Author’s Copies!

Happy Birthday to me!  Guess what arrived on my birthday?   Author’s copies.

This was probably one of the hardest books to research.  I landed the job not long after President Trump won the election.  A Google search on “electoral college” returned tons of links but I knew that most of the material would be unusable.  My editors wanted a balanced historic take on this American institution.  I had to go deep enough to unearth articles written by political scientists.

Another tough thing about this type of topic is going beyond your own take on it.  I’m a political liberal.  Theorists on that side of the divide mark the College as racist and pro-Slavery.  As I read further, I uncovered material that discussed balance.  Was that just the Conservative party line?  I had to read further to find out.

I did a good job explaining the why of the college but my editor asked me to cut some of the history and bring in more of what was going on now.  I had achieved liberal vs conservative balance but not done as good a job with then vs now balance.

I have to say that I’m really happy with how this book turned out.  I learned a lot and I think I managed to present a complete picture that isn’t weighted too heavily one direction or the other.  The publisher has also done a good job with the book design.

The interior is clean and easy to read.  That’s a big one.  Some publishers tend to get carried away with special features, graphics and sidebars.  There’s almost too much to see.  They also don’t do a good job choosing images or they use low resolution images that look pixellated on the page.

Yes, yes.  It is my book baby so I may be a little biased but still?  I’m really happy with it.

–SueBE