He smiled. She smiled. They smiled. Someone smiled. So-and-so smiled. Such-and-such smiled. And they all smiled at each other.
Yeah. Well, I got a proof copy of my novel, Secondhand Shoes. The book is beautiful in person. The pic below doesn’t do it justice. It was surreal to hold and stare at it. Tears filled my eyes, and I got all mushy over it. So did Sweetman. But…
…on the back, some words were kicked out of the blurb. Some of the sentences make no sense without them. But it does look beautiful. But then…
…you open to the very first page and it’s totally off center. It also needs to go up a little higher. And the more I go through the book the more alignment issues I see. But this didn’t show up on the Create Space Page Viewer thingie. It all looked perfect. And it’s so not perfect so much so one can’t even see the left hand page numbers.
And all my poo-words were converted to pooh. That’s not the pooh I wanted. He’s in another story. Holy Schmoly!
But these aren’t the only problems. My hyper-sensitive-editor has now gone on red alert. I’ve got two pages of smiles. Smile. Smile. Smile. While editing via my computer screen or an 8x10 paper copy of my MS, it wasn’t apparent. Everything looked word-symmetrical. It all looks really different being in a book. It’s more condensed.
SO do I go in and delete a lot of those smiles? ***shrugs*** Am I being too sensitive? Too much of a perfectionist? OMG!
Shouldn’t I be my own worst critic before some one else out there buys the book and butchers my story? My writing?
Anyway, if you’re self publishing, make sure you pay to get your PROOF copy before agreeing to unleash your great American novel onto the word-eaters out there.
So I’m hoping before I get Glowstick back later, I will have gone through the entire book at least.
Hugs and chocolate,
Shelly
