If you scroll back a few posts ago, you’ll see the copy of my printed proof. As I mentioned before, the proof wasn’t good because the resolution was too poor. The text was especially bad.
Originally, I thought this had to do with gimp, that gimp had issues with text. Sure, the photo of the teacup wasn’t great either, but that had been with an older camera. I got the advice of someone who had experience similar text issues with gimp, and he suggested doing the text in word, then copying and pasting it as an image. So I tried this, using PDF as an intermediary step.
Didn’t work. So now I’d wasted probably five or six hours redoing the entire cover from start, and it was still just as ucky as the proof copy. Finally, with enough tinkering around, we figured out what the problem was. Hindsight makes it look like a simple problem, something obvious, but there are a lot of hidden secret windows and options in Gimp. The problem was the resolution setting on the original template. So I made a new template, which I can probably reuse for the other book covers.
So, I’m halfway done with the cover. It’s frustrating that I’m now starting over for the third time, but I hope it will look better. I have to schedule in blocks of time here and there, not just when I have no distractions, but also when I’m not sick and tired of staring at a computer screen.
I made some changes to the inside of the book too, changing the margins and making some minor edits. I am assuming that it will take at least one more proof copy before I hammer out the details and get a final copy. Createspace has sent me an email reminding me that it’s still in proof form, and telling me what I need to do to have it up and ready to ship. I want to tell them that I know, I know, but I’m not ready yet.
Still, I’m on track for my self-imposed deadline of May. I am planning on buying review copies to send to people, so if you’re a reviewer, or just a person with a lot of book-reading friends, pitch yourself in the comments. If you know a good reviewer who’d be willing to review my book, let me know.
Meanwhile, I’m at around 83,000 words onthe sequel to DAYRUNNER. I’m stuck in one scene. There’s something wrong with it, and I don’t know what. I also don’t know how I’m going to end it, though I’ve got a general idea. I would really like to have the first draft done by the end of the month so I can make edits and get the ebook up in May. Tentatively, I’d like to have the first four books out in paper format by September. I’m going to work on book 5 as soon as I’m done with book 4. It’s already written; the question is, how much revision does it need? I haven’t even looked at it in several years, so maybe it will need heaps and heaps. Stay tuned…
