Looking back on this past week, it’s a little crazy to think of everything I’ve worked on. The main part of book production I helped with was graphic design. It is so cool! It involves the cover, back cover, spine of a book, and the inside flaps of a hard cover. I helped Jason (the graphic designer) find images to create covers on this really cool website. It has hundreds upon hundreds of photos that can be purchased. I put images that caught my interest in specific folders that correspond with certain genres and themes. It was so cool to look through all those photos. There were some that I really liked, which actually inspired me to write more. You’re not supposed to write purely off the cover’s photo, however, I guess there’s no set way to do something!
I heard some exciting news last Thursday that made me both excited and, actually, somewhat terrified—I’m going to publish a book. I’m going to become a published author at eighteen years old. How insane is that? When I was told that Jera was going to publish one of my works, I was ecstatic but soon became extremely nervous. How was I supposed to prepare a manuscript for publication in such a short period of time? And what if it’s not something I’ll be proud of five years from now? I was really stressing over what to do, when Ryan (an editor) helped me decide. He assured me not to stress over my first publication as it’s just to help me learn about the whole editing process. He gave me a couple of ideas that really got me thinking. He told me what is really popular right now are “lists,” such as those found on BuzzFeed and Cracked.com.
We mulled over a few possibilities, including “6 Ways to Become a Happier Person” and “5 Reasons Living with Anxiety Totally Sucks.” Then, after much pondering, I came up with an idea: “6 Ways to Survive College Applications.” After this year, I’ve learned—as usual, the hard way—how college applications should be handled. I look back and wish I had done some things differently, but hopefully writing this book will help some seniors get through the college application process a little easier.
I’m so excited to write this book. I’ve dreamed my whole life to become an author, and now that it’s coming true . . . it’s surreal.