Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 208

A few months back, the marketing department at the University Press of Kentucky had me fill out a lengthy questionnaire which included providing names of appropriate people who would be willing to provide quotes about the Ann Dvorak book for the back cover and publicity purposes. I was informed by two of those people yesterday that UPK contacted them and sent along a copy of the manuscript.

At this point, Ann Dvorak: Hollywood’s Forgotten Rebel  has only been read by a handful of people, three of who are close friends. Even though the two authors who were contacted yesterday are also friends, it’s still nerve wracking knowing that this book I have been working on for an inordinate amount of time is making it’s way out into the world. I finished re-reading it yesterday, and am going to give it a second go, just to make sure I caught all the errors. There are a few things I wish I could go back and do different, but we’re past the point of no return and it’s full steam ahead. Overall, I think it turned out quite well and the time has finally come to find out if others agree.

Year of Ann Dvorak: 205

If you watched yesterday’s video, you would have seen the grand unveiling of the hard copy proofs of the Ann Dvorak manuscript. If you didn’t watch, you basically missed me opening a box with a large stack of paper in it. But, what does that large stack of paper mean?

It means two things. First, I need to read the entire book and keep an eye out for any grammatical errors or factual ones that I may have previously missed. I spent the better part of yesterday re-reading the manuscript. At first I was apprehensive. It’s been a few months since I looked at it, and I was fearful that I would hate it. However, for the sake of sounding egotistical, I have to say that it’s a pretty good read and I’m damn proud of it.

There were two copies of the book in that box, and the second copy is for compiling an index. That’s right, I am responsible for compiling an index or hire a professional indexer for roughly $3,000. This was the part of the process I was truly dreading. Fortunately, one of my colleagues at the library who also happens to be one of my dearest friends is a cataloger with an affinity for things like indexes and offered to help. By helping, she actually meant compiling the whole index herself which she has been slamming through. Amusingly, she frequently thanks me for letting her do this, when I should actually be kissing the ground she walks on. For all the crazy Ann Dvorak has sometimes brought into my life, there has also been some outstanding people holding my hand along the way.

Once these two tasks are done, I think that’s it in terms of my involvement in the production of the book. However, I’ve got marketing and more marketing in my future, so the hard work is just beginning.

Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 204

Just to mix things up a bit, today’s post is a video. My husband shot it, so any quality or framing complaints should be directed towards him.

Enjoy!

Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 142

After a crazy week of going through all the items in the Ann Dvorak personal collection and revising the manuscript, I am happy to report that the revisions are done and approved, and everything has been sent to the designer.

I really have to hand it to the University Press of Kentucky for being so accommodating. Even though we were down to the wire, my copy editor didn’t think twice about having me incorporate the new information, which meant revising four chapters. She even had me write a preface to discuss some of the craziness I have encountered because of Ann. Fortunately, the materials in the collection tightened up the timeline of Ann’s final years and gave some great personal insight, allowing me to eliminate a lot of speculation in the last chapter.

I didn’t even bother to ask about using any of the photos because I was sure it was too late. Instead, they asked me if I wanted to use any of them. Since the price point for the book had already been set based on 69 photos, I could not add any, but was able to swap out some of the others. What I ended up using from the personal collection was four photos from the honeymoon scrapbook, one of Ann and her mother in 1969, and one of Ann taken five months before her death. The previous selections that were eliminated were all studio-issued photos, so no candids were sacrificed.

Even though the last week has been nuts and I am sick and tired of  working on this book, I am thrilled to have been able to tie up some loose ends and include a summary of Ann’s life in her own words. I always thought this book took an embarrassingly long time to finish, but in the end it really took as long as it needed to take.  Had it been scheduled to come out even a week earlier, these new finds, which are significant, would not have made it in. At this point, I honestly think the book is about as perfect as I could possibly make it – until it’s released and an avalanche of new info cascades on top of me.

Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 135

Ann Dvorak was not an easy subject to research for a full-length biography. She did not have children or any other close family members at the time of her death and did not leave behind personal papers to a research institution. I had to put her life together piece by piece which sometimes seemed like an impossible task, especially for her later years. All along I have been repeatedly told, “Just wait until the book comes out and then people will come out of the woodwork with info about Ann.” I figured this would be true, but did not expect for a bombshell to be dropped on me before the release date.

Three weeks after I submitted my final draft to the publisher, I received a cryptic message from someone claiming to have Ann’s possessions. My first reaction was, “yeah right,” especially when this person said that the contents included a large number of photos of Ann with Howard Hughes. They were not forthcoming with details, and for someone who was interested in selling the stuff, it was like pulling teeth to get any info out of them. Finally, I was able to determine that what this person had was a scrapbook of photos from Ann’s 1932 honeymoon. So, the man in the images was not Howard Hughes, but Leslie Fenton. The contents also included letters from a friend, routine papers like cancelled checks and bank statements, along with Ann’s journal. In other words, it was a collection of items I had been dreaming of finding for over a decade.

Well, this person was giving me such a hard time that I had to turn the matter over to a close friend who is also an agent and deals with difficult people all the time. It took two months, but the package finally came on Monday and even though not everything I was promised was there, the bulk of it is. The journal was misrepresented, as it’s only one entry from 1977, but there is an Ann Dvorak-sums-up-her-life quote, which is very insightful. It’s really the photo scrapbook that is a crown jewel. Dozens and dozens of photos, like the one above, of a young and vibrant Ann, madly in love, and seeing the world for the first time. That she held onto these photos for 30 years after the marriage ended and until her dying day speaks volumes about how powerful these memories were.The price I agreed on was far less than the $5,000 they asked for, but way more than the stuff was worth. However, the thought of Ann’s honeymoon album rotting in the trunk of this person’s car broke my heart, so I caved.

The good news is that my copy editor is awesome and invested in the book, so she’s working with me to squeeze in the additional information from Ann’s final years. I thought we were passed the point of no return on the photos, but I just found out that I can include these, though will have to sacrifice some of my previous choices to keep the photo count at 69. I think it’s worth it though.

If this is what’s going to happen pre-pub, I hate to think of what’s in store once the book comes out!

Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 130

I am wrapping up the approval of copyedits which has included re-looking up over 30 articles on microfilm to verify bylines and headlines. Last night I was pulling my hair out trying to find two articles that I had cited incorrectly. I finally found them and am just about ready to send off the approvals. Now, I need to wait for the galleys, and when they arrive I will engage in the fun and exciting task of compiling an index.

While I was waiting for the corrections, I enlisted the aid of my friend Heidi Ryder who happens to be a fantastic photographer. She agreed to take some author photos, one of which will be used on the dust jacket of the book. We did some with and without glasses, smiling or not smiling, and I thought the above image was the winner.

Heidi has also been toying with starting a blog about collectors, and since I already had fake eyelashes on, I agreed to be her guinea pig. It was her idea to suspend photos of Ann from the ceiling, which as you can imagine, was a royal pain and they kept falling down. It was also Heidi’s idea to have me posed with my photos like a teenager with her record collection.

Considering I hate having my photo taken these days, I am happy with how they turned out. It helps to know talented people.

Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 124

The past two weeks, I have been going through corrections made by the copy editor assigned to the Ann Dvorak book. Proofreading is not my strong suit, so I am in awe of anyone with the patience to copy-edit a 100,000+ word manuscript. Since this is my first book, and I have the tendency to abuse commas and under use periods, I appreciate having an expert set of eyes to tighten things up.

What I didn’t expect was for her to be so on her game that she would point out a bunch of citations from newspapers where I failed to note the headlines and bylines. When I first started working at L.A.’s Central Library in 2006, my lunch breaks for the first six months were spent glued to the microfilm machines. I poured over Los Angeles newspapers until my eyes crossed, looking for any mention of Ann. I found a lot of items in the Hollywood columns and just printed out the portion discussing Ann, which means I ended up with a few citations without headlines and bylines. By a few, I mean there were thirty. That’s right, I started this week off with a list of thirty undigitized articles I needed to find the “old fashioned” way.

So, the last couple of days I have been reliving my early years as a librarian with a stack of microfilm by my side and eyeballs ready to start bleeding. My advice to any of you contemplating writing a non-fiction book – get the citations right the first time!

Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 109

The University Press of Kentucky’s Fall/Winter Catalog is now available, featuring – you guessed it – Ann Dvorak: Hollywood’s Forgotten Rebel. It’s on page four, and it’s awesome.

The full catalog can be viewed here.

Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 103

The Biography Progress Reports keep coming fast and furious, which is great considering how few and far between they were when I first started posting them almost four years ago. There are a few minor things to report.

First off, I was contacted by the designer/typesetter this week who laid out what to expect in the coming months. A copy editor has been assigned to the book and will be looking it over for spelling/grammar/style more so than content. I should be getting those corrections in about two weeks, and fingers crossed they are minimal. Once I approve the corrections, the revised manuscript will be sent to the designer who will lay it all out.

Next, a full description of the book is now posted on the University Press of Kentucky’s website. It is not showing up on Amazon yet, which still is just displaying bare bones, but I would imagine it is only a matter of time. I did not write this description, though I did have final approval on it. Still, it’s bizarre to have someone else writing about this book I had been working on for over a decade. I’m not sure I will ever get used to the fact that this thing is really out of my hands and out in the world.

Finally, the book is now available for pre-order on the Amazon UK site, though the discount is currently a mere .17 pence. Oh, and for the library crowd, Ann Dvorak: Hollywood’s Forgotten Rebel is now available through Baker & Taylor!

More news soon for sure! (Oh, and I can’t get enough of this cover, so expect to see it pop up on multiple posts.)