PART SIX Recipe Testing and Design Challenges (08/20/24)
Recipe Testing and Preparing for Print
What I thought would be the final step: I had to write an introduction and a closing to tie to memoir into the recipe section of the book.
While all this was going on, two ex-Herbfarmers Dan & Xuan Osser stepped up to the grand task of testing and editing every recipe. Which was a great thing for me because, of all the roles I have played at The Herbfarm over the years, cooking was not one of them!
When Ron passed, David, the InDesign expert (you met him earlier in this story getting Ron’s programs and files on to the laptop), had offered his support as I worked to get the files printer ready. I leaned heavily on David to direct me in getting David and Xuan’s edits into the files.
Little did he know at the time that he was going to end up being the final InDesign editor/designer of the entire book! Without his help, this book would not look half as professional (and Ron-like) as it does. I owe him a huge debt!
Just before Labor Day, the files went off to Skyhorse.
I took off for a three-week journey through Germany, Switzerland, and France with my brother. We visited business friends of his in Hamburg, toured the Black Forest, visited the son of great friends of our parents in Switzerland and spent time in Alsace. After my brother headed home, I drove south to visit friends who were renting a house in Provence. All the while I was waiting for edited cover mock-ups Skyhorse had said would come quickly after submittal.
In October Skyhorse finally reviewed the files we had rushed to send them six weeks earlier! It turned out that they needed several higher resolution photos and the InDesign file for one season of the book’s recipes was somehow messed up. And THAT is when David became my knight in shining armor fixing every graphical/layout item that came up!