(Originally posted on LiveJournal)
It’s something I talk about when telling friends about how to get comic book editors’ attention: write a letter and mail it snail mail. The physical object has power – a physical letter with your signature on it makes a surer impression than a posting on a message board or an email to the editor. Indeed, a friend and I were exchanging email comments recently about this — we’d gotten together while I was on my recent trip, and I sent her an actual card thanking her for the evening (well, it was a pretty card, too – selected with her in mind).
Yesterday, I’d gone out on an errand, and when I returned, there was a package on my doorstep. My heart jumped, and I went “Oooo!”
You see, I have been expecting this last week the arrival of the physical proof copy of The Scribbler’s Guide to the Land of Myth. I have been in an excited anticipation at the prospect of seeing at long last the physical manifestation of all my work.
Alas, it was not the proof, but merely some other item that I had ordered.
Today, however, the UPS man arrived at my door, with a package I had to sign for. This is it! I thought. And it was!
Here it is, at long last. It’s physical. It’s real. It’s here.
I’d chosen the 7 1/2″ x 10″ size because the manuscript was long. To have it in hand confirmed the rightness of that choice. It’s 432 pages long, but at that size page, the typeface chosen is just the right size. I could have chosen a smaller size, but I think any smaller it would give readers headaches. This is just right.
There are some things that seem odd, but they are livable. The margins are much narrower than I expected. And because it’s a paperback, the flexibility of the spine occasionally creates the illusion that the printing is slightly skewed – even though closer examination proves it is not.
Then, alas, there are possible minor errors. Even though I spent considerable time reviewing the manuscript proof, just flipping through the end pages, I spotted two “problems”: one title didn’t get italicized in the notes, and in another place I didn’t add some information at the bottom of something (the information is actually available elsewhere, but this was a redundancy I had set up for other works and overlooked it on this one). They may in fact be the only errors still left in the book. But there has been such a long delay in getting this work into print, I will probably leave those points uncorrected (in “this edition” as it were). They are more stylistic matters important to my aesthetic than they are content matters important to the readers. I’ll do some more thumbing through it, but I expect I will approve it as is tonight, which means the whole publication mechanism will begin turning.
Of course, all of a sudden, now that it is here, I realize I have a LOT of work to do now! I have to get the website for the book up and ready. I have to make certain contacts in order to set up a possible launch party in the near future. I have to find what …. the PRICE of the book will be! (BookSurge apparently is the one who sets the price on the book, but their methods of determining that are not explained on the website. I need to contact someone to find out that information.)
But mostly, there’s this really strong impulse to take the proof book and run around going “Look! Looky! Isn’t this cool!?! Don’t you want one? You WILL want one! Looky!”
I sat several days with the printout of the galley on my lap, going through the thing. But somehow, the individual pages of the printout did not have the same physicality of the actual book. It’s not bound, for one thing. It didn’t have an actual cover, for another – especially not the cover with the artwork on it.
I am very, very happy. And now I have to get very, very busy to get the creature out into the hands of readers.
Comments
wellinghall – Sep. 3rd, 2008
Excellent news!
scribblerworks – Sep. 3rd, 2008
Thank you!
sartorias – Sep. 3rd, 2008
Congrats!
scribblerworks – Sep. 3rd, 2008
Thanks! I’ll be working on getting at least a page up on the book’s own website tonight. It’s exciting and weird.
kalimac – Sep. 4th, 2008
Yes! Congratulations; this is exciting. (Index look OK?)
scribblerworks – Sep. 4th, 2008
The index looks terrific, and much more importantly — USEFUL!!!
Thanks ever so much, once again!
