Somehow i expected when the draft finished, things would take off. Teams of copyeditors and illustrators would arrive, pick up my work and run with it.

NOT HOW IT WORKS.

As far as I can tell, I’m just one of many books that gets published. And for everyone that works at a publisher, each book is just a book. Not a life’s work. Not a special dream. Not a work of art or vision. It’s just one of 50 books that they’ll touch in a year.

So there’s no one waiting for my draft. My work is just one more in an endless series of books these folks will produce in their book publishing careers. Even if they love books, even if they love reading books, the nature of book production doesn’t give them much of a chance to express that love in the actual making of books.

So my draft is sitting around, waiting for the publishing process to be ready for it. I probably could have had another few weeks on the schedule, and it wouldn’t have impacted the publication process at *all*. I think like most industries, anything that arrives on 11/01/04, just before thanksgiving, doesn’t see the light of day until 01/05/05.