Lordy

I had one of those impulses that finds you THREE HOURS LATER cursing your own very nature. Amazon has started offering the ability to make hardcovers, and while I don’t think that’s necessary for the fiction, A Dislocated World has sold quite a bit in paper, plus it seems to be of interest to the sorts of institutions that might prefer hardcover. And of course I was like, How hard can it be! I’ve already got it going on in paper!

The interior didn’t require changes—the hardcover are available in a more limited range of sizes, but luckily (?) A Dislocated World is my only paperback already in the correct size.

The cover is the sticky bit, because you can’t just adjust your existing paper cover—much like with the large-print edition, it’s too different. I put together a new one from scratch, which was when I discovered that my existing version of GIMP doesn’t actually play that well with the new computer. They’re putting out a new version that will, but it’s not quite ready yet.

I powered through and have ordered a proof of the hardcover, so I’ll let everyone know how that works (it’s still in beta, according to Amazon).

The business with GIMP made me realize that I needed to look at some of my other software. I was wondering if TextEdit had advanced to the point where I could just not use LibreOffice, but looking at it, I don’t think it has—it just edits text, and I need more. But I am updating stuff, so hopefully everything will be a little more stable and smoother now. (ETA: There is also Pages, which I’ve never used before. I might give that a go.)