And why good formatting can hide a lack of editing

I don’t even know how Steven Lee August, The Vegan Heretic, found me in 2021, but I’m so glad he did. This Vegas entertainer-author-activist-speaker wrote a book with the greatest title of all time: Vegans vs. the Verses: A Bible Handbook For the Vegan Activist. About a year later, I joined Vegan Business Tribe (RIP), and Steven was a member for a time too.

Initially, we talked about me potentially editing and formatting his self-published book, but this beast of a book was over 100,000 words.

So Steven did a self-edit and handed the manuscript off to me for formatting.

His cover was already done, and he had a few title graphics and images that needed to be inserted. These are the kinds of books I love to work on.

Steven’s nonfiction book uses quotes from the Christian Bible (different versions of it) that defend veganism, both in the Old and New Testaments.

So for design inspiration, I went to my bible…I still have it from the eighth grade! Thanks, St. Patrick’s Secondary!

My version uses all Times New Roman font, which was pretty easy to deal with. Initially, I had all the chapters in Roman numerals in the table of contents, but we changed it back to regular numbers since Steven said people probably wouldn’t be able to read the numbers once you got into the double digits.

Since most of this book is text, where I spent most of my time was on indenting quotes and references the way Steven had them in his manuscript. I indented quotes longer than 100 words another quarter-inch on both the left and right. I also formatted his ebook and fixed a few of the typos I saw as I went along.

Steven’s book is thorough, well-written, and entertaining, just like him. Aside from the sheer length of the book (400 pages), you’d never guess he self-edited.

Since this book was longer than usual, I learned it was best to quote authors according to manuscript length rather than just time estimate. Although I didn’t charge as much as I would now, this book taught me that the longer the book, the time I’m going to spend working on it. And that humans were never meant to consume animals, according to the Bible!

It warmed my heart seeing Steven speak at various events in subsequent years, signing books for curious readers. He’s also a very active activist and you might see him on the streets of Vegas preaching the good vegan gospel.

He also gave me this testimonial, which is one of my favs ever: “I am so happy I found Sandra. What she has done for me is amazing. Know this, I am not a professional writer. So when I handed my manuscript to Sandra, it was a real mess. I’m not kidding. I cringe when I see what I originally started with. After Sandra did the magic that she does so well, I can proudly hand my book out, secure that all is as it needed to be. Sandra’s devotion continues long after the work is completed, with ongoing introductions to others in my industry and leads I would have missed. Sandra will be my first call on my next project for sure.“

If you’re Christian and think there’s nothing wrong with consuming animals because it’s quoted in the Bible that people ate them, watch Christspiracy (it’s free, by donation) and also pick up this book. It goes way deeper than the film does.

Need a book coach, ghostwriter, or editor to help you publish your book so you can get it in the hands of readers? Read more about my services here and contact me if you’re ready to begin!

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