Making a book is quite an endeavor. I went into my current book project with little knowledge about the book-making process. I had done the Untangled self-published book so I had some idea that lay-out and having something printed isn’t quite as easy as it sounds. But I’ve never created a 300+ page how-to book before. My eyes have been opened over the last year in sometimes startling ways.

So far I’ve learned these lessons (at least that I’m willing to admit to):

If you get a contract for a book that you haven’t written yet, start immediately. Open the contract, deposit the advance in a place you won’t spend it,* then open your computer or notebook and start organizing how you’re going to write it. Because it is going to take every second you have to create that manuscript. I diddled around for three months before starting, then spent about a month “organizing” myself before really getting down to business. That left me seven months to write the thing. It wasn’t enough time.
Publishers can be nice about an author misjudging how long it will take to write the thing because of the folly described in #1. Ask for an extension, but be prepared to sweat if you don’t get it. I got half the length extension I asked for and then I worked my ass off to meet it. Which I totally did. Publishers have deadlines to meet, so this was not unreasonable at all.
The photoshoot will consume your life. Getting ready for it can take your whole summer, especially if you have to make everything that has to be photographed.
When you tell your friends who have written similar fiber books that you’ll be basically done with the project after the photoshoot and they laugh at you, pay attention. They’re right. I came home from the photoshoot on September 23rd and haven’t stopped working on the book since. I have another week of work on the final things to be photographed and then a bunch more details and edits. It isn’t done until the final pages are okayed.**
Sample pages are SO MUCH FUN! I got those this week. It is just a peek at what the creative director and editor are thinking about the layout. This is going to be such a pretty book. I’m thrilled to be working with such a talented team of people. #lucky
This might be the most important one. When you sign a book contract, clear your schedule for an entire year because that is how long it takes. One. Full. Year.*** Otherwise you’re doing two full time jobs. Ask me how I know.

The photoshoot for my book with Storey Publishing went well. It was a lot of fun to get a peek of how the inside of a publishing house works. I met so many wonderful people and the team I’m working with is outstanding. (A HUGE thank you to Michal, Michaela, and Mars. I privately call them the 3Ms.)

This spreadsheet ruled the shoot. We each had one. I was coloring the photos that were done with pink highlighter. At the end, most of the lines were pink.

The photoshoot did not, however, go as I expected it to. First of all, we didn’t allow enough days. It is a guess how long it’ll take to shoot a book. We guessed 7 days. The publisher of course knows how long photographs generally take, but they don’t necessarily know how long it takes to prep photos for tapestry. Storey creates DIY books about all kinds of things. Some subjects take a lot longer to get photographs for than others. We ended up adding three days to the shoot for 10 days total. And we mostly finished. On that last Saturday I was so tired, I took some of the images off the list that didn’t need my hands in them because I didn’t have anything left to do the weaving and I knew I could mail a couple looms and the photographer could take the photos later.

We started with a huge spreadsheet with the hundreds of photos in the book listed. The editor had divided them into photos that needed to be shot overhead and ones that were from the front. This was to try to minimize the time spent resetting the lights and camera, but it did mean that we were jumping all over the book to take the shots. A few times I lost my place but a quick glance at the text usually was enough for me to figure out what I had originally intended with a photo. I was really glad that I made the original illustration list and had taken the time to put sample photos into the manuscript. Those sample photos, some of which I wove specifically to have reference shots even though I knew we’d take the photos again, saved my bacon when I was so tired I couldn’t think straight. Trying to figure out how to demonstrate the edge treatments in pick and pick when your brain isn’t working well is not fun. Sample photos saved me.

Checking each photo for accuracy and focus.

A lot of the time was this sort of thing. The camera is connected to this computer and Michal, my editor, and I would study each shot as it was taken and decide whether it showed what the text said it showed. I was grateful for Michal’s insistence on studying this carefully because the more tired I got, the less I cared. But I would care later, so I’m happy to say she held us to the highest standard because the photos are beautiful. Some time was spent getting tails out of the way, rearranging yarn with tweezers to make sure the viewer can see which way it is traveling, and picking fuzz off the surface of the weaving. I have a high fuzz tolerance, but Michal and Mars did not (thankfully, especially for those very clear macro shots!).

It was fun to see how the creative director on the project worked her magic. There were a lot of photos that I wasn’t involved in because they’re beauty shots like the one below and I can’t wait to see the actual book pages to see how she is using them. If the sample pages are any indication, they’re going to be wonderful.

Project creative director Michaela working her magic.

The photoshoot was exhausting for me. I was pretty tired when I finished teaching at Penland for two weeks, but I think I was more tired at the end of the two weeks of the photoshoot. That is because after being at the publishers 9-10 hours a day, I went back to my hotel and prepped the weaving for the next day. That was 2-4 more hours of work every night which drastically cut into my usual 9 hours of sleep. The photo below left was one of the last nights. I decided to watch the first Hobbit movie^ while weaving this little piece. I can no longer remember what the piece was demonstrating, but you’ll undoubtedly see it in the book. It takes the full length of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey to weave something that large at 8 epi on a pipe loom. (And that is soda in that glass, not wine. I was tired, but not drunk.)^^

I ended up staying 8 different places on this trip of almost three weeks. Eight. I was grateful for a large rental car which allowed me to organize materials and belt in looms and a sewing machine and for the staff at Storey who immediately found me a new hotel after the one I had to move to in the middle of one week was super creepy.

Storey Publishing is in North Adams, Massachusetts in the same building as Mass MOCA (a huge modern art museum). Throughout the shoot I was hoping for some time to wander through the Mass MOCA galleries but it never happened. There was always another weaving to finish at night and I was simply too tired by the end of it. The music festival Freshgrass was happening at the museum the last three days I was in town and I had not enough energy to fight the crowds through that. So another day I will spend some time wandering this museum. I was able to visit briefly when I was at Storey in 2018 so I definitely know what I was missing.

At the end of all of that, even stumbling with fatigue off the shuttle from Denver home, I managed to say that I’d do it again. Because I would. I would do a few things differently next time, but the experience overall was positive. The team was good-hearted and in all that time, there wasn’t one moment of drama.^^^

Sure, I’d do it again.

In about five years.

*Just because you never know. If you have to return the money for some reason, better to still have it. But I’m a little conservative with money that way.

**And when that day comes, I am definitely celebrating.

***One full year without pay. Books don’t pay much at all unless you’re at the top of the NY Times best seller list. They are useful for other reasons however and I don’t regret doing this project.

^Too many orcs, Peter Jackson! I’ll have to read the book again soon, especially after seeing the Tolkien tapestries in France which I will tell you more about soon!

^^Tiny beater by Threads Thru Time, because someone will ask.

^^^Okay, maybe I created one moment of drama about that creepy, empty, pot-smelling bed and breakfast one day, but other than that, no drama.

The photoshoot: making a book

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