From draft to published: a collaboration

John Corrigan contacted us with a draft manuscript and a tight deadline for self-publishing his first book.

At the end of 2015, John didn’t have a notion of a book in him - by late May 2016 he was holding a physical copy in his hands. John specialises in leadership and organisational change, and wanted to create 'Optimising Time, Attention and Energy’ in order to tell the world about the coaching services of his business. It explores brain plasticity and the specific roles of the left and right sides of our brains - with the intention to manage our time, emotional responses and attention.

Given the book's content, we had the advantage of an organised (and pleasant!) client to work with.

This project was a great example of what we can achieve at A story to tell… with a team of writers and editors who have overlapping skills.

The manuscript started with a structural edit and copy edit by Nicola Dunnicliff-Wells; blurb, bio and acknowledgements written and edited by Ann Bolch; a proofread by Heather Kelly; page layout, typeset and book design suggestions by Lu Sexton; and finally self-publishing through IngramSpark, managed by John.

“The good thing about having an editor for a typesetter is they can spot missed opportunities,” Lu wrote in an email to us. “It also makes the page proofs/taking in corrections process very efficient. I proofed, took in corrections and sent marked-up PDF to the author in under 6 hours within a 24-hour turnaround.”

This is a collaboration that we are all proud of - and we've learnt a lot about our brains in the process!