What I got accomplished today…

Look, it’s a book! Well, okay, it’s a galley. It arrived on the doorstep today. I haven’t gone through it line by line–however, I can say that I haven’t found any egregious typos or errors. There were a few little things I already was aware of, and am debating whether to change, and risk a “domino effect” of causing more errors because they’ll affect pagination. But this is, after all, the “uncorrected proof.” It’s expected (or allowed, anyway) to have a few glitches. The typesetting looks pretty good, I’m still chewing over a few details. The “drop caps” need adjustment, in a few cases they’re too close to the body text. The Chapter headings seem just a little bit too dark, they’re distracting–I may tweak those, lighten them up so they’re more consistent with the body text (digital printing tends to be lighter than offset). And I was sure I had “hanging punctuation”–that’s where the punctuation, like commas or quotation marks, at the ends of lines extends past the text, which is restful for the eye. But with all the changes in font and set-up I did, somehow that got lost and I didn’t pick it up. You know, little things like that. I definitely am going to re-upload the cover, though, because someone on self-publishing linked a columnist at PW who complained about things some publishers did with review copies, and she mentioned liking to see the publication date on the spine of the galley. I hadn’t thought of that–and that’s easy!You can’t see in the picture, but the title on the galley is perfectly centered on the spine. *pats self on back* 🙂

I sent off four requests for endorsements. I already heard back from the webmistress/assistant of one person, regretfully saying the author hasn’t done cover blurbs in years because she just doesn’t have enough time–but she’ll forward my e-mail to her, just in case.

I continued trying to track down the copyright for this book I want to reprint, The Delicate Dependency. The agency listed on the book’s copyright page (it’s 25 years old and the author is deceased) appears to no longer be in business. I’ll have to try the publisher.

I set up an account with PRWeb although it’s expensive, I don’t know if I’ll use it.

But most interesting, I now have a PDF file of the first chapter of Mortal Touch up on the book’s page, so people can read it, and I’m all set up with an encrypted PayPal button so people can pre-order the book, starting right now. I just tested it out, and bought the book from myself (*heh*), and it all seemed to work just fine. I even customized a “notes” field so people can request what personalization they want. I’m offering free shipping and an autographed copy to everyone who pre-orders. I just got that up a few minutes ago. Check it out if you’re so inclined.

Tomorrow it’s supposed to snow. And there’s supposed to be a HUGE Nor’ easter on Sunday-Monday–which is the day of the Boston Marathon! They aren’t calling it yet for snow or rain or a mix, but it’s expected to be a whopper of a storm, whatever it dumps.

And tonight I heard the spring peepers, for the first time. I think this is a record for how late they’ve first come out. And it’s chilly, too, but I guess the little guys can’t wait any more! There’s a couple of crocuses desperately blooming out back, too. Maybe we should just adjust the calendar, all the seasons seem to be running a month late!