Proof ordered

Jane, Actually is creeping its way toward reality. I just ordered a proof from Amazon CreateSpace, which I’ll use primarily to see how the cover art looks—whether it’s too dark or washed out or too light. I’ve already encountered problems where the original cover design was too complicated for CreateSpace, and I’ve had to limit the number of transparencies (like the pretty drop shadows that are now available in Adobe Illustrator). I’ve gotten spoiled doing most of my work for the web, where I don’t have to worry whether a design will actually print.

The book is already in the hands of three advance readers, U.K. Janeite Christopher Sandrawich, fellow Sherlockian Mike Newman and fellow Denver-Boulder Janeite Maryann O’Brien. When the proof arrives, I’ll give it to my husband to read as well.

Once I’ve heard back from proofreaders, I’ll send the book out to advance readers. I probably won’t send too many physical copies, however. At 406 pages (including front matter like the acknowledgements and the quick Austen bio), the book is a little expensive to print. I had to switch to a larger book size—5.5×8.5 inches—and drop the type size down to 10.5 point, to keep the book manageable. Even so, it’s about an inch thick.

And I’ve added another imprint to Mallard Press, which includes Mallard Mystery, Mallard Classics and now Mallard Sci-Fi. I toyed with the idea of introducing Mallard Romance (technically speaking, I listed Jane, Actually as Romance/Science Fiction at CreateSpace), but I couldn’t figure out what kind of hat the duck would wear.

If anyone’s interested, I’ll be documenting the experience of printing Jane, Actually through CreateSpace and also creating the Kindle and epub versions at http://mallardpress.blogspot.com.