The cover for the printed version of my first book, The House in the Old Wood, isn’t done yet.
So we took the time to go back through the manuscript again. I am increasingly confident that my wife and I have caught all the typos. Most of what we found would be classified as “style” errors. Those are things that are not necessarily wrong, but are inconsistent. For example:
- When I am conveying what the lead character’s is thinking, I’ve italicized it. But we found one place where her thoughts were in regular type with quotation marks.
- I’ve spelled out all numbers. This was a tough one for me. I’m used to a more newspaper-y style, where you use numerals for ten and above. But in the vast majority of books, all numbers are spelled out.
- Names or titles in quotes — like Mom and Dad — I’ve capitalized.
So most of the things we were fixing weren’t necessarily wrong, and probably wouldn’t stand out to the typical reader. But getting those things right makes for a more professional book that people are going to be able to simply enjoy.
That’s also why I’ve used some of this time to make sure the formatting of the print book and the ebook are good. Getting them adequate wasn’t all that hard. Getting them to look professional took some time. Again, I think it makes it more likely to readers will simply be able to enjoy the books, because in paper or on a Kindle or in a Kindle program on another device, they’ll look like a professional book.
So my anticipated timeline at this point is:
- Submit the print and electronic versions to Amazon Monday.
- Get a proof of the print version late in the week.
- Approve it (if it’s all fine), order some print copies and ask Amazon to list both versions.
- And then, if all goes well, the book will be available in paperback and Kindle editions the last week of May.
I can hardly wait.
by Ian Fallis 
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