Plunge!

 

You may have guessed that there is a reason I have been using this image when discussing Stories from the Matrix - it is the image we have selected for the cover art.  :)

While we were gone my editor poured the coals on and yesterday came over with the 'final' version of the pdf.  We took some time to review it, made a few minor changes and then she went home to insert the last few things.

At dinner time, blurb notified me that the pdf had been processed and I could go ahead and order a 'proof' copy.  Which I did before bedtime.  

(I didn't feel any urgency - it IS a long holiday weekend and I wasn't even sure if it would get processed before Wednesday.)

However, I have been informed this morning that my order is in their print queue and I should receive that proof copy by July 12.  

(pass the smelling salts!)

The essays are...eclectic...shall we say?  Yesterday I shared one here, replete with my typos when I found I could not copy/paste the file into blogspot and had to re-type it.  We double checked that file to make sure they were all me, not in the pdf.  I won't guarantee that there are no typos left in the ms as a whole, but we did our very level best to comb all of the nits out.  If there are typos, blame me, not my editor.

While 10 days may not seem like a long time to wait, (in reality it's hardly any time at all) it is going to be an exercise in using the patience that is in short supply in my nature.  So, I carry on with my plans, even though the book itself will not be available for a while - yet.

However, one of the things we did in our last minute flurry of reckoning was to go with a lower quality of paper which - if it works - will allow me to set a lower than anticipated price.  It's been a bit of a 'dance' as we weigh up the cost of better paper vs how much we think people will be willing to pay.  

IF (and it's a big 'if') the proof copy seems to be ok with the 'standard' quality of paper, there could be a reduction in what I will charge for the book.  If the photos look terrible (and there are rather a lot of them), then we will change back to the higher quality paper and the original expected price will stand.

There are around 3 dozen essays ranging from quite technical stuff (this blog post got turned into a longer more detailed essay) to very personal experiences (some travelogues), some musing about things like history and attitudes.  There are plenty of 'Laura-isms' and my editor made a technical decision to use lots of photos from my photo gallery (beware of giving full access to your photo library to your editor!)  She said that since I'm a weaver, I needed to show some of the breadth of what I have woven over the years.

When I wrote The Intentional Weaver one person lamented that she could not hear my 'voice'.  Well, this book is all 'voice'.  Several of my alpha/beta readers have already commented that they can hear 'me' as they read.  Now, those people all know me and know how I sound, but you know what I mean.  

The difference between the first two books and this one is that the first two were meant to be 'textbooks'.  One beta reader for this one commented that she feels like she knows what I think about when I'm sitting at my loom, just kind of musing about things.  And that is precisely what I was aiming for, so if nothing else, I hope that others will find a similar reaction.

Over the past year I 'found' several books of essays and obviously the time was right and were part of the spark that brought on this six month torrent of writing, editing, polishing, scrambling to meet my artificial 'deadline' of July 9.  Magic in the Water had the same launch date - it IS my birthday, after all.  And while I won't have actual copies for about 4 weeks, the pdf and book will be available on blurb just as soon as we confirm the format.  This week I will be sending out the review/complementary copies for the rest of my beta readers, so I won't be sitting idle, gnawing on my fingernails waiting for the proof copy!  As a self-published author, there is still plenty of work to be done during the hiatus.

So stay tuned for further updates.

Today it is back to the loom for me.