Well there you go, my book, my first novel, titled "Of Kilted Pleasure" is a real live book now. It has been registered with the Library of Congress, and it has its own ISBN number. Woot! I can do the dance, but I have to reserve my entire enthusiasm for when it is released to the public for purchase. Right now, it is still in the production stages. I have been going through the PDF to make corrections.
About 100 years ago, when I wrote my first book through Xlibris, I had to wait for them to send me a hardcopy galley to go through and that was really tough. Not only did they send it in 11-point font, but it was also squeezed together to save paper I guess. I was NOT a happy camper when the finished product came out the same way. I was LIVID because I had made it perfectly clear that I wanted 12-point font, and I wanted more space between the lines. This was my first experience with book publishing. The ONLY thing they could or would do for me is to scrap that project and make a 2nd Edition, and in doing so they really only fixed those issues, not the 100+ corrections I had sent in to be changed on the first edition. Talk about FURIOUS! That book is a mess.
This is my sixth or seventh book, I'm not sure. It's my first novel. I do know that. I have more experience and I've been working with other publishers as well, so I know a thing or two now, about standing up for myself and telling the publisher exactly what I want. I'm paying for it, right? That's right. So yes, they will listen. Xlibris has been pretty good this time around. I had a few minor issues with the cover designing team not wanting to do an illustration, but after speaking with my project manager, and then paying a little bit more, not the full price by any means, they were able to get that going. The project manager was able to give me the best discounts because he had failed to explain there would be an additional cost for illustration vs. photography-type covers. I want illustrations, realistic, not photos. This is a Highland Romance book, not another genre.
Well, I sent off the manuscript last Thursday I think, and it has already been returned to me in book format! Wow, that's really good. I was quite impressed with that. I do have to go through the PDF and make corrections. I am FLAT amazed at how many mistakes I made. Not even gonna lie about it, I suck! I wrote the book in a month, and got it on the screen, but didn't take the time to make sure I had spelled everything correctly, I was more concerned with getting the Scots words spelled correctly. I didn't go flow-blown on using the Scots language because I didn't want the reader to be completely confused. I wanted them to taste the difference, but not be overwhelmed by the flavor.
So, now I have to go through the PDF, and I am. I will submit the mistakes and the changes I want. They'll redo it on their end and send it back once more for the last and final look-see. I hope we can get all of the corrections done this time. I hate having that fear that I missed something, but I know it's going to happen. I have people writing to me now to tell me about the first book's mistakes. LOL Well, that's about it, I'll go back to work now. I just wanted you to know the book is in production and about to be released in May 2023. The cover will come out soon and I'll post it when it does.
Photo Credit: Me.
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