Working under the direction of editors Mary-Alice Waters and Steve Clark, volunteers in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, New Zealand, and Sweden took the elements of each book—text, cover, photo section, index, and more—and put it together in a digital form according to the design and specifications worked out by the editors. Skills honed over several years of similar work made this possible.

A schedule listing the tasks involved in producing the two Aldabonazo books and Rebelión Teamster was drawn up by Laurel Kelly of the project steering committee. She worked with the editors and the teams responsible for graphics, formatting, proofreading, indexing, and the preparation of Pathfinder ads for the new books teams. She and steering committee member Tom Tomasko reviewed each day’s accomplishments, addressed unanticipated difficulties, and made sure that material was sent to the editors on time and that the decks were cleared for the next round of work.

All the strands of the book production process had to come together on schedule to get the books printed and in the hands of Pathfinder’s team at the Havana Book Fair in February. Aldabonazo was presented at a public launching that closed the book fair. (See report in March 8 issue.)

“Being spread over two continents was often an asset,” reported Martin Hill, of the formatting team who lives in London. Formatters lay out the text, chapter headings, footnotes, index, and other text-based elements of each book. The geographic spread “enabled work to be done and checked within a 24-hour period,” he said. “Occasionally the time zones worked against us too!”

Harvey McArthur in Illinois and Markie Wilson in Hawaii passed files back and forth to take advantage of the four-hour time difference between the states.

Bobbi Sack, the organizer of Printing Project volunteers in graphics, which is responsible for photos, maps, and book covers, said that her team worked more like a relay. One volunteer would do a round of work, then another would step in to do the next phase. Given the number and complexity of the graphics for all three books—two photo sections in each book, internal graphics, maps, covers, and title pages—the almost seamless passing of work from one volunteer to the next was impressive.

The editors sent a steady stream of corrections, reported Hill from London, ranging from typos and punctuation errors to details of translation and political expression. “You really see the thought that goes into ensuring these books are accurate, weapons that fighters will be able to rely on,” he said. “And that the political message is expressed as precisely and clearly as possible.”

Work on these books helped raise the skill level of many volunteers. Mindy Brudno, a coordinator of the proofreaders, wrote from New York that her team consisted of “mostly new members of the project, since most of the veterans have moved on to other teams.” While several former team members returned to help out their old team, and others worked for long periods over Thanksgiving, newer proofreaders took on work they’d not done before. “After being bombarded with different elements of the books as they came our way, new team members are now fairly experienced proofreaders,” said Brudno.

The number of volunteers who can now do “pre-flight checks”—the final preparation for printing and archiving of graphics files—went from one to five.

Over a December 6-7 “Red Indexing Weekend,” volunteers broke their previous record for the rapid completion of two new book indexes, reported indexing coordinator Sandi Sherman from the Twin Cities. Fifty-four people joined in the work of indexing and checking 44 sections, she explained. A compiler for each book then reviewed the work and made final decisions on any outstanding issues. All indexing deadlines were met. “This effort took a tremendous amount of diligence and discipline to accomplish in such a short period of time,” wrote Sherman.

Over the last couple of years, Printing Project volunteers who have worked on indexing have devised a system for rapid and accurate indexing of books in Spanish and French from the English editions. This enabled volunteers to index the Spanish editions of the new books without being familiar with Spanish.

“The graphics team’s work on these new books was more extensive than for any previous new books,” noted Bobbi Sack. She reported that “the extensive design and editorial work required for this project pushed the schedule to the limits,” even up to the last hours before the final files were sent to the printer. The photo sections, running to 28 pages in Aldabonazo and encompassing some 60 photographs in Rebelión Teamster, include many that have not been available for public viewing in decades, or ever before in some cases. Members of the graphics team also put together promotional leaflets and posters for bookstores, libraries, and Pathfinder’s booth at the Havana event.

The Printing Project volunteers are now turning their attention to preparing new English-language editions of Teamster Rebellion and Teamster Power, the first two books in Dobbs’s four-volume series on the fight to build the Teamsters Union in the 1930s. Many also plan to seize the long-awaited chance to read and discuss the political experiences described in these new books!

Jim Altenberg is a member of the Printing Project steering committee.  
 
 
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