The Second Proof...
Well, the proof got here Friday afternoon, the second proof that is. I've been editing it most of Saturday and Sunday. Only 150 pages to go in the 602 page volume of the first of The Falls small town mystery series, The Falls: In the Dead of Winter. (It's the largest...which often happens with first books.) My eyes are swimming at this point. You don't realize how intense reading to correct and catch errors is until you do it for a number of hours.
The new cover is better. It's got larger, clearer type and a better font. The back cover has only a blurb on what the book is about (same blurb that I placed in Amazon Kindle Store for the ebook version) and my picture. Speaking of which...it's hard to find a pic I want to use for an author photo. I don't think I photograph particularly well and I guess I'm just old school, it embarrasses me to put it there. I know, I know...but I can't help the way I feel.
Anyway, the cover has the same color scheme as the first cover, but the back font is much more readable without the faint front cover picture in back of it. The back cover is now a solid color, although the space for the blurb is set up to have a curve to it. Not sure I like that, but it's better than before. The front fonts are bigger and the spine font is okay as well.
You would think that with both my wife and I editing the first proof, after me editing the Word document several times before that, there would be no typos or errors. Wrong. I still have probably eight to ten things to correct so far.
Funny thing. As I was editing this afternoon and happened to glance at the cover with my name on it, I had an odd thought. It hit me for a few seconds how much my mom and dad would have liked to have seen my first "real" book. You know, not the digital ones, although I have quite a few of those. But they never saw any of those. To them a book was pages and ink and a cover. It would have made them happy and proud, I think. Funny how things will creep up on you when you least expect them.
I'll probably finish editing the proof tomorrow and then edit the docx and convert to pdf. Then, I'll go in and download the file to CreateSpace. I'll probably go in and check the cover one more time as well. Then I'll check through all the steps and figure out if I'm ready to publish. I'm not sure. Probably order some author copies for the kids and grandkids and our two sisters if I am because the author copies cost less.
Publishing is getting closer. I already have finished editing the second book, ready to place it in the template with chapter headings. The next big decision is whether to publish the new document of The Falls: In the Dead of Winter as a Kindle version, changing the Kindle version I have right now. Not sure what I want to do. I think I'll message the CreateSpace support team and ask them which way makes more sense. They have been super helpful up to this point.
Anyway. I now have my head up out of the hole and and walking up the dirt ramp. I can see the horizon and I feel the impending publishing date on that horizon. Have to admit, it feels good. We'll see as the time goes by. But digging the hole, building the ramp and walking out of the hole is almost at an end. 'Course it will begin again as soon as I start transforming the second volume over to a paperback through CS. Next installment of the blog will talk about whether to publish a new Kindle version and how many copies I'll buy as author copies.
The dragons have always watched over me...and they'll always watch over you...you just have to keep believing...
No comments:
Post a Comment