Two Rivers Run

Book Description:

Two Rivers Run is the tale of the first European to settle in Gippsland, Samuel Anderson, along with his partner Robert Massie. The author brings together for the first time inspiring stories of resolute, hard-working, and courageous Scottish pioneer-settlers. People who saw the potential of Western Port when most others chose Port Phillip. Large format, 185 pages.

Being the editor and project advisor for this diverse and full colour history book, our support entailed: editing the blurb, two rounds of line editing, proofreading, title feedback, finalising the bibliography, and referrals to indexer and designer.

Internals for Two Rivers Run book — Internal page of history book

Besides the author being very pleased with our support (“love your work”, he said), the quality of the book speaks for itself. The graphic designer, Graeme Walker, did a fantastic job and I’m glad I chose him. Eureka Printing printed the golden frames, Tony’s hand-drawn maps and full colour matt cover in incredible quality, retaining the highest resolution.

Developing the book content meant keeping the arc of the local history in view, culling some of the Gondawana and sidebars to geological change–but not all.

A Remarkable Voyage project

The next book by Tony Hughes was about his ancestor’s ferry captaining up the Murray River, and I also edited this in 2021.

A Remarkable Voyage just needed editing for clarity and punctuation adjustments, so that anyone could read it and be captured by the resilience and determination of this voyager. A change of word to improve meaning is called ‘fixing syntax’. Editing for less overlap is called ‘eliminating tautology’.

A personal project done later, I also proofread ‘A Promise Fulfilled‘, a family history for Liz & Tony Hughes.

Testimonial:

“Thanks for the manuscript, the Bibliography looks great, you have done a magnificent job. In terms of time you spent on the drafts, it was in my opinion, value for money. I can’t think how you could have achieved a better result. You were willing to take on work from someone with an appalling grasp of the fundamentals of English grammar, someone who frequently strayed from the subject at hand, someone who didn’t understand the publishing process, basically someone who needed a lot of guidance. You did all that and more in good humour and spirits, thank you, it has been an honour to work with you.”