Just like the title says: Waiting is bothersome.

I realize that my book is not the only project going, but I’m just waiting for final corrections on just a few items. I check back every day–a few times a day–but to no avail. I don’t want to pester my managing editor, so I’ll wait it out a bit longer before I take any actions. I hope to report back some additional progress here soon. It would nice to be in the distribution chain before Christmas!

The graphics director just sent me a one minute clip of the beginning of my book being read as an audio book. Wow! Want to talk about tempting? Even though it was only one minute, it sounded great. However, I opted out of doing the audio book right now as the expense is considerable and I would like to know if the book itself sells and I get a following.

Please, if you are reading this and you think audio is a more preferable format, feel free to comment!

Annnnnnnd we’re off!

I have completed what should be the last round of the authorized version of the manuscript. I sent back one page of corrections that needed to be addressed. That is a far cry better than the 9 pages I sent the first time around.

We ran into a little hiccup due to a problem on my side. The form that I used to submit my file sent the nine page correction file from last time. As it happens my new corrections got corrupted and the old file was substituted. Thank God for cloud storage and a plethora of computers. I was able to retrieve the correct file from my computer in the dining room. The one in my office had overwritten the original file and was not going to revert back! I have now transmitted the correct file and I am waiting to review the corrections.

You got it…. TAG! They’re “it.”

I was just informed that my layout corrections are done. Tag! I’m “it.”

The first thing that I did was to take my nine pages of corrections that I sent and go through to make sure that the changes were made correctly. I have to give the team a 98% on this one. With nine pages of corrections you have to expect one or two might not be done right. In this case, it was just a case a missing a font change for one word! All of the rest of the corrections were done flawlessly. If you are thinking about going with Atmosphere Press for publication, stop thinking and DO IT. These guys are fantastic.

Now its time for me to read through the entire book again! I’m glad I wrote it. At least I already know I like it. 😀

I just heard back form the graphics folks with two new options for the cover that could be number one with the suggested changes. The changes look awesome. But there is still one more little tweak that I would like to see that would make it looks perfect. It turns out that the little tweak I wanted to see did not take any time to update at all. WE HAVE AN APPROVED COVER!

Sorry didn’t mean to shout there. OK, yes I did. Now I can update my website with an actual book cover instead of coming soon. So glad to finally have a cover. No need for you to be in suspense. If you check the home page of this website or go to Books and select C.A.R.L. you can see it for yourself.

Wow! This has been one heck of a journey! But things are looking up! I went though my book in the new layout. Fellow authors… please do not get relaxed during this process. Only YOU know how your book should be!

The new layout was great. I liked the font, but not so much all of the indentation. However, after checking it is industry standard. I absolutely hate justified text, but it is also industry standard. 🙂 One of the issues that I had was that the special font I had for the computer talking was totally ignored and changed to regular text. Had to push back on that one. Toward the end of the book two sentences were stripped out of the beginning of one of my chapters. So glad I read through it again. I carefully checked my chapter numbers too. I know when I was reading through my brother’s book (he uses a different publisher) two of his chapter numbers were duplicated and it went to publication that way! I’m hoping they correct it somewhere down the line.

All in all I had nine pages of changes that need to be implemented. What is very important at this stage is that you are as descriptive and complete as possible so that you actually get the changes that you are looking for and don’t have to do a lot of back and forth wit the layout folks. Now it’s waiting time again. Tag! They’re “it.

One of my son’s was just visiting with his wife and daughter (and grandchild-to-be). He was asking me about my author journey and where I was at. I explained to him about waiting for the layout and how I expected to hear back some time in the next week. I also told him about the covers and how I was waiting now for round two. One day after he asked me I now have the new set of covers in hand and the first draft of the internal layout.

The new covers looks great. I got another set of 5. One cover is completely out of the running for me but then there are the other four which I have personally ranked. Now its time for some assistance. Using a hand picked group of people from several of my target demographics (wow, sounding really professional here) I got ratings from 1-5 on the covers. Wouldn’t you know that for some people, the cover that I absolutely hated was either top pick or in the top 3. Another rule of thumb is to listen to your audience. Well, my top two covers were in the top two for most of the reviewers. There was a third cover in the mix that I was able to eliminate based on lack of popularity among the masses. So going with the top two covers I polled an even more paired down grouping of reviewers and they picked the cover that I would have considered to be the runner up.

All was not lost. Looking at the cover there was a way to make it number one. It would need a few tweaks. So I went back to the graphics team and explained what the tweaks were and what I would like to see. I’m waiting for for a response back on them to see if I like what I actually suggested!

But, since I also received the interior layout… TAG! I’m “it” again. Time to go through the layout and see how things looks and make sure that all of my content is as I expect it to be. Once I approve the copy after this round of reviews, it becomes the final authoritative draft and any changes that I need to have make are outside of the scope of what is included in the contract. Being really careful here.

I had a meeting with the Digital Director today. I think a lot of his job, with you best interest in mind as well, is to upsell services. We talked about such things as then E-book, ways to get marketing out about your book, author interviews, books tours, Websites and other other digital presence.

Rule #1: Know what is included in your package. The guy who I talked to was open to questions about my current contract and answered them all honestly. While his job was to upsell, he did not put any pressure on me to buy any extra services, but simply advised as to what they were and how they could help me. One of the main tools was the author website. It costs a few duckets to have them build and manage a website for you. Fortunately for me, that is one of the things that I can do myself. In an earlier life I use to build websites for folks. That was before the days of content management systems and you had do really know HTML and CSS. Now content management systems like WordPress (which this site is built with) take a lot of the hassle out of that for you. I would recommend getting some help if you have never done it before, but if you are really good at following directions you might be able to save yourself a buck or two. If you happen upon this thread and you have some questions, I am more than willing to provide answers.

I was also advised by the digital director about how to increase my revenues and ways that I can make 100% profit if I choose to manage certain things in sales myself. Just bear in mind that some things are worth paying a small percentage in services so that you don’t have the headache. So listen carefully to the deals they have to offer and pick up on the things that you need. A good company is really just trying to help you in your journey. Atmosphere Press is one of those good companies. Check them out at http://www.atmospherepress.com

The book cover options have arrived. Its time to to put a face to my book! This is the day that I’ve been waiting for!

This a lot of great works… BUT… OH NO! The character being depicted is all wrong for my book. The concepts are good but the character looks nothing like the the description that I provided. I am dreading having to contact the graphics guys, but this needs to be fixed.

Wow! All of that worry over nothing. As I said before this team is awesome. Their response when I told them the character just did not fit was:

“Got it! No worries, we’ll give a go to a new round. It often takes a while to find a good fit, so no sweat—we’ll find the right match!”

OK, I can deal with that.

Now that they armed with exactly what I feel they have missed from my narrative, the graphics department is taking another stab at the covers. Can’t wait to see the next round.

EDITS DONE!

That was a lot of changes to reconcile and needed to massage the story to make some things work like they were supposed to. Praise God for that second set of eyes. Thank you proofreaders all over the world! As well as finishing the manuscript and approving the final copy, I also added a dedication to the front and and author bio. Sometime ago I already wrote the back matter for the book cover. I forgot to cover that in a separate post. I’m still waiting on the cover. I realize that mine is not the only project and that they are doing several suggested versions of my cover, so I’m content with the amount of time that it is taking.

Now that I have submitted the approved manuscript it is off to internal layout. I’ll get to see what it is going to look like with the actual book fonts and all. Remember I still have 100% final say. While I will do my best to honor the professional recommendation, I also will have not trouble pushing back on something that I want different. Luckily, I have been blessed with working with an awesome staff of folks. I couldn’t have picked a better team if I tried.

Can’t wait to see the internal layout… until then!