Derry, Northern Ireland

Derry, Northern Ireland
A book I'm working on is set in this town.

Friday, May 6, 2016

Slight detour...

Today was car repair day...well, making sure car doesn't need repairs. There was an odd ka-chunk when I started him up so took the day off work and took him in to be serviced and checked. Fortunately, it's pretty quiet, and I'm leaving for Berkeley Sunday morning so I get some time coming.

No problem with the car; just a clamp that shifted and bumped the floorboard, but a couple things needed work so I was there for a few hours. Jumped one of my cards back to near its limit. However, I was able to use their free wifi to update Bowker's ISBN listings for OT and my other books. Some of that detail work I hate so much. Now the car runs good, is all state inspected, my headlights shine in the right direction, and the mechanic thinks I take really good care of him.

But then I get home and have the latest proof for OT waiting...and it sucks. As you can see. This looks nothing like the PDF proof I was sent, and what's worse? The book is not square. The top edge is 1/16 inches wider than the bottom, the spine is 1/16 shorter than the outer edge, and that strip of white on the lower left edge is how off-center the cover was printed. There's 1/4 inch of bleed space all the way around the original cover file, and they still screwed it up.

I called Ingram and they are having their tech people look at this and send me a new proof, for free. But it's delayed things even more; I can't let it get printed till I know they have it set up right.

What's truly frustrating about this is, the very first proof looked beautiful; I just wanted to correct some typos I'd found. Didn't even upload a new file for the cover, just for the text. And it's been crap ever since.

Next time I do a book, I'm tempted to go to their offices in Nashville (I think) and watch it get done.

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