So don't get the theme song stuck in your head (for
Happy Days), but blissful news, the first proof came back and it looks LOVELY!!!
Just a few minor changes and it'll be ready to go!
The cover, for example needed a few tiny bits of change.
For example:
When I put
No One Noticed right up against
Diamonds for Diamond, I noticed that the size of my name and "A Jack Diamond Mystery" were larger on one book than the other. So I had to fix that. I also noticed that my Jack Diamond logo was practically invisible on the proof. It gets lost in the blue, cloud-covered skies. So I fixed that. Then after a much more careful look at
Diamonds for Diamond, I noticed that I could get away with a much smaller font for my photographer acknowledgement (thanks Jen!!) since I thanked her inside my book (and here too!), and thus I could put that whole section into one line, like it is in my first book. It's frustrating that these things weren't caught in the first round, but alas.
These things do happen.
(And now I have
Phantom of the Opera in my head. When Carlotta says, "Si! These things do happen! Well, until you stop these things happening,
this thing does not happen." I actually think that my life is one long running playlist of movie clips and television show clips and song clips with lines from each one playing back to back to back. It's amusing if you happen to be with me and you happen to know the movie or television show reference. My mind persistently pulls from the television show
Friends and the movie
The Princess Bride. So if you want a good place to start, start there.
Meanwhile, INSIDE the book, I found a few changes as well. One, I found a typo! That almost never happens at this stage. Super excited. The perfectionist in me is beyond thrilled. It's like scratching a satisfying itch that I didn't even know I had. In one of my sections in
No One Noticed, I have a character who is from Scotland and has a lovely brogue. Trying to translate that accent to the reader's ear is a challenge in and of itself. Trying to get my computer to recognize the misspelled words as intentional is another. Inside a whole flurry of brogue I had the word whose instead of the contraction who's. With all the red underlines in that chapter, it's no wonder we all missed it. One's mind simply glosses over the misspelling as it sounds correct, particularly when one is struggling to get the brogue into one's head. At least, that's what I keep telling myself.
Also, along the way, some of the spacing of the words needed slight adjustment. I loathe reading a book where the words on a line are all stretched out or overly squished together. So I had to adjust for those issues.
I also found a last minute minute oddity. (Get it? minute minute?) Some of my chapter headings were ever so slightly longer than others, even though they all had three hard returns before the word Chapter. Turns out I had a 12 point font on some and a 16 point font on another. Again, something that the perfectionist in me reveled in discovery before publication.
Then, while I was making those adjustments, I noticed some dialogue in several places that could also use a quick touch up. It's so hard not to keep editing. Over and over, making things better and better.
Because each amendment is, in fact, an improvement.
But at some point, one must simply stop, let go ("Let it go, Let it go..."), and move on to the next book.
As someone who strives to get things right, I do find it a challenge to go back and re-read my first book and find things -- some big, some small -- that were I to go back and re-publish, I would change.
My daughter, for example, despised the way I spelled GranNini in the first book. I wanted people to understand the connection between the fact that she is a grandmother and her nickname is Nini (pronounced gruh-nee-nee). My daughter, however, said I should assume that the audience is bright enough to get that. She also didn't like the capitalization in the middle of the name. And she said the extra N was superfluous. Thus, in
No One Noticed, I have changed the spelling of Granini's name. And sure enough, she's right. The simplification works well. But changing the spelling from book 1 to book 2 is a struggle for me, as it is inconsistent.
Furthermore, my father-in-law, bless his heart, said he was pleased that he had only found one or two typographical errors in book 1. I have yet to discover any, as I have read the book so very many times, and clearly I gloss over them. My editor didn't find any either. When he re-reads the book before starting book 2, I shall have him point them out to me, again, not just for posterity, but also so that I can make the edits should a second edition of the book ever be released.
I strive for perfection.
I am humbled by my imperfections.
And I hope that you all understand the infuriating frustrations that arise from the conflict.
So. Enough ramblings for the day.
Here is one last lovely look of the book's cover before the book is sent out for final print. Should be sent out Sunday night or Monday morning, and will be available for purchase very shortly afterwords!
SOOOOOOO EXCITED!!!
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