You know that feeling you get on Christmas morning when you open up a present, and it’s exactly what you wanted?
That is exactly the experience I had last night when I opened up my package from CreateSpace. A Beautiful, shiny, amazing new book.
With my name on the front. And the spine! And the back!
Without further ado, behold, my very first, Print-On-Demand Proof.
The lurvely cover and spine, with perspective.
The back, with blurb! Sorry that it’s a little blurry (Damn you iPhone! I’m sorry, I still love you.) You may notice the bend in the bottom left hand corner. That is the result of my first action taken with the book, which was to promptly, and clumsily, drop it on the floor.
Of course.
And… A quick shot of the interior.
Pretty satisfying right? Maybe not satisfying for you, but feel free to live vicariously through my overwhelming satisfaction. I assure you, I have found the utmost satisfaction.
Sorry, no.
Alas, not all is golden, as I have quickly learned to be the case when independently publishing.
You know that feeling on Christmas morning when you realize that awesome Ninja Turtles sweater doesn’t fit quite right, and that nice pair of light-up sneakers you’ve been pining after already has one of the bulbs burned out? Well, similar situation here.
After a little bit of further inspection, I’ve decided that there are some things I’m going to change. Mostly, it is me being a perfectionist. The cover title is slightly off-center (minor oversight), so I’ve fixed that. Also, I decided that, in print, I’m not the biggest fan of the font I chose (my bad, I really slipped up), so I changed that. I also decided I didn’t like how each chapter start looked (again, rookie mistake), so I changed that.
For me, everything else looks good, and for anyone else thinking of ordering through CreateSpace, the proof perfectly represented what I saw in the digital proofing process. That’s not to suggest you should skimp on ordering a proof, but you could.
Once my changes have been cleared by CreateSpace’s reviewers, I’ll be giving it the thumbs up for print and sale. Keep your eyes open for the release, which should be some time in the coming week. Don’t forget, the eBook versions are already available for your Kindle or Kobo Reader (check out the Books page), and should be available shortly on iOS when the iBookstore finally clears my submission.
Shortly after that, I plan on doing a few blog posts on all of the things I’ve learned in the process of self-publishing my first novel. I’m not going to act like an expert, but I definitely experienced a learning curve, and I’d love to help other first-time authors around the bend, so stay tuned for that as well.
Until next time, cheers!
J.R. McConnery 
That looks really nice. When the whole publishing process rests only on you, its hard to get half of it right, much less on the first proof. But your cover looks great, styling looks good, and you’ve already made the changes you need.
Now all that’s left is signing it, dating it, getting it noterized, and then in 20 years when you’ve sold 20 million books, it’ll be a nest egg ;P (Neil Armstrong did it. He signed over 10,000 autographs before he went to the moon, kept them in a safe and sold them after he retired.)
Anyway, nice work. I bet you feel proud.
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It’s been a lot of work, but the whole process has been extraordinarily rewarding. Proud may be an understatement. Waking Woods has been a long time coming!
That’s really interesting about Neil Armstrong, I didn’t know that. I’d love to sell 20 million copies, but just having it out there, and discoverable, is more than enough for me. If a few strangers pick it up, read it, and enjoy it, I couldn’t be more happy.
Thanks for the comment!
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I loved your book. Please let me know when the next one comes out. Great story.
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Thanks Carole! Glad you enjoyed the read. Im looking at a busy winter, but I’m going to try to get a first draft of Shadows Shift (The Courser & Wallace Chronciles, Volume II) done by the end of the summer.
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