The She Series Book

August Update
over 1 year ago – Wed, Aug 17, 2022 at 09:35:49 AM

Hi everyone!

Amy here with a quick update for you.  

We are currently in the midst of our second proofreading round.  Brandi, our incredible graphic designer, spent the past few weeks incorporating 864 edits in the first round - phew!  

Because of its size, we are once again reviewing the book in sections so Brandi can get started on any additional changes while we keep working on reviewing. We do expect this next round to go faster since we had so many edits in the first round.

In the meantime, below are the pages of the book featuring the iconic Nichelle Nichols, who passed away last month; we were very lucky to have Kristin E. Baver write this essay and are so proud to have Nichelle Nichols as part of this book.

Thank you all again for your continued patience and  understanding.  If at any point you have questions or concerns, please  send me a message and I will get back to you as soon as possible.  I will be back with another update in the next few weeks but, for now, back to  proofreading!

July update
almost 2 years ago – Sat, Jul 16, 2022 at 02:05:38 PM

Hi everyone! 

Amy here again with a brief and exciting update: WE HAVE A PROOF!  It actually looks like a real book, all 254 pages of it, and it's beautiful.

We broke it into three pieces to make reviewing a little easier and as of this morning, the final third got sent back to our wonderful designer, Brandi, to begin making edits and design changes.  We anticipate this likely will take her a few weeks to wrap up and then we will all give it another final proofread and review.  With a book of this size, we want to be sure we're triple checking everything to get it just right.

Once the second read through is complete, we send it off to the printer at which time, they create a hard copy proof for us and we will give it its final read through, make sure the art colors look correct and that everything meets our standards. 

I will be back in a few weeks to let you know how we have progressed. Until then, from the entire team, thank you for your continued encouragement and support.

June Update!
almost 2 years ago – Fri, Jun 10, 2022 at 06:01:21 AM

Hi everyone! 

I am so sorry I missed a May update for you - I had been traveling with Karen as she was participating in the Art Show at Star Wars Celebration, and I had fully intended to do an update that Sunday when I returned. However, when our plane landed I started to feel unwell and ended up (after 5 negative COVID tests) with apparently just a pretty bad cold, so am finally just now catching up on things. 

We are so close to having a date to share with you.  Our designer, Brandi, is putting the final pieces together, but like everything else with this project, it's just taking longer than we all anticipated.  When Karen first proposed this project idea to me, we discussed having 35-50 profiles!  Then decided 75 seemed perfect.  We finally landed on 120, but I don't think we made the right adjustments to just how much more much more involved that would turn out to be, so definitely lessons learned for us there! 

Brandi is aiming to have a final proof ready by June 19.  The next step will be to circulate that to me, our, proofreader, and editor to review with a fine tooth comb to be sure everything is perfect.  Once that is complete, we submit to our printer and then they should have an estimated print date to us within a few weeks.  In the meantime, below is another sneak peak of a portrait and essay about the talented Yuko Yamaguchi! 

Thank you all for your continued patience and encouragement - we all appreciate it!

April Update!
almost 2 years ago – Wed, Apr 27, 2022 at 08:07:05 AM

Hi everyone - Amy, Karen's Business Manager, with some news for you!

First, I am thrilled to share that after much back and forth, Karen decided to personally write two of the essays for the book.  She's much more confident in her drawing skills than her writing abilities; however, I have read both her essays and they are wonderful!  She was particularly committed to writing about one of her personal inspirational sheroes, Ashley Eckstein, whose portrait is shown below. Karen chose the word "Aspire" for Ashley and here's Karen explaining why:

"At  first, aspire seems like a departure from the words I usually choose  for these portraits. Typically, I choose a word that describes a verb that defines an inspirational action that each person takes in their  life. But, “aspire” is a little different. To aspire is to direct one’s  hopes or ambitions towards achieving a goal, to seek, to pursue. To  elevate. And Ashley does this for herself, she sets her sights on her  dreams and works to achieve them. But, in doing so, she elevates  everyone who is lucky enough to know her. She shows us all how to aspire  to be better versions of ourselves, how to reach high and achieve our  goals, and shows us that anything is possible. She is an incredibly  authentic person with who is extremely kind and generous and I aspire to  be like her in my own life and career."

We're close to being able to provide an ETA, but in the meantime, here are the important updates. At this time, we have 119 essays finalized and are waiting on final approval for just one more!  Our wonderful designer, Brandi, is almost done with the layout and our proofreader is going over the writers' biographies with a fine tooth comb this week.   Karen is working on writing the introduction and the last few art portraits, and we're essentially putting all the finishing touches together. Once all of that is completed, Brandi will put everything together in one large proof, then it is reviewed by all of us very closely.  Then it is finally off to the printers!    

As always, if you have any questions about anything, please send me a message!  I will be back to update you again soon. Thank you all for your continued patience and support - we're so grateful.

March update!
about 2 years ago – Sat, Mar 12, 2022 at 01:04:30 AM

Hi everyone - 

Amy, Karen's Business Manager here with an update for you on how we are progressing with the She Series Book!

Today I was so relieved to finally submit my essay on Kathrine Switzer to our editor, Caitlin, to work her magic.  Running is my favorite thing and Kathrine's story has been a huge inspiration for me.  For those of you who don't know, in 1967, Kathrine became the first woman to run the Boston Marathon as an officially registered competitor. During her run, a race official attacked her, tried to grab her bib number and screamed at her to stop running.  But she kept going and is the reason women are allowed to participate today.  

Writing this essay was a fun challenge for me and (not so humble brag here) brought back a lot of emotions and memories from when I ran the Boston Marathon in 2011. I can't wait to see it published alongside Karen's beautiful illustration!

At this time, we have 105 essays completely finished, about 3/4 of the art done and 2/3 of the layout done.  Our proofreader just had a baby and is on leave but should be back just in time to read the final version before we submit it to the printer.  I am optimistic that I will have a better framework for when the book will be finished next month when I update you.

In the meantime, we really appreciate your patience - we definitely bit off more than we could chew when we started this but know in the end it will be a wonderful book.  If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to send a message.

Thanks again!