READ the Proof!

Self-publishing is not for the faint of heart. There are more steps than I can count, and it has taken more than twice as long as writing the book. I suppose I could say four times as long, since I am publishing two books simultaneously. This was not my intent, I assure you.

Anyone who tells you print on demand (POD) is a snap has obviously never tried it or is far more skilled at it than I am. After much research (actually, my friend, Felicia, did most of it), I opted for Amazon's CreateSpace. On the positive side, their service is great; on the negative side, their covers curl. Surely I can think of more to say than that. Well, not really.

Everything that has gone wrong has been my mistake, and there have been many of those. I have read, corrected, and printed both books so many times, I'm getting them confused. Every time I get a proof, I find more mistakes. It's unnerving. But it is still better than what happened to a friend of mine who didn't read the proof and thus didn't find all those mistakes.

You guessed it; the book was published just the way it was. All 420 pages.