The second edition is having troubles. Major troubles.
All the books I have done previously have had digital text and hard-copy pictures.
I wasn't prepared for using digital pictures, and I didn't listen to Tom Rea's instructions clearly enough--I instead tested the pictures in
The West Virginia Caver, which proved to be an inadequate test in this case. Pictures that are good enough for computer screens and computer printers are not good enough in quality for printed books--the bottom line is that l need tifs at at least 600 dpi, not lesser-quality jpgs. The pictures are thus being redone (and made into B&Ws), and the entire book may have to be reformatted. Anyway I having major troubles (oh, for the good old days of using hard-copy pictures!).
This is particularly painful because we didn't catch the problem until I sent out the manuscripts for the VERY last review. And now I have been knocked back to square one. That's painful when you think you have the finish line in sight.
I've previously been able to do everything in Word Perfect (
The West Virginia Caver, the Buckeye WVASS Bulletin, the Spring Creek monograph, the 2000 Guidebook, and the 2001 Pendleton County book), but WP can't handle the larger pictures files, so I have ordered InDesign and am going to try to learn that software in a hurry. (which may be impossible, because it is supposed to have one horrible learning curve). InDesign, by the way, is what Art Palmer did the 2009 Convention Guidebook with.
Of course, all of these books have only a small window when the described technology is "in date," so trying to fix the picture problem is letting the technology go "stale."
My original "hoped to have it out" was the Vermont convention; but I am not sure I can make that self-imposed deadline now.
I'm also working on a Grant County WVASS Bulletin, which I had completely formatted and almost done, and it is in the same "back to square one" boat.
And as a side note: I really thought the first chapter of the original
On Station clearly explained "how to survey."