Proof #2 Received!

Holey Moley, is Amazon fast! I ordered the second proof version on Friday, February 16 and received it yesterday, February 18! Like most Print-On-Demand (POD) services, Amazon contracts with printers around the country (maybe the world?) to expedite shipping. My last proof copy was made in Middletown, Delaware. This copy was printed in North Haven, a town just 45 minutes away from me here in Connecticut.

I have no idea how the printer is chosen, but I sure hope the next proof (which better be my LAST!) will be done here in CT as well. My publication date of March 12 is drawing near. Also, I’m going to RootsTech in Salt Lake City on February 27 and it would be kind of cool to bring some copies with me.

Here’s the progress since my last post:

My typesetter, Sue Sullivan (graphics@familyancestrees.com), did a great job placing the epigraphs on the left side with chapters beginning on the right side. This did result in several blank pages, but that’s a price I’m willing to pay. (Literally, since more pages = higher printing cost!) She also increased the font size, which surprised me. It seemed counter-intuitive that a larger font would result in fewer pages, but because some pages had only a few lines on them, this actually worked out well.

There are many letters included in the novel, most quoted verbatim. Sue suggested they be slightly indented to set them off. I had initially formatted the book that way, but changed it in order to save pages. Sue managed to accomplish that task without adding pages.

She also reworked the Family Tree so that it flows over two pages. Looks nice!

Where Am I Now?

Last night, I went through the proof copy, slowly and methodically. There are a few teeny things I would like addressed, like a few letters that didn’t get indented, and some page numbers I would like removed, but it’s no big deal. Most likely no one, except the OCD types like me, would even notice!

Speaking of my obsessive proofreading, I must take my hat off to Ann Ward (of the Daily Sprinter writing group) and Doreen Brown (my longest friend) for their owl-like editing. Sue said she had found ONLY ONE typo: there were three apostrophes in a place of an ellipsis (three dots). Not bad, ladies!!

The biggest problem with this proof was caused by me. My husband, Scott took a nice picture of me at dinner recently. This rarely happens. In fact, the LAST nice picture was also taken at a dinner—BEFORE I stopped coloring my hair! I decided it would be nice to have an author picture that actually looked like me. Unfortunately, I didn’t pay super close attention when proofing the back cover so a bar code was added OVER the one I had already put on the cover, which also covered some of my bio text.

What About the E-Book?

Much to my surprise, Sue also formatted the manuscript as an epub. I had played around with the ebook creator software provided by Amazon. It went pretty smoothly but there were a few glitches such as weird spacing between some lines.

I uploaded the epub created by Sue. The ONLY complaint the Amazon software returned was “four possible spelling errors.” Guess the software doesn’t read German well! I considered that a major success, so I completed all the steps needed to make the eBook viewable on Amazon. So exciting!! It’s now available for presale, meaning people can order it now and it will be delivered to them automatically on the Publication Date: March 12.

So, now I wait for Sue to review the few changes I would like and then I’ll order another proof. So close…