Week 5 : The Proof is in the Publishing

Weekly Statistics
Week 5 = 110 Visits to www.Charles-Matthews.com (14% decline), daily average = 15 visits
Not bad considering the book is not out yet, and I really didn't have much time to devote to website activity this week.

2nd Proof is On Its Way!
This is the behind-scene-process involved in getting a perfect looking product (at least that is the goal). There are a lot of little aspects and decisions to be made for the publishing of the book that you may not have considered. Fonts, margins, paper quality, size of book, and layout are all things for you and your publisher to consider, and they aren't necessarily easy decisions. Consider the size, for example. The book should be big enough so that your cover is marketable both in a bookstore and online. But you don't want it to be so big that it is clunky to hold. Then, there is the cost factor to consider; a smaller book equals more pages equals higher cost. For my book, we went with a compromising size of 5.25" x 8" so that the book will look nice displayed in a bookcase, but the cost will not break the bank.
My first proof looked surprisingly great; although I suppose I had nothing to base it against. Nonetheless, I am extrememly excited by the look of the book.
After buying two proof copies, I read through the book (for what felt like the zillienth time) to see if I could catch all those little grammer mistakes that have yet to expose their sneakly little selves. My mother received the privililedge of reading through the other one. Between the two of us, we managed to clean up the last of those buggers for what I hope to be a squeeky clean novel.
The book will not be turned on (i.e. released for sale) until I receive a clean looking proof, so we have ordered our second set of proofs with high expectations of going live in the next week. Very exciting!!

Lessons Learned
I found it to be an extremely huge difference editing my work on paper. I don't know exactly why this was so, but it was much easier finding problem spots. Perhaps the temptation to edit on the spot was taken away from me. Whatever the reason, it is definitly a practice I will continue in the future. In doing so, I promise to plant a couple of trees for each novel I write. ;)