Depending on the printing company you have chosen, your proof may come via the mail as a "Hard Copy" or you may be able to view your proof online in "Electronic Format". Either way, you want to take a detailed look at your proof to make sure that your book looks exactly how you want it to look on bookshelves in stores and libraries.
What are you looking for?
Cover.
Does the cover "bleed" to the edges? What does this mean? There shouldn't be a "White" border around your cover unless that's the way you set it up. Your cover should look as though it "bleeds" off the edge of the paper.
If you have a photo on the cover, does it look pixelated? What does this mean? Your photo shouldn't look like it's made up of a bunch of little squares or pixels. If it does it means that the picture was too small to begin with, and when you tried to enlarge it to the size you wanted it to be on the cover the image was stretched so far that it started breaking down. Does the photo look fuzzy? If it does it means that the resolution (quality) of the photo wasn't high enough to be processed by a high speed professional printer.
Is the title clear? How about your name? What about the text on the back cover? If you are having a hard time reading any of the text on your cover so will potential readers. It looked good on the PDF, so what happened? When documents are processed through a high speed commercial printer certain fonts and colors have a tendency to bleed (blend) into the background they're printed on. You may have to choose a different font, enlarge the font, or pick a different color for your text.
Inside.
Are the pages "placed" how you want them? If you planned on having "teaser" text on the first page when the reader opens the cover and the page is blank, then you will want to go back to manuscript and check for a page or section break, or even a series of enter keys which caused the first page to be blank.
Do your chapters end and begin how you planned them? If you planned on each new chapter starting on the right side of the book and they don't, then again you want to check your manuscript for page/section breaks and an extra enter or two.
You'll also want to double check paragraph spacing to make sure that no paragraphs are "sitting on top" of each other without any blank space between them.
Are your margins even all around your text? You don't want to see your text to close to the binding (spine of the book) which will cause the reader to spread open the pages of the book wide in order to be able to read the words there. You also don't want parts of words or letters cut off on the outer edge of the page either.
Those are the major things to look out for when reviewing your proof! Remember this is the last step before your novel is available for sale to the public, so this is your last chance to make any changes/corrections you deem necessary! After approving your proof, your book is available for retail sales!
Until next time,
Happy Writing/Editing/Leaking/Teasing/Proofing,
G
As always, one-one-one consultations are available no matter where you are in the process of completing your novel, and don't forget the first 30 minutes are Free!
Friday, February 28, 2014
Sunday, February 2, 2014
Creating a Buzz for your Novel
What can you do to create a "Buzz" about your novel while you are "assembling" it for the printer?
It's the age of "Social Media"! There is plenty that you can do!
"Leak" Chapters. In the same way that singers/rappers "leak" songs from their upcoming album, you can "leak" chapters from your upcoming novel on any number of sites! Post excerpts (a page or two) from your novel on your Facebook, Google+, or MySpace page for they lend themselves easily to larger posts.
"Tease" Potential Readers. Twitter limits you to 140 characters so post "cliffhanger" questions, along with the title of the novel and it's release date. You can post the cover of your novel with teaser commentary on Instagram and Tumblr.
Design your leaks and teasers to attract the target demographic you had in mind when writing your novel, and if you had a diverse demographic in mind while writing your novel then you will want to create various leaks and teasers with each one designed for a smaller "control group" demographic. For instance, if you are writing a crime suspense romance novel with a target audience of 25 to 55 year old males and females, you would want to leak a romantic scene for the female demographic and an action scene for the male demographic.
As for leaking your cover, you may want to consider "cutting" the cover up into "bite size" pieces instead of leaking the full cover all at once. You could leak one piece a week over several weeks, and then the full cover when you are a week or so away from your release date.
Another way to create a "Buzz" for your novel is to get your audience "attached" to your characters. You can use short descriptions and avatars to depict your characters, and share that information on Social Media sites to get potential readers attached to the characters which will make them want to read the whole novel.
Be sure to use all forms of Social Media when creating a "Buzz" about your novel! I know that may seem overwhelming when you consider how many social media sites there are today, but if you create the "leak" or "teaser" with your Smartphone it will be easy to share without your having to recreate for every site. Applications available for creating these leaks and teasers are Textgram, Justgram, InstaFrame, Photogrid, etc. that have been developed with Instagram in mind, however, if you have set up all of your Social Media sites up on your phone you can share whatever you create in these applications with any of the available sites, as well as, text messaging, email, and instant message applications such as Hangouts and Messenger for Facebook.
Until next time,
Happy Writing/Editing/Leaking/Teasing!
G
One-on-One consultations are available no matter where you are in the process of completing your novel, and it could be just for a specific topic and not the whole process. Also, don't forget that the first 30 minutes are free.
It's the age of "Social Media"! There is plenty that you can do!
"Leak" Chapters. In the same way that singers/rappers "leak" songs from their upcoming album, you can "leak" chapters from your upcoming novel on any number of sites! Post excerpts (a page or two) from your novel on your Facebook, Google+, or MySpace page for they lend themselves easily to larger posts.
"Tease" Potential Readers. Twitter limits you to 140 characters so post "cliffhanger" questions, along with the title of the novel and it's release date. You can post the cover of your novel with teaser commentary on Instagram and Tumblr.
Design your leaks and teasers to attract the target demographic you had in mind when writing your novel, and if you had a diverse demographic in mind while writing your novel then you will want to create various leaks and teasers with each one designed for a smaller "control group" demographic. For instance, if you are writing a crime suspense romance novel with a target audience of 25 to 55 year old males and females, you would want to leak a romantic scene for the female demographic and an action scene for the male demographic.
As for leaking your cover, you may want to consider "cutting" the cover up into "bite size" pieces instead of leaking the full cover all at once. You could leak one piece a week over several weeks, and then the full cover when you are a week or so away from your release date.
Another way to create a "Buzz" for your novel is to get your audience "attached" to your characters. You can use short descriptions and avatars to depict your characters, and share that information on Social Media sites to get potential readers attached to the characters which will make them want to read the whole novel.
Be sure to use all forms of Social Media when creating a "Buzz" about your novel! I know that may seem overwhelming when you consider how many social media sites there are today, but if you create the "leak" or "teaser" with your Smartphone it will be easy to share without your having to recreate for every site. Applications available for creating these leaks and teasers are Textgram, Justgram, InstaFrame, Photogrid, etc. that have been developed with Instagram in mind, however, if you have set up all of your Social Media sites up on your phone you can share whatever you create in these applications with any of the available sites, as well as, text messaging, email, and instant message applications such as Hangouts and Messenger for Facebook.
Until next time,
Happy Writing/Editing/Leaking/Teasing!
G
One-on-One consultations are available no matter where you are in the process of completing your novel, and it could be just for a specific topic and not the whole process. Also, don't forget that the first 30 minutes are free.
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