I incorporate my final editor’s changes, I set the manuscript in a Word document. I clean it up, making sure all pictures are set correctly on the page and making sure I follow standard publishing guidelines. Then I convert it to a PDF format.

All these software companies want as many of us as possible to use their products, so there are all kinds of online tutorials to teach you how to use Word and PDF software. And most make it as simple as possible, because they don’t want you to leave and take your business elsewhere.

KDP Amazon 

Once I have a perfect PDF formatted document, I go online to KDP Amazon (Kindle Direct Publishing), which is the site for authors to publish on Amazon. By the way, when someone asks me who my publisher is, I learned I am it, not Amazon. In that blank, I write “self-published”. If they ask who I self-published with, the answer is Amazon.

After I download my manuscript, I have to download my cover.

Cover Design 

Sometime around June, I will ask my two cover experts (an artist and a graphic designer) to work on this part. One will give me a small painting for the scenery on the front cover. The other will take that painting, photograph it, and then use it to design Book 3’s cover (front, back, and spine) using KDP Amazon’s template. When I get the final cover back, after I’ve approved it, I download it on KDP Amazon. There are other parts to setting this up, but it will be too much detail for this blog post.

Order a Proof Copy—When I get the proof copy from Amazon (a copy of the book with a sash that says NOT FOR SALE), I do another full read-through. I try to do this read through like I read a novel. I just try to relax and enjoy it. Believe it or not, I will still find minor problems. After any changes made, I like to have one more person behind me do a final read through.

Last Read Through—This is the last time anyone sees it from cover to cover before the final print copy is approved. My high school English Composition teacher is that person. I know if she approves; it is perfect.

Publishing

I used Amazon but I have also used Lulu and there are many more out there that publish on demand. This means you can make a book and ask them to publish just one copy if you like. Or you can let your family know so they can order their copies directly. In short, Amazon is super simple to use, and you will not have a lot invested in books that people may or may not buy.

The book publishing part was easier than I ever imagined. Initially, I didn’t have a clue how to do it, but thank goodness I had Geechie Roe for a father. He was simply fearless in trying something new. He always said, “Can’t never could.” I believe Amazon is the easiest publishing platform of them all.

Also, thank goodness for Google. I googled the question, “How to publish my own book?” It provided blog posts and YouTube videos that showed me how.

Amazon offers several versions of my books. The first two books are now in audio, paperback, hardback, and ebook. However, I use other distributors, such as Barnes and Nobles Nook, Kobo, Ingram Distributors, and much more. Draft2Digital is a great service.

And I use local distributors, too. One can buy an autographed paperback copy at my local Chamber of Commerce, at local antique stores, in the Florida History Shops, and in several bookstores throughout the North Florida area. The autographed copies can only be bought at these retail shops.

Why did I Self-Publish Instead of Going Through a Publishing House?

I self-published because I wanted control over what I wrote. I did not want anyone creating problems for me from the politically correct crowd, which basically controls most of the publishing world. Even with that goal, it surprised me to find my grammar check’s repeated questions asking me if I wanted my pronouns to be gender neutral. Somehow, I don’t think it was a problem in the early 1800s.

So that is it. Now you know what my timeline will be throughout the remainder of this year. I am hoping to launch this book before Christmas.