G's Adventures? Now! (4)

Part 3

When we last left our intrepid hero, he had given Cedar's Mountain permission to share with everyone an early rough draft of his dedication and acknowledgment pages. Since then a few more interesting things have happen.

About a week and a half ago, our intrepid hero got the first draft of his galley and his cover. Unlike the last time when he was learning the ropes, and thus being difficult about it, this time he was able to cruise along without any difficulties.

One, he got the galley as PDF file for free and was able to download it to his notebook. Two, he got the cover the same way. Quite a few other things had changed as well in the intervening year between books. Previously, when going through the first galley and you found errors in it (due to your sloppiness. yes, you are your own editor when your self publish), it cost you M.O.N.E.Y.

This time, on the first galley you get 25 corrections for free (previously each correction cost you $2.50). On each additional galley that you get and need to make corrections, they charge you $100 for a block (a block equaling up to 25) of corrections. They also state that if you have more than three blocks of corrections, that it's better to simply fix your manuscript and resubmit it because it's a little cheaper in the long run (yup, they charge a fee if you're such a total screw up that you have to resubmit your manuscript). So my dear friends, the important lesson learned here is that you should always make sure that your manuscript is at least 99.9% accurate and error free.

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With the cover it's just as expensive. Again, the first round of revisions is free, the rounds thereafter are what can get you, so it pays for you to state what your VISION IS FOR YOUR COVER, clearly and concisely the first time, then just do minor tweaking as a revision if need be.

Which is what our intrepid hero did with the cover. Because of the different programming/design systems, what might look good on your computer, comes out very drained as a final product (please see the cover up above). The tweaking that our intrepid hero wants to do with the cover (after getting some clarifying advice from the design team), was to state that he wanted more contrast to the cover (the cover is supposed to be a gradient blend of purple and black) and wants the lettering in a shade of gold. The one thing that didn't need to be changed was our intrepid hero's pen name. Our intrepid hero figures since he's trying to build a brand (brand? you mean like, trying to make something of yourself?), he might as well stick with a name that he secretly liked ever since he came online some two and a half years ago, but only recently started using elsewhere.

As for the manuscript, our intrepid hero took advantage of the 25 free corrections and found about fifteen. Mostly nit-picky stuff that simply helps the story go smoother. However, he found one glaring error that he didn't see when he was originally doing one last re-write before submission. He had his male lead performing one action at the beginning of the page, then perform the same action again at the bottom of the page.

After struggling with that dilemma for the better part of twenty minutes, he was able to remove the offending sentence, with the hope that the story would continue in its same smooth trajectory.

After downloading the necessary forms to fill out, our intrepid hero mailed them out and is now patiently waiting for the second galley and cover to be done and sent to him. If it all passes muster (and considering how much it would cost him if he had to do another round), the finished product should be rolling out in August (unlike with the first one, when it rolled out in November, a mere six months after submitting the manuscript).

On a positive note, our intrepid hero has already signed off on the price for the book: $8 through the publisher's website, $10.75 through retailers like Amazon, and of course it will be a little cheaper if you buy it through our intrepid hero's website, because not only will he pick up the shipping and handling, but he'll autograph it as well. The only downside will be paying the 6% sales tax.

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One more thing: if you can't expand the size of the picture, this is what the blurb says.

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Theirs was a doomed relationship that even a marriage couldn't fix.

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Ray was the antitheis of a hairdresser. Handsome, muscular and a natural flirt, he was the solution to every woman's fantasies. All he wanted though, was to be loved by the mercurial woman of his dreams.

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Gwendolyn was a passionate young woman with a temper that ran as dark as her complexion. Desirable to both sexes, she was determined to find love, no matter what the consequences.

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Who would be the first to betray their marital vows? Ray, who although was enlightened about the world around him, still had those old fashioned values that made him a hot commodity. Gwendolyn, vivacious and passionate, had the looks and the body that could destroy anyone that got in the way of her ultimate goal.

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To be uncoditionally loved. Can that particular end really justify the means?