Sandra Nicholls's Blog, page 2

THE BOOK IS OUT!!!!!!

It is with tremendous excitement and a slight amount of pride that I can announce today the book is out: on Amazon, in a box in my office, and on my createspace estore!!!!!!! Now it is time for shameless self promotion.....and the organizing of a book launch. I will be blogging about this too....what I learn, what works, what to avoid. At the moment it sits in a lonely virtual space undiscovered.....so it's up to me, and to you, dear readers, to change this and put Tabitha and Nathaniel into the lexicon of quirky and unforgettable Canadian characters! If you want to order a copy for a friend, or if you just can't wait for the launch, or you live out of town, or whatever, you can order from Amazon.com or my createspace estore, at https://www.createspace.com/3562582 . The good thing about the store is higher royalties for me, but Amazon sales are also good. Remember, Christmas is coming. Hahahaha. More soon -- now I am trying to discover how to get the Search Inside feature put on my book on Amazon.com, and also sign on for Author Central and Listmania. More soon.....with much excitement, I bid you adieu. Oh, and here is a funny story...when I was typing in my name on Amazon.com to see if the book was listed, I kept getting this sub-listing: Sandra Nichols found dead!!!!! I checked it out -- it is actually someone's novel -- can you believe it!!!I feel like ordering it for a, well, a souvenir????? LOL. Anyway, help keep me alive folks and order my book!!!!! Ciao....more soon on the launch date and location.

The book arrives!!!!

The actual physical book arrived, and it is a joyful thing. I can't really describe how different it is to see the thing in book form, as opposed to "flat" covers and pages.....I started to read it, since I must now approve the book itself, and it felt like a new work, something different, another life form! Createspace did a terrific job -- it looks perfect. The paper quality is excellent, all the lines are straight and even, the finishing is clean, the cover looks awesome, it is everything I could have hoped for and more. Now if the IRS would only send me my tax identification number I could be off and running....ordering copies for the launch and starting to market. I think I will get that started anyway. Ladies and gentlemen, thanks for reading my blog and keeping me honest -- couldn't have done it without that. And I have to say, about this self publishing thing -- it is an incredible high you get when you look at the book and realize you did it all yourself -- took all the chances, made the decisions, carried the process forward...fanfuckingtastic. More soon on my adventures in self promotion!

Five days to a book!

Physical proof has been shipped.....and promised within five business days. Can't wait to see it in book form. I will let you know more about the quality of the book once it arrives -- paper, cover stock, and all that cool stuff.

Cover uploaded to Createspace

Hallelujah! The final pdf of the cover has been uploaded to Createspace, with the spine adjusted for the total number of pages and the spot for the barcode ready and waiting. LAST STEP BEFORE PRINTING!!!! Busy planning the launch now, which will be complete with words, music, wine and treats. And I was just interviewed on the radio, with hubby Roddy Ellias, about how we worked together to create the songs on Roddy"s latest CD, Acts of Light. Listen to CBC In Town and Out between 7 and 9 Saturday morning, July 2. Whoo hoo....and now the fun begins.

FINAL PROOFS APPROVED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just approved the final proofs of the interior......I am so excited I can hardly stand it. Completion is in sight.....

Interior proofs -- finito!

Createspace returned the proofs based on my corrected edited text within a week, and they look fantastic. Now we know the page count -- a respectable 220 pages -- so we can adjust the cover in terms of the spine size. Cruising in on the last few steps in terms of getting ready to print anyway. I had about 7 corrections to make, and they will make up to 20 for free. There is a standard form they provide online for corrections, but I had already put them on a separate sheet, which they accepted ( again, as a one time courtesy). Next time I will know. Next thing to adjust is the size of the space left for the barcode. I generated the barcode easily enough (the numbers) but the actual bar design I decided to leave up to them. It is a free service, but the size may be a little large. We shall see. Of course I must now take in a deep breath as I realize that the biggest challenge of all -- marketing -- awaits me now. Endless and ruthless and shameless self promotion, always a hard landscape for writers to navigate, writers being people who prefer skulking in the shadows, writing. More soon --

uploading the manuscript

After a prolonged absence, blog girl has returned. All the errors in the manuscript have been fixed, and ater Createspace kindly agreed to let me upload again, as a one-time courtesy, we are back on track. Design proofs will be sent to me made on the revised manuscript. Again, I need to reiterate that CreateSpace has been both professional and humane in allowing me to do this -- resulting in a better product for both of us. I guess it just goes to show you though how important it is to proofread again and again and again, at every stage. Still not sure how some of the errors were introduced, but I would have been heartbroken had they remained in the book, after having worked so hard to ensure the manuscript was flawless, at least as far as being grammatically correct and with the right spellings and usage of words. The rest, well, you will have to judge that for yourselves, oh gentle readers. Still aiming for a summer launch, but may wait for the fall, when I anticipate that the first draft of my second book will be done. A nice synchronicity there....

Converting from Word

Having now received the first 20 odd pages of interior formatted text from CreateSpace, I have a few words of wisdom to pass on. First, never stop proofreading! After uploading my word manuscript, which had been edited by a professional book editor, I spoke with CreateSpace about design options and ideas (where to put the page numbers, choice of fonts, font size, where to start each new chapter and so on) and waited for the first design mock up to arrive as a pdf. It looks quite good, but errors had crept in which were not in the original uploaded manuscript. Fibres had become fibbers, Sobeys had become Sobers, and so on. Also, indents changed from the original uploaded manuscript. I don't know enough about the technology to understand how this happened, but it is important to be aware of. I had blithely assumed that if it was perfect going in as a Word file, it would remain perfect after the formatting as a pdf. WRONG. So, I am accepting the kind offer of another book editor friend of mine to go over the whole thing for me to spot the new errors. This is important, because if the mistakes are the result of their formatting, they are printers errors and you will not be charged for having them corrected. If you change your mind on something however, of course these are author's alterations and you must pay for them to be fixed, and I believe CreateSpace was charging a whopping $5 per change, which could soon add up. Which all goes to show, keep proofreading throughout the process. I would have been devastated to find all these errors once the book was in print, after thinking I had done everything within my power to submit a "perfect' manuscript. On the plus side, CreateSpace has been very helpful, making suggestions for design and also responding to any and all questions. Their community space is also very helpful, with fellow self publishers responding to questions with helpful tips and personal experiences. Until the next proof....