I’ve been absent from this blog for a while, but I haven’t forgotten Jessica! Not even a little bit, let alone entirely. 🙂
Publishing a book is always a big job, but publishing a children’s book with illustrations is an even bigger one, I discovered. Long story short, Jess Cee gave me the last of the illustrations, I plugged them into the manuscript, uploaded to Amazon and ordered a proof.
First off, I succumbed to peer pressure (never do that, kids) and ordered my proofs with a matte cover instead of glossy. I didn’t like it. Here’s what it looked like:
It’s just a bit too…blah. The colors are muted and I missed the smooth feeling of the glossy covers. Here’s the back:
So I decided before I even opened it that I’d be changing to glossy. And then I opened it up. And that’s when I realized I had some more work to do.
Chapter breaks were out of place, pictures had moved around, there were random white spaces. Here’s an example:
Okay, I’m not exactly a perfectionist in day-to-day life. My office is disorganized, my house is a mess, the kids and animals rule my household! But when it comes to my books, I want it to be right. That’s a full five lines of white space on page 32! No way. Plus, the margins aren’t right and the print, for a children’s book anyway, looks way too small.
I’ve now spent several days perfecting those mistakes and others. Just this morning, I ordered another proof. We’ll have to see how it comes out, but even if it has problems, I am confident now that I have a better idea what I’m doing. And I’ll be able to have everything resolved by the June 30 release date I have planned!
If you’d like to preorder a copy for your Kindle, you can now do that. Otherwise, join me on June 30 for a grand party to celebrate the release of Jessica Entirely!
Shelley Gee 