I have finally taken the time to put Baby, It's Cold Outside into print. I don't know why I waited so long. Okay, I do know why, it's just embarrassing to admit how frustration can stymie all of my plans so easily. Getting Just Add Heat formatted seemed like a gargantuan task, and I had to go through three proof orders before it was just right. I have learned so much since then. Last week, I decided to bite the bullet and get Baby ready for paperback. It was a Thursday afternoon and Jim was out of town, and in what must have been an M&M fueled haze, I figured I could knock it out before bed. Haha.
While it was true that I was able to format the interior files, the cover was another story. I opened up Illustrator and after an hour of trial and error, finally got the cover template situated correctly (I usually leave this to Jim because he used to be a graphic artist). By 1:30 am I was defeated. I managed to get all of the basics done, but stupidly, I had assembled it all on one layer. Friday, I started over with a clear head and redid the entire cover by noon, this time properly, and had it uploaded shortly thereafter. Amazingly, it looked GREAT! I had gone through a moment of indecision on the Baby cover, vacillating over keeping just the partial face or putting the model's whole sexy upper half. I mean, we all know that sex sells, but eventually I decided to keep the covers for the series similarly styled. I opted to put a transparency of him on the back cover, just because I think he's gorgeous. :)
So, fast forward a couple of days, and finally I got my physical proof copy. I was over the moon with excitement because there is just something about holding a paperback of my work that blows the ebook out of the water. Now, I went through the book page by page, searching out any possible formatting mistakes that I might have missed in the PDF file. Thankfully, there were none, and I approved that proof and sat back with a glow of satisfaction. Ahh, job well done. When Jim got home last night I proudly whipped out the book to show him my awesome new skills, and while I was admiring it I did a double take. There, as plain as day on the back cover was a glaring typo! It felt like my blood had turned to ice. I had somehow missed the first 'c' in acquaintance in the very first line. Of course I would never upload a book without it being proofed by someone other than myself, but in my cover design I had skipped that step entirely. Surely I didn't need anyone to read over one single paragraph, right? WRONG!
After letting out a shriek of horror I ran to the computer to fix the typo and uploaded the new file, but unfortunately, the book is up there for anyone in the world to see until the new cover is approved. This may be the first time ever that I am thankful not to be a super popular author. I can only hope that nobody buys a copy of the paperback until the error is fixed. On the other hand, maybe I'll become an overnight best seller, and anyone "lucky" enough to own a copy with the typo cover will have a collector's item on their hands.
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