The Proof...
Well, the proof got here yesterday afternoon, several days ahead of schedule. Wow! Ahead of schedule! How often do you hear that now days? Now I'm old old guy who has seen a lot in life, but opening the package and holding the book (even though it's a draft copy) in my hand made me stop for a moment and think about the enormity of what I was holding. That one small 5x8 volume (well, it is 602 pages) stands for years of work, countless hours of writing, editing, creating covers, doing my feeble best to advertise. After 22 ebooks at the Kindle Store...I finally held my first paperback book in my hands. Even now, when I pick it up and hold it and see my name at the bottom, I feel some kind of overwhelming satisfaction and pride. I really didn't have any idea that it would affect me that deeply. I have to wonder if all writers feel the same way the first time they see their work published.
I'm sure that on some levels the selling and emotions vary from person to person, but there must be some common bond there that sends out a tiny, invisible, yet strong, beacon to touch and become a part of all the other writers out there who have felt that first book in their hands. A community of people who broke through and got published. That somehow is very humbling.
Okay, now comes the hard part. Time to edit the proof. I immediately enlisted my wife, Carolyn, who is a former school teacher of thirty years, to help me edit. We'll take the next few days and take turns with a highlighter and pencil, marking up the proof, getting it ready for me to go into the docx version of the manuscript to edit. Then I'll convert to pdf and use the CreateSpace Reviewer to check it through before completing the process once again.
At that point I'll order one more proof, and Carolyn and I will go back and run through the editing process one more time. Then it's on to actual publishing and I will order at least a dozen copies of the final version. One for each of the kids, our sisters, etc. I have already edited the cover twice since I first set it up to get a proof. (I'm resisting editing it a third time until I go into to do the interior as well.)
Pssst...come closer! I'll tell you a secret. After so many failures, glitches and revisions, I'm not sure I'll really believe that it's done. Luckily, I have already started editing the second Falls small town mystery, The Falls: Summer Nightmare, and I have already drawn and taken pictures of the front cover. By the way, the covers of all the books from here on in will be drawn by me and then photographed on backgrounds with a Galaxy 4 cell phone or a fourth generation iPad. The stingy Scotsman in me, you might say.
So beside writing the 16th Falls book, The Falls: Dry Bones, and editing the 15th, The Falls: Brotherly Love for ebook publication on the Kindle Store, I will be reading and editing THE PROOF. (That's really the way I still feel about it...you know, it's kind of like holding a writer's Holy Grail in one's hands.)
Okay, that means that I'm standing on the dirt ramp, ready to slowly make my way up to the light. Maybe the ramp will crumble a bit under my weight, but I'm willing to take that chance. It's almost time to leave the hole. Funny thing is, as soon as i climb out, i'll bask in the sun for a few minutes and then start digging the next hole. Book number two. Hopefully, this time around, armed with the experience of going through it once, it will be an easier hole to dig and climb out of. But then again, who knows? The world's a crazy and unpredictable place!
Well, all that means that the next installment comes when the editing is done, both on the proof and in the manuscript. 'Til then dear reader, may your day be filled with small pleasures and may the dragons watch over you all...
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