The e-Proofs Have Arrived!

This week I received electronic proofs for both books. How exciting is this?

The books had been assigned to different design teams and each team has produced a different-looking book. I had thought they may end up looking the same (not the covers but the inside), but they're not. Although both books are virtually the same in word count (~120,000 words), one book is 392 pages and the other is 300 pages. The fonts and font sizes are different in each book, and the pages are laid out differently. I like both (alot!).

The covers are fantastic! Because I had sent them the artwork that Jordan (my son) designed, as well as the photos he had used, their professionals just took the basic design and our photos and re-did the covers. I love them.

The back cover text has me a little perplexed... As part of the editorial process, I was asked to submit the text for the back cover. iUniverse set out a maximum number of words for the text, and gave me an editor's opinion on it. Now I admit, my back cover text sucked. But I did work on it.....so, imagine my surprise when both books showed up with new cover text. They used maybe one of my sentences.....and, I LOVE IT! These people are obviously professionals and they know what's needed on a back cover. I will edit it only a wee bit.

The other treasure was the text for a hard cover book. As you know, hard covers have inside flaps, so to fill up those flaps they put the text from the back cover of the paperback, as well as the author's bio. And, they put an excerpt from the book on the back cover. It's a good thing my bible-thumping Grandmother is not alive because the text on the back cover of the first book has the F word -- tee hee! I will make sure they change that....

So, I'm now doing a deep dive on the books, proofreading and making changes. I'm halfway through Options and am happy to report that I've only found a few changes.

I want to get through this step as quickly as possible becuase I'd like the books available for Christmas.

So.....TTFN (ta ta for now)