A good editor is priceless

Well, the book is coming along nicely, although more slowly than I would like it to. The cover is probably going to look like the illustration above; I don't expect it to change much at this point.

All of the chapters are almost finished, and several of them are totally finished. The chapters are as follows (some minor rewording may occur, but it is basically set now):

1 - The Research Literature and You

2 - A Word About Words

3 - Science, Evidence, Medicine, and Massage

4 - How We Know What We Know About Massage

5 - Accessing the Medical Literature on Massage

6 - Reading Massage Research--The Structure of Journal Articles

7 - Reading Massage Research--The Introduction Section

8 - Reading Massage Research--The Methods Section

9 - Reading Massage Research--Just Enough Statistics

10 - Reading Massage Research--The Results Section

11 - Reading Massage Research--The Discussion Section

12 - Reading Massage Research--The Abstract

13 - Using the Information in this Book

14 - Going Farther--Getting Involved in Massage Research

plus Glossary, Bibliography, Author Index (who does massage research?), Affiliation Index (where is massage research done?), Journal Index (where is massage research published?), and Topic Index (subjects in massage research). If you will permit me a little pride in my work, I am quite pleased with how the book is proceeding.

One thing that I did not estimate the time for correctly was the editing. I sort of envisioned the editor, Dorothy, scanning what I wrote for typos, and then signing off on it. On the contrary, she is engaging profoundly with the text, reading it with fresher eyes than mine, finding places where I need to explain more clearly, and other places where I need to stay more focused. In other words, she's acting as an advocate for the readers, and making sure that I always meet my obligation as an author to make the book accessible to them. Although the book is taking longer than I originally estimated with this painstaking process, it is nearing the end, and it is worlds better for the process and her input than it would have been with mine alone.