New Mom

I feel like a new mom again. Though hopefully this new baby won't cost as much as the other two! After months and months of labor (okay, so it was an elephant pregnancy), I finally was able to pick up a bound copy of my book yesterday. It is just my proof copy, but it looks like the real deal, color cover and all. One of the benefits of using an in town printer is that I can pick things up instead of waiting for them to be shipped to me. One of the downsides is that this printer is not located in the best area of town. A six foot high fence surrounds their property, complete with an electronic gate to keep the unsavories out. The gate was open when I arrived as a delivery van had just pulled into the parking lot.

Once you pass that hurdle, you must buzz at the door and state your mission in order to be allowed entry. After picking up the proof, I was afraid I had come to the Hotel California - "you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave". I couldn't get out of the parking lot. Assuming that the gate operated on a sensor, I drove slowly towards it. Several times...I'm probably on a YouTube video somewhere. Fortunately I spied an employee around the side of the building taking a smoke break. When I asked about the gate, she said she would come around and let me out. She had to punch in a code for the gate to open. All of which made me wonder if I was supposed to park on the street in the first place. Sure, protect your employees but let the paying customers fend for themselves.

The first thing I noticed about my book was that the colors were off a bit on the cover. I couldn't quite put my finger on the problem but it just didn't look right. When I compared it to my printout at home, I could see a bit of difference in the color scheme. I know that what I see on my screen, what my designer sees on her screen, what my printer produces and what a professional printer produces can be four different things. I emailed my designer to see if she wanted to take a look. She definitely did, so I drove it over to her house. Actually the printed cover looked much closer to her screen than mine. But she agreed there was too much red on the cover. Ah...too much red, that was the problem.

I contacted my production manager today and explained the issue, and he said he would talk to the art department to see if they could handle the color change. If not, my designer would need to send them a revision. Fortunately, the gods were smiling and it was fixed in-house. I got a revised cover emailed to me this morning, and I gave approval for the printing to proceed. I should have all my babies by Wednesday or Thursday of next week! Does that make me a centuro-mom?

What's in a Name?

There is much to learn about self publishing. Most advice leans towards owning the ISBN number that goes on the back of the book. This truly makes you the publisher, and thus in control, of your book. Okay, that makes sense. But you need a name for your publishing company. "Don't name the company after yourself unless you want to look like an amateur," the sages advise. That means coming up with a different name for the publishing company. I have probably invested waaaay too much time thinking about the name. Above referenced sages speak to naming the company the same thing as your website. My House History Publishing Company? What if my next book is on how to do backyard composting? Or the history of Tuam, Ireland? You begin to see my dilemma. I don't want to pigeonhole future books that may be published from my publishing company based on the name of the publishing company alone. It seems like a pretty important decision to be made in mere minutes. Yet my indecision is holding up the process. I need to apply for a tax identification number with the state under the name of my new company. I can't purchase my ISBN number(s) until I know the name of the publishing company. I can't pay for the ISBN numbers until I have a bank account opened in the name of the publishing company so I can keep my records straight for taxes. And so on... As the book cover is in design even as I write this, time is of the essence. Now, where did I put that creative thinking cap?

Don't Judge a Book by Its Cover?

Since receiving the quote to have my book designed outside and in by a professional, I have been mulling over which way to proceed. While I do understand that the pricing I received is not out of line, or so I'm told by authors who have already trekked the somewhat treacherous path of self publishing, I still can't wrap my mind around how many books I'll have to sell just to pay the design fees, let alone the printing costs. I headed back out last night to one of the local mega bookstores to do some undercover (or should I say cover?) research. I first picked up Dan Poynter's "Self Publishing Manual" as I had learned from borrowing a library copy that it was a book I'd want on my own shelf. From there I went to the table reserved for books of local interest. I thought I would be able to pick out which ones were self published by looking at the covers and flipping through the pages. Surprisingly, I found that I certainly couldn't judge a publisher by the cover. One of the books I found to be the least attractive was actually put out by a local publisher who has turned down my book. Well, I always say that things happen for a reason and now I am grateful that the future of my "baby" is not in their hands. After that I went to the non-fiction section and began to pull books that were of a how-to or workbook nature off the shelves. It was an enlightening experience. People definitely WILL judge a book by its cover, and I realize now that I do need to put the money into a professional design. No one will pick up my book to see what it offers if they can't get past an uninspired cover.