Yes, the joyfully updated and expanded 2nd edition of my book, Many Face of Journaling, is now in the pre-press department of the book printer. Shipped from the Kirkwood Post Office via overnight express, it arrived in Ashland, Ohio, before noon on Tuesday. Unfortunately the graphic artist "forgot" to send the cover art until after working hours that day. But now everything is on track.
Within a month or so, 2,000 copies of this 6" x 9" trade paperback book will be printed on 192 pages of recycled paper. The official publication date is May 2008, and the new ISBN# is 978-0-9665672-9-8.
About ISBN numbers: ISBN stands for International Standard Book Number. Did you know that our books are identified worldwide by that number rather than by the title?
I'm having the books shrink-wrapped in packs of 4 books. Unless your books really will sell out in a few months, shrink-wrapping is an ideal way to keep them fresh and clean while they all wait patiently to be purchased. FYI the cost for that service at my printer is $.22 per pack. Those will be packed in cartons of about 44 books per carton and shipped to the BookMasters book storage and distribution facilities in Ohio.
About book storage facilities: Professional book storage facilities provide climate control, insurance, and an efficient staff for shipping books to distributors and wholesalers.
The last 3 weeks or so of work on the book were hectic and, towards the end, catastrophic. When I set about making the header/footer corrections following the indexing and final proofreading, I ran into problems. The file absolutely would not let me delete the old header/footer formatting nor would it allow me to replace it with new, uniform formatting no matter what I did. What should, logically, have been a straight forward adjustment, wasn't.
After a full day's worth of optimistically trying one new "fix" after another, I conceded that the entire manuscript and index file was corrupt. Whereas I had been planning to ship to the printer the following day (Tuesday, the15th), I was now praying the the entire file wouldn't have to be retyped!
Eventually, I ran it through NotePad which deleted every last spec of formatting -- both the good and the corrupt. Then this format-intensive book had to be reworked, then reindexed. A lot of intense hours of computer work went into the problem's diagnosis and remedy. But finally by the end of the evening last Friday, the file printout was ready for another final proofreading.
Sunday evening, as I did the pdf. conversion and stored that to jump drive, packed that with the hard copy, signed contract, and check for 50% into a clean white carton, I did an ecstatic little dance and thanked my stars that it was soon to become that Big Grown-Up Book it was meant to be.
Within 7-10 working days after receipt of the manuscript package, the printer will ship me the "bluelines," which are the pre-press proof copies of the book and book cover. Then I'll have 3 days to do the drop-dead check and ship it back. I'll pay about $35 for each page that needs any correction at that point. So the final proofreading before it going to the printer can save a lot of money. Still, if I discover a misspelled name or other crucial error, you can bet I'll be happy to pay for the correction.
About bluelines: They're called "bluelines" because they're produced by somewhat the same process as an architect's blueprint drawings. In addition, they smell of ammonia and the printing will quickly fade if you leave the pages in direct sunlight.
Since I've been working 6-day weeks lately, the last two days have been sweet, kick-back days of walking in the sunshine, lunching with that fascinating, energizing writer friend, and reading all the way through my daily paper.
Happy writing to you all ~\
Linda
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