I finished updating the third book of four -- Using AutoCAD 2006: Basics for Autodesk Press.
Can you say, "Worn out?" Good, I knew you could.
I may have finished updating the 960-page book for AutoCAD 2006, but I'm not yet finished with it. I'm waiting on copy editor Stephen Dunning and technical editor Bill Fane to complete their work.
Once I get back the marked-up pages from them, I have to enter their suggested changes, a process that takes several days. When I think that a typical page has 4-5 corrections, and the total number of pages -- I'm looking at four or five thousand corrections! Ouch...
After the corrections are done, I generate the toc (table of contents), and then from the toc, the index. That usually takes a day.
The final step is to generate the PDF file from the PageMaker document. That can take a half-day, if Distiller pukes on the .PS files output by PageMaker. (They're all from Adobe; why can they just play together nicely?)
The final, final step is to ftp the 35MB PDF file to the Autodek Press Web site. The staff there looks over the file, checking for last-minute problems. The printer also checks to see if he can work with the file. Eventually the book is printed.
It takes about six weeks from me submitting the final PDF to the books arriving in the warehouse. By the time I receive my half-dozen, complimentary author copies, I'll have forgotten what I've written. No kidding.
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