Tag Archives: making a book

Doug, I Lost Your Email!

pencil drawing from the upcoming book The Cabins of Wilsonia

This is a personal note to a friend, but you are welcome to read it. Duh. I posted it on the internet!

Dear Doug,

Thank you for using the Contact button on my blog. I was delighted to hear from you, and meant to set your email aside for a thoughtful response later. Instead, I deleted it. My excuses are that it was at the end of a long weekend away from the computer so there were many emails to read and sort AND in spite of continually changing my password, my email is being messed with by some unknown entity which causes me to manically delete messages (or maybe the unknown entity is deleting them. . .?)

Excuses aside, thank you for contacting me! I have been so curious about that little A-frame – is it Doug’s family cabin? Does he ever go there? Will he be up here when I am? Will he be disappointed that I only drew the funny lounge chair? Will he be pleased that anything from the cabin appears in the book?

My choices about what appears and what doesn’t are not based on historical significance. The book is about cabin life today in pictures (276 of them) and quotes by cabin owners and visitors. Not all cabins are included, because the goal is to show an overview album rather than a cabin-by-cabin directory. It is meant to show a balance of the typical and the unique.

I chose your chair, void of cushions, because it tells me a story about cabin life.

In other news, thank you for sending me a customer named Roger. He is gathering photos of a barn in Michigan for me to draw. (I’d rather he gather me a round-trip airfare, but no one does that.) Receiving a recommendation from such a fine artist as yourself really does my heart (and ego!) good.

Blessings to you, my old (as in long-time, not aged) friend,

Jana

A Proof Copy

What’s a proof copy??

It’s an unbound copy of the book (The Cabins of Wilsonia) on paper. The pictures and type are the correct size but it is on oversized paper with trim lines.

I asked what I am looking for, since I provided camera ready copy. The answer was this:

“In the proofs, you should be looking to see if all elements at printing per your expectations. Are the running heads aligning correctly? Are the margins correct? Are the images in place correctly? Watch for font issues. Sometimes they do weird things and throw a symbol or wrong font in there. Otherwise, just make sure it looks good and meets your expectations. If you’re not sure of something be sure to ask. Once it’s printed it will be expensive to fix.”

Teeheehee – “Once it’s printed it will be expensive to fix.” (And did you notice the typo in the quote from the printer?)

No kidding! I’d have to pay to have it reprinted!

I found one little thing – there were 2 spaces between a couple of words. I thought about leaving it and then having a contest to see if anyone could find it. I changed my mind. It is now fixed.

I also noticed that the type is sort of biggish-looking. Since I know more folks who use reading glasses than those who do not, this is fine. It was intentional, but I didn’t know it would be sort of like an easy-reader look. Still, this is fine.

I thought it was going to be here by the end of September. Now I am not sure.

More will be revealed in the fullness of time.

Have You Pre-ordered Your Copy Yet?

The Cabins of Wilsonia is not yet printed but it is for sale. If you buy it before September 15, the price is $70, which includes tax and shipping. Actually, the price via Paypal is $69.99 because no matter how I manipulate the numbers, I cannot get it to be $70 even! Or, I could if I changed the shipping to $5.01. . . .

Nah. I’m tired of messing with the computer stuff. I think my Adobe InDesign experiences will have me feeling jumpy about computers for quite awhile yet.

~~So, if you’d like to pre-order your copy, you may do so here using this Paypal button:~~

The Next Challenge

The cover design has given me fits.

It took awhile to decide on the picture for the front of the book. Nope, not telling!

Then, I had to design the cover in my head. That wasn’t too hard – title, drawing, my name.

Then, this is where it gets hairy. Adobe InDesign is not an easy thing to use, and the world of covers is not a place where I have a map.

The printing company sent a diagram for the cover design with confusing dimensions and terms like “cloth size” and “board size” and all sorts of fractions that didn’t translate into clean decimals.

Then I saw that it was for a vertical book. Oops. My book is horizontal.

I requested and received a new diagram, which was just lines and measurements. Still no clarification on “cloth size” versus “board size”, and don’t even get me started on the whole issue of the spine dimensions!

It took the better part of an afternoon with InDesign, Googling for instructions, sending out an SOS to Carol in Seattle who was on a ferry returning from the San Juan Islands, which is where I want to live when I grow up, more googling, experimenting, and gritting my teeth with the effort of not screaming or slamming the laptop shut and picking up some nice soothing knitting.

I thought I got it. I sent it off. Then, the design department at the printing company sent me an email with a real template to use with InDesign so I redid it.

The person in the design department is named Jana. Why does that matter? Because I may be temporarily insane from the frustration of InDesign, which means everything takes on a new significance.

Perhaps it is time for a break. How about a nice cuppa?

So worked up here I forgot to mention the title of the book, The Cabins of Wilsonia, in case Google is listening.

Want to Pre-Order The Cabins of Wilsonia?

Until September 15, 2014, the total price of the upcoming book The Cabins of Wilsonia will be $70, including tax and shipping.

On September 16, 2014, the price will become $86, including tax and shipping.

If I were you, I’d order before September 15, 2014, because $16 is Sixteen Dollars, which I consider measurable money.

But, it’s up to you.

There are two ways to order:

~~1. Use this button and pay with Paypal.~~

The offer ended 9/15/14.

2. Mail a check made out for $86 to CABINART to my P.O. Box in Three Rivers, which I will send you if you email me using the Contact Button/Tab/Word/Menu Item/Whatever it is called above. That is if my email is fixed. I waited 80 minutes for AT&T to answer and finally decided their phone system is broken. Okay, never mind about using the Contact Button – P.O. Box 311, zip is 93271.

I wrote it all in that convoluted manner because there is something wrong with my email and now I am paranoid. So, real people with working brains can get my address out of that paragraph above, but whatever is causing my email to break won’t be able to.

Does it feel as if we are having a conversation using a shoe instead of a phone??

Life was simpler before the internet came along. Cabin life wasn’t that much different from real life. Cabin life is a simpler life, and that’s part of the story portrayed in The Cabins of Wilsonia.

Waiting

Did you think from that title that I am waiting for the upcoming book The Cabins of Wilsonia to be printed?

I’m waiting for my email to get fixed so I can send it. I’m waiting for the sales rep from the printer to call me back so I can cement a few details. I’m waiting for someone at AT&T to actually answer my call. “All customer representatives are busy taking other calls. Please hold, and your call will be answered in the order it was received.” Been hearing this over some very irritating cheesey music for 29 minutes now.

Waiting.

Maybe I should proofread the file once more.

Waiting.

AT&T has cost me so much time and money in the past 3 weeks. Hours on the phone with Paypal, hours on the phone with AT&T, hours on the phone with Apple, hours on the phone with AT&T again.

Waiting.

When I began this project, I didn’t picture this sort of scene at the end of the project. Maybe I should go make a batch of yogurt or knit a bit on a sweater.

Waiting for someone to pick up the phone for 31 minutes now. I really really need my email to work.

Waiting.

Last week I spent hours deleting over 60,000 old emails. They used to be on the AT&T email site, but AT&T made “improvements”, which they didn’t bother to tell their customers about. Email quit working, and after a couple of hours on the phone with some very nice person with a very useless script in India, I was told I could pay for more “help”.

Never mind. I called Apple. I’d rather pay them than pay AT&T. That was about 3 phone calls, each one well over an hour. It took 4 days for all the emails to actually load so I could then spend days deleting them.

Thanks, AT&T.

Waiting 36 minutes now.

I sure hope the email at the printing company isn’t AT&T.

Waiting.

P.S. Update on Waiting: I held on AT&T for 80 minutes before finally giving up. Mechanical Man Voice kept reassuring me that my call would be answered in the order it was received. I think he is a liar. I called back and got someone, and it took 99 minutes of messing around before she admitted that I needed to call Apple again. Apple took about 45 minutes the next day, and I wasn’t on hold at all because I emailed my new best friend there who called me within minutes. He fixed another problem that AT&T caused. I love Apple. Bet you can guess how I feel about AT&T.

No More Proofreading!

“No More Proofreading!” is the same sort of command as “No more caffeine for you, Young Man!”

My husband Michael, AKA Trail Guy, has developed quite a fine eye for design and for typos. It may be his innate perfectionism, but I believe that almost 29 years of living with a Typo Psycho has had its influence on him.

He read through the whole book The Cabins of Wilsonia and found a messed up sentence, an ever so slightly sloped drawing and 4 chapter headings that needed tighter spacing.

There couldn’t possibly be anything else to correct!

So, once again, I converted the entire InDesign file to a PDF and am now awaiting a return phone call from the printer, Thomson-Shore in Dexter, Michigan to verify my paper choices.

Then, I’ll send the book off and there will be NO MORE PROOFREADING!

The Cabins of Wilsonia will be printed as is.

I mean it!

Just a LIttle Bit More

I spent a weekend in Wilsonia, pre-selling the book, selling the original drawings, showing the place to my husband, getting reacquainted with cabin folks, and explaining the project and answering questions. (Usually I’m the one asking the questions, so this was a fun switcharoo.)

Chuck and Penny were the successful bidders on this original pencil drawing (with color in the foxgloves) at the annual Wilsonia silent auction.

One of the main questions was, “When will the book be ready?”

It will be ready mid to late September. The printer/binder has said to expect it to take 6 weeks, so I figure it will be 8.

Meanwhile, I wanted to proof yet again.

This is what I found to fix:

1. A fern needed to be moved. Really! It is important to have your ferns properly placed.

2. There were 2 places with an extra space between words.

3. Two sentences got readjusted to look more balanced.

4. I added the word “Inc.” to the printer’s name on the copyright page.

Honestly, I want this book to be PERFECT. It might not be possible, but I will give it my best shot. Next, my husband will proof it for me. After 29 years of marriage, he has caught the Typo-Psycho disease from me.

Meanwhile, the pre-sale price of $70, including sales tax and shipping is good through the months of July and August. If you click the button below, it will take you to Paypal where you can choose your quantity. If you don’t use Paypal, you can click on the Contact button above and I’ll send you my mailing address so you can buy your book with a check.

Pre-order Your Book

The Cabins of Wilsonia book is now available for a special time-limited pre-publication price.

I sold them in Wilsonia over the 4th of July weekend, and now you can order yours here.

The easiest way I know to do this is to use a Paypal Add to Cart button. It will let you choose your quantity on the Paypal page. If you don’t use Paypal, you may use the contact tab at the top of this page and send me an email. I’ll reply to let you know where you can mail a check and how much it will be. Checks still work.

After the books arrive, I will ship them to you.

If you buy the book now, it will come to $70 with tax and shipping. If you wait, it will be $86 including tax and shipping. When? More will be revealed in the fullness of time.

Are you ready? I sure am!

How Many Ways Are There To Proofread?

There are more ways to proofread a book than most of us can imagine. I want The Cabins of Wilsonia to be the most error free book around. I know it isn’t possible for it to be perfect, but I am giving it every possible check that I can think of.

Pencil drawing of outhouse on Cedar Lane without any retouching in Red/Green/Blue, AKA RGB

Two different friends read through the book for typographical errors. There were a few words that were omitted, a misplaced quotation mark or two, some comma problems, and a weird typeface problem.

This has no retouching but is converted to grayscale.

Good to go, yes?

No.

After the conversion problem, I decided to keep proofreading. Look at all the checks I thought of to do:

1. Quotation marks – all consistently with the period first and then the quotes? Nope, caught a few of those.

2. Peoples’ names – 3 different peoples’ names had a dash preceding the name. Why? Who knows? Now no name has a dash.

3. Has every single drawing been converted to Grayscale? Nope, one was still RGB, which stands for Red Green Blue.

4. Were the edges of every single drawing as clean as they could be? They were after I redid 12 of them!

5. Are all the files in the TIF format rather than JPEG? Of course! I’m not THAT careless!

Pencil drawing of outhouse, converted to grayscale, and all the imperfections have been removed.

Before I send the book to the printer, I will consider all the other ways to proofread. Who knew there are this many options?