Another publishing update.
I decided on a whim to order a galley copy of Blue Gentian. Kindle was telling me that my cover photo was too small for the book, and I wanted to see (and maybe better control) what readers would have when they purchased my title. At the bargain price of whatever it costs Amazon to print the book ($4 in this case), how could you go wrong?
You can’t, basically.
I’m THRILLED I decided to go that route and shell out the bucks for the galley. It wasn’t the photo on the front that was the problem so much as the lettering that looked a little pixely. I fixed that and we’ve moved on.
But honestly, that’s not the real reason I’m so relieved that I decided to order a copy. The real reason was twofold.
One: there were a TON of typos that I just didn’t catch in the e-copy proof of the book. There’s something about holding the item in your hand and reading through it that makes you catch those stupid periods that are duplicated, or the five times you’ve used “the world” in a single paragraph. There were so many issues that I think it would have been pretty obvious to someone that the book was self-done. By getting the hard copy, I was able to remedy that. There may be typos I still didn’t get, but they’re not GLARING now.
Second: the book didn’t FEEL like a real book. I was using the same document for the Kindle version and the print version, and so I had done all the stuff you’re supposed to do for the Kindle version – no extra pages up front, many links to my sites, etc. By putting everything in the back of the book, I made the print version seem like a fake book, I think. I now have formatted the print version to feel correct.
So, in case you were publishing a book and wondering if it was worth shelling out the bucks for the hard galley copy, I would 100% recommend it. We’re looking at approximately 3 weeks until this thing is officially released. I can’t wait.
And in case you’re wondering, I AM ordering a new galley of the updated book. You know, just in case.
Casey E. Hamilton 