Ash from the Chilean volcano, courtesy of Tom Burke
This week someone asked me: “Why can’t I buy your book yet?”
My reaction to this question was mixed; on one hand, I’m delighted that I know I’ll have at least one customer (Woo!). On the other hand, I’m gutted that I can’t begin taking orders and shouting from the rooftops about my book just yet, especially when I thought I’d be doing so a couple of weeks ago.
Here’s why: the final proof hasn’t arrived.
A proof is just that—evidence that the final product meets my standards of quality. Being a perfectionist, these standards are quite high. I’d hate for my first customer to write in and complain that there was a typo on the back cover, or that the text was too small to read! I ordered a proof earlier in the publishing process, to see what the paper quality and print production was like, but the book wasn’t finalised:
- The page size was different from the final product (the available page dimensions are different depending on whether you’re selling a book in retail or just printing a copy for yourself).
- The cataloguing information on the copyright page was made up (I was still waiting for it to be delivered at the time).
- The ISBN on the copyright page was incorrect (I’d mistakenly uploaded the PDF containing the ISBN for the eBook instead of the print book).
- A couple of the illustrations needed some tweaking, as the colours reproduced slightly differently on paper to the computer screen.
Basically, it contained some errors that I was aware of (and some I wasn’t), but it was sufficiently completed for me to determine whether Lulu was the right printing solution for me, and gave me the opportunity to tidy up a couple of pages. However, I still need to check that the things I fixed in that early proof look OK in the final proof, on the new page size.
So for the past two weeks I’ve arrived home from work each day, my heart racing with the possibility that the final, completed copy of my book has arrived … and each day I’ve been disappointed. It’s entirely possible that the package has been delayed by the ash from Chile’s Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcano, which has also disrupted a ton of passenger flights in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Australia and New Zealand. So in the grand scheme of things, I’m happy to gain some perspective that I’m not stranded in another city, like so many others.
At some stage in the next week or two, a parcel will arrive containing that final proof. And when it does, I’ll be flipping the switch to take my first sale. It will be an exciting time, and I hope you’ll find the finished product worth the wait.
