I was scrolling through my social media the other day when I came across a post from an author who was planning the publication of her book. She wanted to book a graphic designer for next year, because she said the design would take at least two months.
Two months?? I screamed in my head. Two whole months? How? How can you spend that long on a book? And even more: what does your quote look like if you’re working for two months straight? I had so many questions, but no answers. I didn’t want to ask the author either. I didn’t want to offend anyone. But still… two months!
The next day, I finally received my client’s finished manuscript. I had been working on the illustrations for months, but the final text had been delayed again and again. And then it finally arrived.
“Can you have this finished by the end of the week?” the author asked.
Secretly, I thought: what’s so wrong with two months, anyway? But I smiled and said: “Sure, no problem.”
It was summertime. All my current assignments were waiting for client feedback, and no new projects had started yet. So on Monday morning, I jumped straight into this business book full of lists and tables. By Monday afternoon, the first draft was done. The author had asked me earlier how many pages it would be. Now I could tell him: 206 pages.
He called right away and promised to look at it that evening and send revisions the next day. I got his notes Tuesday evening, so on Wednesday morning I happily got back to work. By early afternoon, the final file was ready.
“I don’t know much about this…” he said.
(Thankfully, I do, I thought.)
“…but this is it?”
I nodded. “Yes, this is it. If you give it one more read-through just to check for anything unusual, then it can go to the printer.”
“Oh…” he said.
“Yes,” I confirmed.
After so much writing, editing, and rewriting, it might feel anticlimactic, but that’s how it works. In a day and a half, I can have a file ready for the printer. So… two months? If anyone can explain that to me, I’d really love to hear it.