Proofing Page Proofs of the Fortune Book

The page proofs for The Adventures of Elizabeth Fortune came in this week. Here, the moment of truth. Was the editing really topnotch? Did the layout go the way it was planned?

This is the second printing of this book, the first done more than 10 years ago by a company long out of business. I utilized the original print copy files and did a bit of tweaking—such as putting in the several paragraphs of dialogue and other text that had become "lost" in the first printing. No, not edited out; lost. The editor even called me to ask if I had made some changes in the text (didn't tell me what they might be). Editor didn't have sense enough to look at the original and plug in the "lost" text.

You might be wondering why I didn't I see this when previewing the first edition. I didn't get to preview the first edition! The publisher was pushing for a deadline, and assured me all was in order. "No time to send blue lines. Don't worry."

Humpf! That'll teach me.

Hence, when these second-printing page proofs arrived, I decided to scrutinize them. I began with the lost sections I had put in place. Everything fine. Then I started from the bottom of the last page and painstakingly worked my way to the front, not just of the text, but the front matter and the title page. I've found that By perusing the manuscript back to front, there are fewer chances of seeing what you know should be there when it isn’t. You are looking at groups of words and punctuation, not really reading. I found misspells and other things wrong, and verified, by looking in a copy of the book, that these errors had, indeed, gone out in the first printing.

Again, the importance of proofing is confirmed.

The proofs have been corrected and sent off. The Kindle edition of this book had been from the same text copy, so I made the corrections and republished that. I must say, however, that I have no belief that the book is error-free. Someone will surely see what they consider a misplaced comma, a bad transition, a goofy word choice. But without my proofread, I couldn't say I tried my very best.

Full Moon Meant Sleepless Night

When living at more than 4500 feet during vernal equinox, and a week or so before and after, the sunlight doesn't truly disappear until nearly an hour after official sunset. Last night, the full moon was rising at the same time. Before the moon set this AM, the sun was already up. No true darkness last night.

I wouldn't have minded so much, except that we're do for hot weather today thru Tuesday (in the 90s) and w/o AC I like to get my house cool at night. The house is passive solar; adjusting the windows and blinds works well. But that meant opening the windows. When I hit the sack, sunlight still marked the western horizon; the temp was falling into the upper 40s; moonlight streamed in the open window. I pulled on an eye pad. Annoying; it seemed that my eyeballs were sweating; I took it off. Drifted fitfully in and out of sleep, always aware of the outside light.

Around 3:30, when my body relented toward true sleep, there was moon and predawn light; that was enough to rouse one of my resident Meadowlarks. He didn't just twitter on occasion, but began energetic singing! I closed the bedroom window and pressed my best-hearing ear into the pillow. The next glance at the clock showed 5:15, and more birds had joined the chorus. I gave up. I got up. 

Wow, am I tired! 

Of course, a full moon doesn't just disappear after one night. Maybe tonight I'll be too tired to notice.

Front cover, Back cover: Both are Difficult

I finally finished the layout and design of the back cover for The Adventures of Elizabeth Fortune. I had made a new front cover when I published the book through Kindle and developing the concept art was difficult. Relief when I finished.

     This is one of my out-of-print titles I'm putting back into circulation. New ISBN; new barcode. I used the opportunity to correct goofs the original publisher had made, such as "losing" several paragraphs of text in several different places. The cover art had to be new, and that meant a new back cover to go with it. How to arrange everything? How much text? Which colors to use? Does it blend with the front?

       These aren't complaints, because I enjoy this kind of work maybe even more than writing. Once I completed it, I checked the printer specs and, lo, not quite right, so I redid it all, added the required crop marks, et cetera. It all went off to the printer today. (Yea!) I hope I don't get a message that something wasn't done correctly. (Booo!)