Ana Libri Press was established to publish
The Mystery Box, a trade book in three formats: hard cover, soft cover, and
pre-publication marketing edition. It also includes a content rich
companion website of the same name,
themysterybox.com.
My principle role was project manager and technical content provider. As project manager, which in the writing arena is called "publisher",
was to bring to bring to reality the writer's vision. The collaboration was intense as blending fiction, non-fiction, and complementary
illustrations for over 25 short stories can be challenging. A project plan was an essential tool, providing a road map that envisioned the "end from the beginning".
A Microsoft Project schedule was used for the entire process: design, production, marketing, and launch phases.
Bricks and mortar bookstore shelf space is critical to marketing and a prize that
The Mystery Box book received from Barnes
and Noble early in the pre-publication cycle. Several marketing campaigns were launched, including press releases, flyers, and author readings, for
which I produced the marketing, presentation, and souvenir materials.
Second only to working with the writer, the publisher project manager is responsible for coordinating all aspects of the book's printing needs, which spans proofs, reading copies, soft and hard cover versions (and, eventually, on-line versions), as well as marketing materials from concept through launch.
As technical communicator, I served as
- Production Designer
- Developmental and substantive editor
- Copywriter
- Indexer
- Production manager, and
- Marcom writer.
Adobe PageMaker and Photoshop were used for book production and image
processing. A key design driver was the combination of fictional
stories, illustrated with lovely images from world-wide stamps, along with
non-fiction epilogues that touched on the exotic and inspirational story
settings.
End products consisted of overall design for three book versions: reading
copy, soft trade paperback, and hard cover. Content production ranged from
book cover and book jacket designs, including copy; interior design, layout,
and copy for elements such as front matter, chapter presentation, and back matter;
selection of fonts, story transitions,
and
illustrations; and full text indexing.