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Books in Development
7th Grade World History Over the past several months, we have had a number of inquiries about the status of Seton’s new 7th grade World History book, Our Catholic Legacy Volume II. We are very grateful that so many people like Volume I, and are excited about obtaining the next volume. However, we are also anxious because we want to create a book that is as good as the first one. We are beginning this web page in order to keep those of you interested in the book updated on its progress. We plan to have updates at least semi-monthly and more often if need be. This first update is going to be a bit longer than the rest as we would like to give some background on where the book is in production and also explain a bit about how books are published so that you can see what needs to be done to produce the finished product. First, we want to apologize for the delay in publishing Catholic Legacy II. As with so many things in life, sometimes plans go awry. Let me explain. Our plan was to begin writing Legacy II almost right after Legacy I. However, another history book was needed in the meantime. In fact, we needed two. At the end of July, 15 chapters have been written:
The next chapters will deal with the Enlightenment and the Suppression of the Jesuits; The French Revolution; and Napoleon. We still plan for the book to be around 32 chapters and hope to have it available by January 2011. Please pray for all of us here at Seton who are working on the book. 8th Grade Church History The first book was a new Church history. The one we are currently using is over seventy years old. Although it has been updated and covers World War II, it was written when Pius XI was Pope. As a result, it fails to cover some of the most important events of the 20th century, especially the Spanish Civil War and the Rise of Communism. The book is also in black and white with no graphics. We had been meaning to write a replacement book for some time and circumstances compelled us to do it at this time. As of this writing, the book is finished and is with the Bishop of Kansas City, Bishop Finn, who is reviewing the book in order to grant us an imprimatur. We have asked the Bishop that, if it is possible, we would like to have the book in the curriculum by September 1. This new Church history is one of the finest books that Seton has ever produced. It is in full color. It has numerous pictures of churches, stained glass windows, fine art, etc. It is a straight textbook, not a text-workbook. Review questions can be done orally or on a separate sheet of paper. Once available, it will become our new 8th grade religion book. It is called Witness to the Faith. Please pray that Bishop Finn will grant us an imprimatur. 8th Grade American History Although we knew we needed to publish a new Church history, the next book came as a big surprise. This book is our new American History 8. As you may know, Seton has an 8th grade history book. It has a painting of George Washington kneeling in prayer on the front cover. We have had the book for over fifteen years. It is black and white with few graphics. For many years, we have wanted to upgrade the book. That means adding color pictures. At Seton, we print enough books at a time to last about 3-4 years. That means that we can change/fix/upgrade a book only when it comes up for re-printing. If we miss the window of opportunity, we must wait another 3-4 years. (We print like this to keep costs down. If we printed a book every year, the cost would double. We don’t have the resources to change and print a book annually. However, we do annual updates on the Lesson Plans.) Fifteen years ago (4 printings ago), we first printed our 8th grade history book, when we could not afford to print in color. The book would have cost two-to-three times more money. Although we know of publishers who charge $50 and $60 for history books, we are not one of them. Parents can not afford to pay that much. Thus, back then we printed in black and white. Today the book was sent to the printer. We hope to mail the book to families that have enrolled in the course, or have purchased the book, by October 1st. Publishing in Color Starting about 10 years ago, we began to add color to our books. However, it was not every book and not every page was in color. About 6 years ago, we found a company that could print in color at a very good rate. In fact, the cost for color was the same as for black and white (B/W). After two years, that company could no longer print for us; however, they told us about another company that could. We now have all our books printed by a company in Illinois. What this means is that the last time the American History for 8th grade came up to be re-printed, we could have done it in color. However, it takes time to find graphics and re-layout the book. At the time of the last reprint, we didn’t have the time to reformat the book for color. Therefore, the book was re-printed in B/W. This brings us to November 2009, when we were about to start Legacy II in order to have it available for June 2010. It was brought to our attention that we were running out of American History 8 and would need to re-print it. Once again, we were faced with a choice: postpone Legacy II or print American History 8 in B/W once again for another 3-4 years. This time we decided to postpone Legacy II. It was our belief that the American History 8 project would take only 2-3 months. We expected the project was going to be simply the addition of color graphics and a new layout. Once we started into the book, however, we decided to make more changes. The book covers only up to the beginning of President Reagan’s first term; it seemed best to re-write and update the book. Thus, the project that began in November is still ongoing. We hope to have the new book available in August, but unexpected developments in the publishing business are actually expected developments! The new book is entitled, The History of the United States for Young Catholics. Finally, this brings us to Legacy II. Before we tell you where we are in the publishing process, perhaps it would be a good idea to explain how a history book, or any book really, comes to be published at Seton. The Process of Publishing a Seton Book The first step is writing the text. With a history book, we must decide what time period of history it should cover. For The History of the United States for Young Catholics, we cover the period from the Discovery of America (1492) until the 2008 Presidential Election. For Witness to the Faith, we cover from the life of Christ to the election of Benedict XVI (2005). Catholic Legacy II will cover the period from the Age of Discovery (about 1400) to the present day (about 2000). Once we decide the time period to be covered, we do an outline of the book. All three books are 32 chapters. To date, five chapters of Legacy II have been completed. These cover the Age of Discovery (Ch. 1), the Protestant Revolt (Ch. 2 and 3), the loss of England to the Church (Ch. 4) and the Catholic Reformation (Ch. 5). Chapter 6, The Glory of Spain, is currently being written. The writing is the most time-consuming phase of the publishing process. Depending upon the book, it can take a year to write the text. It took about a year to write Witness to the Faith. The History of the United States took about six months. We expect Legacy II to take about 6 months or so to write. Once the text is done, the book must be fact-checked for accuracy. Some mistakes are simple typos. Other edits might result from a lack of clarity in the writing. Fortunately, we have qualified people on our staff. Still, the book, whether it be a history, math, English, or another subject, must be checked for accuracy. Once that is done, the book is submitted to our staff of editors to be proofread. This means checking that the book meets the rules of grammar that we are teaching our students. Books are proofed by several people, some for accuracy, and some for grammar. After the book is proofread, we need to add graphics and lay out the format for the book. Gathering the graphics can take about four months. Doing the book layout can take two months. When all these steps are completed, the book is sent to the printer. The actual printing takes between four to eight weeks, depending on the size of the book. During the next several months, we will be updating this site and keeping you posted on the progress of Our Catholic Legacy Volume II. |
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