It’s my book, I can cry if I want to

When I received the proof copies of Paragon I pictured myself doing a happy dance. I’d heard other authors talk about the first time they saw their book in print. How glorious it was, like there were beams of light radiating from the pages themselves and a choir of angels singing. Imagine my surprise when I opened the box, pulled out a copy of my book, and burst into tears. I proceeded to bawl for the next two hours straight. I suppose if they had been tears of joy it would have been okay, but they weren’t.

I can sum up the reason for my tears with one thought: the first look at my book was a proof copy and I had made several formatting mistakes. Most people probably wouldn’t even notice the things that brought me to tear, but I had a moment of perfection planned and dang it, I didn’t get it right the first time. Not that that should have surprised me, I don’t think I’ve managed to get a single thing right the first time with anything related to writing (something I love), let alone publishing (something I don’t love).

After I cried, threw a fit and vowed never to do anything remotely related to publishing ever again, I picked myself up, dried my tears and got to work fixing the mistakes. A little side note-I followed the same pattern the entire rest of the day. I vowed to quit at least a dozen times as I worked to fix problems. Which means two things: don’t believe me when I’m beat and say I’m going to quit and unless you plan on being trampled stay out of my way because I will succeed.

Here are three big things I learned when I saw my book in print the first time.

  1. Golden rectangles are important
  2. Serif fonts look better in print
  3. Don’t open the box until you are ready

1. Did you know there is something called a golden rectangle? My son has talked to me about them many times, totaling up to several hours worth of information about golden rectangles that obviously didn’t sink in. So here’s what you need to know about golden rectangles if you are publishing a book: there is a certain height to width ratio that makes some rectangles more pleasing to the eye. Case in point-my book. The difference between my book and paperbacks on my shelf was tiny. Mine was 5 x 8. The ones on the shelf were 5.06 x 7.81 but I could tell instantly that my book was not a golden rectangle. Somehow that tiny amount (.06 x .19) made my book look long and too skinny.

2. A serif font is like Times New Roman or Garamond. A serif is a small line attached to the end of a stroke in a letter. Sans means ‘without’ so a sans serif font does not have the small lines attached to the end strokes in letters. What kind of font you like is a personal choice, but there is a reason most books are printed in a serif font. It is easier to read on the printed page. However, on a screen like an e-reader or computer a sans serif font tends to works better. If you want your book to look professional, use a serif font in your printed book.

Of course now I have to make a disclosure statement about how it is possible to have a book look professional and not use a serif font. It is also possible to rake fall leaves on a unicycle but I wouldn’t recommend that either. Unless you are a professional leaf raker with tons of experience don’t get fancy and try to do it on a  unicycle. You’ll just look silly. Same principle applies to picking fonts; don’t get fancy the first time you do it or the second or third… My problem came because the sans serif font I chose looked fine on the computer screen (refer to what I said earlier about how sans serif fonts look better on a screen). The font did not look so great when I opened the printed proof.

3. Think for a moment about watching TV. It’s been a long day, you want to turn your brain off and be entertained. You plop down in your favorite spot, wiggle around until you’ve sunk in just right and sigh. Then you realize you don’t have the remote. So you hop up, snag the clicker and settle in again. Then you realize you’re hungry, but you don’t want to get back up so you holler into the other room, “Hey, grab the chips and a soda for me.”

Nothing happens.

“Please.”

They bring you chips and a soda but you wanted rootbeer and Doritos and they brought Sprite and the last crumbs in a stale bag of potato chips that had been lost in the back of the pantry for three years.

Moral of the story is plan ahead. Grab the remote and get your own snack before you sit down, then you won’t be disappointed. In the same way, if you want angels singing in the background and beams of light surrounding your book the first time you see it, put on music and get a spot light before you open the box. And that’s exactly what I plan on doing from now on.

 

 

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