Writing and Publishing: Proof Issues

Today I got the proofs to my first two books in my Vampire Secret Agency Series… They are proofs, so they are issues. I was showing my husband and he began to realize everything that goes on behind the scenes when publishing a book and I think he’s starting to understand everything that happens, good and bad, is up to me (or, like I tell them, it’s my fault).

These are still proofs, and even when I have approved the proof for The Recruit, I realize now there are some changes I do want. The Recruit ebook is already publish, so I like to have the paperback ready… still, if changes need to be done, they will happen.

ISSUE #1:

Now that I have more experience with covers, I made a change on the spine. The interior of the book also changed, because in order to make the book more affordable, I made the font smaller in size. This means the spine needs to be very precise in order to be right. To start with, the numbers 1 and 2 need to be smaller. I like the size, but there is no way that number two will fit comfortably. That’s that.

ISSUE #2:

The Recruit has this problem, but you can’t really see it because the top is already so dark it looks black. If you look closely, it’s there, but you can see it more in the Werewolf Phenomenon cover. You can see the black line across the top where the image ends and the black outline begins. The problem is, if I change the image size for Werewolf Phenomenon, I need to change it on The Recruit’s as well, because then the author’s name won’t be leveled.

ISSUE #3: 

This really isn’t an formatting issue. When my husband saw the cover, he wondered why I kept the acronym N.A.V.S.A. as an acronym. Well, because it’s an acronym for North American Vampire Secret Agency. Except he argued that it looked confusing and it may be better to just write is as NAVSA and get it over with. I’m not sure I want this change, but right now would be the best time to do it (as I submit the cover for review again). Not only that, I’ve thought of removing the parenthesis… I don’t know.

On the other changes:

One important change I made was the back cover. Before there was the blurb, a rectangle where it said it was part 2 of the N.A.V.S.A. series, my picture and bio.

This time, I opted for a more simplistic back cover. I’ve seen this done before and it works for me. Not only that, I’ve seen some back covers that consist of just one line of text. I think the blurb in all caps and using this font looks pretty cool. Do you agree?

Well, and that’s the end of the cover updates and issues!

cheers!