A History of Mevagissey by Liz Hurley
Well, all bar the sweeping up and a bit of publicity, my book is done. It is written and published and yet here I sit feeling concerned and deflated. When it launched as a digital version over the weekend I was nervous but began to receive some lovely feedback. As nice as that was there was a large part of me that wondered if they were just being nice. Rubbish, I know. But still.
Then the physical version arrived and as I unpacked the book I looked at it and thought. Oh. Is that it? I knew it was only 72 pages but still, until you are holding a thing the penny doesn’t properly drop. A year’s work for this!
You see non-fiction, real non-fiction is tough. Up until now, all I have written have been columns, essays, I just opened my brain and let the scribbles pour out, nothing was incorrect as it was simply my opinions and observations. Admittedly I have to try to master grammar, punctuations and spellings, not my best friends, but beyond that, anything goes. But a History, well that is all about Facts and facts are the bedrock of the entire book.
I have had to go back to primary sources to verify facts and discovered that some aren’t true at all. I have confirmed until I was blue in the face, then when I discovered an error it took months to try and work out what the actual truth was and where the alternative history started. Then, of course, there were the events where there were no records, those damn saints! So I would have to extrapolate, summon my educated opinion or in other words, guess.
Finally, after all those longs months, I had to try and put it into words that were readable and engaging without being too dry, dreary, long winded or overly chatty. I failed on the overly chatty front. For many years my tutors lamented on my academic voice and it would seem that I never mastered it. Having written the book, it then had to be proofed and re-proofed (and re-proofed) and then I worked with artists, typesetters, printers and a whole array of very talented professionals that all helped turn my endeavour into an actual book.
So, I sat there holding my chatty book, my slim book and I thought, Oh. That’s what a year of work looks like? And then I think people will look at that and not understand why £5.99 seems a reasonable price to me.
Ah well, publish and be damned.
Also available in Hurley Books, Mevagissey and more retailers as I get my act in gear.
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All posts are written by Liz Hurley, author of SCRIBBLES FROM THE EDGE and LOSING IT IN CORNWALL These two books are collections of her columns, written for the Cornish Guardian. They available from Amazon as e-books or paperbacks as well as from Hurley Books.
