Steve Trek Publishing Process

Today I thought I would share the publishing process with you.  The Galapagos Islands Steve Trek Adventures is now just 90 days from being for sale to the public.  In fact I will have author copies within 3 weeks.  If you want an early copy email me at steve.trek.diveadventures@gmail.com   How did I get to this point?

Well, once I signed my contract with Tate Publishing the first step was getting in the queue of books being published.  It took about 3 months before actual work began with the publisher.  Once it started work was broken into month segments.  First was initial editing.  My editor read the manuscript and made typical corrections on spelling, grammar, plus gave me new ideas to improve the story and character development.   I found this very helpful and within the final book, Jenny’s character is much more robust than the original story.   I rewrote sections of the manuscript based on the editor feedback, reread the story and made additional changes to enhance the it further.  Next was final editing, again both the editor and I reread the book to capture any remaining spelling, word or grammar errors.  

Now we are 5 months into the process, 3 waiting in the queue, 2 in initial editing.  Now we are moving to cover design.  In this process, I don’t have a lot to do.  Simply talk to the cover designer, share what the book is about, thoughts I may have about the cover and then I just have to be patient and wait for them to get back to me.  Again this process is a month long.  About three weeks later the cover designer sends me three options to consider for the book, I make may choice and its on to the Book Layout.

In Book Layout, the layout editor actually puts the manuscript into font layout, including chapter and page graphics.  This again is a month process and when I get initial layout its a PDF of exactly how the manuscript with look in book form.  Once I approve this layout design initial layout process is complete.  Then final layout begins.  Final layout is when I receive an actual copy of the book.  Cover, dedication, the whole book.  Wow that was really cool to see the near final product.  From here its another read and the absolute last edits are completed.  Now the book is completed roughly a year since the process began and I am headed to the marketing phase.  More to come!

Who’s Steve Trek?

Of course in Steve Trek Adventures, he is the main character leading a adventurous life as a divemaster, sailing and diving all over the world with unexpected extreme endeavors.  But what I mean by who's Steve Trek is where did the character Steve Trek come from.  Is he a real person? Just totally made up or what?

Well Steve Trek is some of both.  The Trek portion of his name is made up and fits him perfectly.   As an adventurer who travels the world, Trek seemed like a great last name to fit this bigger than life divemaster. His first name however comes from a real person, my brother.   My brother was always bigger than life to me as I grew up.  Brash, confident, self reliant, athletic, successful, and a risk taker, even today 40 plus years later he remains one of my biggest heros.  All characteristics that my brother embodies are excellent characteristics for Steve Trek. 

So Steve Trek the brash, strong leader in Steve Trek Adventures is a compilation of all the characteristics that make my brother great plus some amped up attitude in a amped up world.  He's magnetic personality and confident leadership will be the things you will love in Steve Trek. So that's Steve Trek the character in a nutshell.  See what you think of him when you read The Galapagos Islands.

The Journey to Steve Trek Continues:

As I mentioned previously I thought I would share my story on how Steve Trek Adventures began.

Was I a English scholar, voracious reader, or long time writer?  Absolutely NOT!  I think the only books I’ve read since school has been Harry Potter.  So being a big reader was not the driving force.  Writing and English were never my best subjects in school either.  So how does someone like me end up a published author?  

Well I guess it all started out innocently enough one weekend.  I was looking at some of my diving pictures and the  crazy stunts my friends and I pulled diving. Who in their right mind at 110ft deep removes their scuba gear and rams his dive buddy just playing around.   Well we did.  So this gave me the idea to develop the story that end up being Steve Trek Adventures.

So I began a journey writing the Steve Trek Adventures.  I wrote all weekend for hours and hours. Typing it all out on my Mac.  By the time Monday morning came around and work started back up I probably had 30-35% of the story down on paper.   I still had the vision of it in my mind but as it turned out I didn’t get back to writing the rest of the story until many months later.  After I finished the whole story, it was still rough, had misspellings, forgotten words and such, but on the premise of the whole story itself was complete.  To me I thought it was really good, so I shared it with my oldest son, my mom and a friend from work to have them read it.  Of course my son and mom thought it was great but their family they are supposed to say that, but Gina from work also thought it was really good.  Many thanks to her and my family for reading this rough story and seeing the good in it.  They encouraged me to publish it.  

So I researched publishers on the internet, and came across Tate Publishing LLC based in Mustang Oklahoma.  I read their site carefully, what they offered, as I did not want to be self published because success as a self published author is very limited.  I was looking to be “published”.   After reading their site, I found out that less than 3% of all submissions to them are accepted and offered a publishing contract.  Still I really believed what they offered was the best available and not to be deterred, I submitted my manuscript on-line and waited.  What’s the worst that could happen, a  no thank you.  

Three weeks later I came home from work to a UPS envelope on my porch.  Inside that envelope was the news all writers want to see, a letter of acceptance and contract to publish my work.  My very first book submission, accepted.  I remember sitting at the kitchen table, feeling very proud, chocking back a few tears of joy.  It was a tremendous feeling being one of the less that 3% accepted.   

Check back next week for the next post on the Journey to Steve Trek Adventures.

Welcome to Steve Trek Adventures

The Galapagos Islands is my first book in a series of action adventure books, The Steve Trek Adventures. The book is well down the path to its release date. Follow me as I highlight the process in developing the story and getting the book published.

Since I was a little boy I have always been fascinated by the ocean, the fish, the unknown of the sea.  As a child my interest in the ocean and sea life resulted in my keeping aquariums.  For years I raised fish even selling some to the local aquarium shop. I spent hours sitting in my room in the dark just watching these amazing creatures and their behaviors.  Being landlocked in Oklahoma during my teens, aquariums were as close as I could get to the sea except for watching Jacque Cousteau on TV.

Later in life, I learned to scuba dive and actively pursued diving as often as I could. Including diving in the local lake virtually every weekend plus regular dive trips to Florida, Mexico and even California.  Starting a dive club in Northwest Arkansas called the Hogdivers, I met two great men that became my closest friends.  These friends are the basis of a couple of the key characters in The Steve Trek Adventures.  Their alter egos so to speak.   David and Jeff are incredibly passionate divers whom I learned so much from and have had such amazing times diving with over the years.  When you read the book I'm sure you will recognize their characters.

I have tried to capture my passion for the ocean and the amazing things that lie beneath its surface in this book.  It was exciting to weave real life diving experiences with dramatic action and ruthless villains, in the beautiful back drop of the Galapagos Islands.