Tuesday, July 21, 2009

G's Adventures? Now! (4)



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?

10 comments:

  1. Our intrepid hero must be tired putting all this together :) Thanks for all the advice about this process. If I ever get published (probably when I'm 90!), I'll be glad to have your tips. I'm looking forward to buying my own autographed copy to show off to my friends:) Congrats!

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  2. Thanks.

    I don't think he's getting tired, for our hero is quite unflappable.

    He just informed this cub reporter that the second galley has arrived and he'll be spending the night checking to see if what he requested to be fixed, was in fact, fixed.

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  3. I'm undergoing some similar pains with a galley myself at the moment.

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  4. They can be an adventure.

    Fortunately I lucked out this time as I only found those errors I missed the first time (first book I had about 50 typos which coste me about $120).

    I just found out that the cover revision is ready, so I'm excited to see how that came out.

    BTW: Just finished the third volume today and it really rocked.

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  5. Congrats!

    Do you ever use a fresh set of eyes to check for mistakes? Quite often we skip over obvious things, our mind automatically making the correction before we even register it. Do you enjoy the editing process? Or do you find it tedious? Myself, I love it!

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  6. This time around, I checked it about 4 times before I sent it in. I found about a dozen typos in the first galley.

    When I got the second one yesterday (7/22), I found two more at the very end that I missed the first time, and unfortunately, after removing that one sentence to make the passage flow smoother, it didn't. I'd found a continuity error that I hope will be overlooked by the reader.

    I don't mind the editing process, because when I'm writing a longer story, what'll I do before continuing with it, is go back to the beginning and do some quick editing.

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  7. Hey G -

    Is your last name on your cover, or do you just go by Georgie B as author? (Thought maybe you have it blurred out for us.) :)

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  8. My full name is on the first one.

    I plan on using Georgie B as my pen name.

    I've actually been using that name in the chat rooms for the better part of a year, and even though I changed it recently on my blog, I like the name very much.

    I do want to build it as brand so to speak, so whatever I publish from this point forward will be under my pen name.

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  9. Yep, all those glitch dealings are alotta work!
    I'm a designer with a degree- I'd be crazy over them messing with the cover design!

    For editing I wait at least 24 hours after writing, then cut it up into hunks, n break between each section so don't skim over n miss as many boo-boos.

    Best of luck with the final cut- (You might consider a trailer ad as ThommaLyn did.)

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  10. Thanks.

    Like I stated in a previous post, I was disappointed that I couldn't use the picture that I wanted on the cover. I think by the next time, I'll have a subscription to that website (they got some good royalty free stuff there).

    As for editing, I've gotten to be quite meticulous this time around. On the second galley though, I missed two errors that I'm pretty sure won't make it too hard to understand what I'm saying. I've left them as is, because quite frankly, I don't want to pay a 100 bucks to have two errors fixed.

    ReplyDelete

Go on, give me your best shot. I can take it. If I couldn't, I wouldn't have created this wonderful little blog that you decided to grace with your presence today.

About that comment moderation thingy: While yes, it does say up above I can take it, I only use it to prevent the occasional miscreant from leaving thoughtless and/or clueless comments.

So remember, all of your comments are greatly appreciated and all answers will be given that personal touch that you come to expect and enjoy.

G. B. Miller

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All the content that you see here, except for the posting of links that refer to other off-blog stories, is (c) 2008-17 by G.B. Miller. Nothing in whole or in part may be used without the express written permission of myself. If you wish to use any part of what you see here, please contact me at georgebjr2006@gmail.com