Things are moving right along!
Sunday, September 21st, 2008
Welcome Readers!
This week I received the Iuniverse book block. If you have ever been involved in the process of publishing a book then you know that it is all about editing. The book block which is a layout formatted 6×9 PDF of what the book will look like came in on Monday late afternoon. Then it was time for me to get on the stick again. They give authors a 14 day (not business day) window to make any changes to the text, layout and formatting of the book.
By this time in the process you have read, re-read and edited your manuscript several times. And the mind simply doesn’t see that is on the page. I am pleased to say that the podcast recording of the book really helped me find those tiny little things that would jump off the page for a reader. The process of recording and editing the audio allowed me to find 24 errors which over all is not bad considering the print version of the book is over 360 pages.
Here are a couple of things that I found interesting about this process as I went through the book block as it is called. First as an Iuniverse author you must meet certain formatting requirements. All of which the MS met in the beginning of the submission process. But when I got the book block back I was not just looking for my errors, missing punctuation or spelling/text changes and the like, but I had to check what the formatter’s did as well. I was surprised at some of the things that I found that were in the submission I made but not in the book block. Like chapter headings and POV switches that I set with ****. In the process of formatting the book. Two of the chapters were not headed out. This was a touch frustrating for me. And gave me serious doubts as to what else may have changed that I was not catching. I mean seriously if you have a book with 47 chapters would you not make sure you had 47 chapter headings??? Guess not. Then it appear as if there were two people working on the layout as the **** kept switching with no rhyme or reason from one Glyph to another. Neither of which I liked or were related to the premises of the book.
So I spent all week, every spare second going over the book block against my hard copy word by word, line by line. I complete today 8 days ahead of the deadline and I think we will have a really clean book in print. YES!
What is next on the schedule for the print book. I was informed today that I will have cover draft for proof in the next couple of days. That means two layouts one for the hardcover and one for the paperback. This will be my last chance to make any changes to the cover art/text and while this is happening the book block should be being corrected by the Iuniverse formatting staff. Their requirement is up to 2 weeks for this to happen. There are 58 changes to the text and formatting that need to happen I can’t imagine it taking two weeks but I am not their only author. LOL.
Then it goes to the printer for set up at that time they require 14 business days for set up and I will be holding the book in my hand in not long after for the final approval. Then it is available shortly after in the Iuniverse bookstores and a few weeks after that on Barns and Noble, Amazon and other booksellers through the web. How exciting is that?
In that mean time if you have been checking back with the new book site for the book www.themarkofadruid.com then you have seen that you can get a sneak preview of audio version now! That is right the first 5 episodes are live and you can hear them by running your mouse over the right side of the page and under the category pages you can select podcast link and selecting the episode you would like to listen to. The formal release of the audio book is Drum roll please…
Monday… September 29, 2008
Where you ask? http://www.podiobooks.com/title/mark-of-the-druid Please notice this page is not live until the day of release. Sing up for an account there is no cost involved. At that time you will be able to add this book to your subscriber’s list. It is free! And you can snag the Promo Here post it to your website, your myspace, your facebook, your twitter and tell all your friends and even tell your frienemies! Send it to your email and chat buddies.
Last week I told you about the new website. It is still being constructed so check back often we are working on it daily. At this point stay away from the top of the page categories they are funky and I have not figured out how to change them yet and has little time to work on the site this week because of the book block.
Look for the coming blog this week as well: Why free!
We are playing with the idea of having a contest that is centered around the hidden aspects in the cover art. Yes that is right it is not what it seems at first glance. I will be making announcements in the next few weeks about what the prizes and contest rules are.
Keep Writing! I Know I Will!
Rhonda R. Carpenter
