I don’t usually include non-book word counts here, but I had someone ask if maybe I might want to write a 1,000-1,500 word essay about my grandfather in World War II. And I said, Sure, why not? and started poking around to figure out how I might write it. And then I got the bit in my teeth and cranked out a 1,480-word rough draft.
Seriously, I don’t know if they really want this, but—whoo!
1,280 words. Yee-haw!
1,400 words on the romance. Whoo!
Busy day, so just 480 on the romance, plus some editing.
1,840 on the romance! Whoo!
Wrote 1,800 words on the romance book! Yeah!
It’s done, baby! Everything’s getting approved!
Just to show the issues with printers: Here are two proofs from Amazon—produced by the same company at different times.
I never altered the colors. You can also kind of tell that the image is further to the left on the top cover than on the bottom—that gets especially notable on the spine.
Amazon isn’t particularly bad at this—all printers do it, it’s just the nature of the beast. But it’s something to keep in mind when designing covers, you have to build in at least some error tolerance (and try not to be all Walter White about it).
So! The Trust proof came back—I made a couple of changes (oh, the wandering bar code), but I didn’t think they required a second proof, so I’ve published that with the updated cover. I also updated the covers for the large-print editions of Trust and The Weirld, and I ordered proofs for those.
I know I’m going to have to re-do the covers for Tribulations and Trials, but that’s a matter for another day.
The proofs of The Weirld and Trang arrived today with the new covers, plus I updated the large-print cover of Trang. I approved The Weirld for sale with a minor change, but Trang is going to need another proof—like any other printer, when Amazon tells you “The bar code goes here!” what that really means is that the bar code will show up in that general area, hopefully. So I needed to put a little extra space between some of the elements and that bar code to give it the room it needs to roam….
As I was previewing the large-print edition of Trang, I realized there was an error inside the book—some of the page numbers in the first chapter are italicized when they shouldn’t be. So I went back and looked at the old files, and I can’t fix it—that was back when I was masochistic and laid out books in Word, which was never especially stable even back then. Nowadays, I can’t open a Word file and have the layout look anything like it used to. So, my apologies for the error, but it ain’t getting fixed!
3,398 words written on the romance book!
That didn’t take long, did it? It’s a lot easier to throw art and text together into a new file than it is to come up with the concept & art in the first place, that’s for sure. Which makes me think I should continue through and update the large-print covers—but I’ll see what my schedule is like. I’d like to get back to writing, but this is obviously a good project for days when I don’t have a ton of time or focus.
I was able to do that—luckily GIMP does fine with the old…whatever-I-was-using-before files (Microsoft Paint?), so I was able to figure out what the hell fonts I used. It was also good that I kept the art elements (that series has a consistent cover look, so I knew I’d be reusing them). But wow, the Trang series has some busy, busy covers, with about a gazillion layers….
I started out with The Weirld, because I don’t have tons of time today and The Weirld was done in GIMP before. Once I got into it I could see that there was a big difference between what was required for a CreateSpace cover and what Amazon would have you do nowadays. I had to re-do all the text, which meant I had to reassemble the cover. Fortunately I had the art on hand, and because the old file was GIMP anyway, matching colors and fonts was super-easy. I got it done and will order a new proof.
Hopefully this update will settle things for a while—I’m certainly happy that the text on the cover will be sharper. But there’s also a difference in the color values that I’m less thrilled about—the old CreateSpace cover was brighter, while the Amazon cover is more yellow and muted. I don't know if the update will help that in any kind of permanent way—that seems like one of those “perils of changing printers" issues.
Amazon wanted me to fiddle with the paperback pricing, because they’re selling paperbacks in Australia now. Fine by me—all the paperbacks except Dislocated World were done on CreateSpace, and there’s some weirdness with the distribution in Amazon’s markets as a result, so I figured I’d fix that.
Then I got to feeling like I should order proofs of the paperback versions of Trang, Trust, and The Weirld, because who knows? Strange things can happen when you switch printers.
I did that, they came…and yeah, they look a little funny now. Like, the covers are there and the interiors are there, so you’re getting a book, but they definitely rendered a little differently, and I feel like they could all use a bit of an update just so that the type is clear and whatnot. You know, once I have the chance to do that. In the meantime I went ahead and approved them, since they’re readable and whatnot.
Aaaand Amazon just told me that Trust cannot be approved for publication because the cover has errors on it.
Remember: I ordered a proof. If there are the kind of errors that make a cover so that it can’t be published, that’s supposed to come up before the writer pays for the proof. Traditionally, the proof is supposed to be the finished product, and proof approval = ready to go.
I guess when you’re deliberately making the proof cover so that no one can see the art, this all makes perfect sense.
I’ve been too busy to write, but things have eased off a bit, which left me with a bit of a conundrum: Did I want to go back to Trials, or start this fantasy romance series I was thinking about?
I decided to start the latter—yeah, I know, but it’s really been preoccupying me—and I did 2,330 words! It won’t always come so easy, but it’s sure fun when it does!
The author’s copies of the trade paperback editions of A Dislocated World arrived today, so I spent the day writing cover letters and preparing copies to be mailed off to all and sundry—family members, potential reviewers, and just places I thought would be interested. I’ll go to the post office tomorrow and send them all away!
Here! Whoot-whoot!
I’ll probably have to ask Amazon to link it to the other editions, but that should be straightforward enough.
The large-print proof came back—it’s not bad, but I found some errors & will do a second proof.
The main annoying aspect is that GIMP, which I used to do the cover, doesn’t give you an accurate sense of type size. According to GIMP, I’m using 40, 60, or 80 point type for the cover—but it’s all smaller than the 18-point type in the interior. I don’t actually think there’s enough room on the cover to do my jacket copy in 18-point type, but I’ll definitely make it bigger than it is now.
The large-print edition is done! Mostly! I think! I ordered the proof, anyway—we’ll see how everything looks in the finished product.
Hey, I now have some time to do things that aren’t indexing! It’s amazing!
Right here! Woooooo!