If you’re anything like me, the acknowledgements section is the part of the book that I always skip. I have therefore left it out of the book – not because I don’t want to say thank you, but because I wanted to explain in more detail what all these people do and how important they are for most books – because without these wonderful people, my book would never have been written.
How it all began
I’ve always fancied writing. Reading is my passion, and telling stories is simply fun. In 2023, things got serious: I sent a longer text to a publishing house that was looking for new authors and assessing manuscripts. The feedback was – as I know today – very benevolent, but it actually encouraged me. And so the adventure began.
Rainer Wekwerth and the writing school
I found Rainer Wekwerth and his writing school (kreatives-schreiben.net). With his patience, he guided me through the process: developing characters, creating conflicts, bringing stories to life. There were moments when I could literally see him throwing his hands up in despair. He motivated me, corrected me and finally let me write. I ended up with 232 pages of text. Rainer gave me the final push, made a draft for the title and the picture and opened up his network to get my book on its way.
Andreas März and the first proofreading
That’s how I came to Andreas (am-korrektorat.com), who was the first to take on the editing. “Does the story make sense? Does the reader understand it?” – his questions and over 3000 comments pushed me to my linguistic limits. Nevertheless, his feedback was always encouraging. The text got better – and I learned a lot.
Matthias Jügler and the finishing touches
Through Textmanufaktur (text-manufaktur.de), I met Matthias Jügler (matthiasjuegler.de), who showed me how to make the reader see and feel without anticipating everything. His two-hour feedback was full of insights; it took me more than two months to put them into practice. The sentence I dreaded the most was “Michael, I would sooo love to see Tom angry/happy/forgiven”, which forced me to rethink and rephrase the paragraph every time.
“Trust the reader,” was his message. “He can form his own opinion.”
Sylvia Kling and linguistic perfection
Sylvia (sylviakling.com) finally put everything into the right linguistic form – not just once, but twice – all 232 pages. She helped me sort out the subtleties of indirect speech and inner monologues. And although she did a great job, all the remaining mistakes remain my own.
Alexandra Mazar and the book set
Finally, Alexandra Mazar (alexandra-mazar.com) took the lead on the typesetting – the appearance, the font and the chapter headings. She finally turned the text into a book. When I held it in my hands for the first time, I was stunned. Done. Happy.
Sincere thanks
Without you, I would not have known what it takes to turn a text into a book. Every single one of you has contributed to this adventure coming to a successful end. You have not only shaped my book, but also me as an author. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.
By the way: You can actually buy my book from December 16, 2024 – and I’m very happy about every reader!