Book update: Three editions to choose from! And a bio pic.

As of last night there are three versions of the manuscript that will be used in the publishing of my book.

There is the ebooks manuscript, which has already been used to generate the product for Kindle devices (and I suppose any other ebook reader that comes about for whatever reason).  It looks nice.

And then there are the other two manuscripts, which will be used respectively for the softcover and hardcover editions.  And here is where some issues arose...

Hardcover books published by Amazon's service are limited to 550 pages.  The hardcover version of my manuscript is 490 or so pages.  There is much more room, up to 820 pages, in the softcover format.  My softcover manuscript is 404 pages.  I had to do some serious gymnastics with fonts and spacing to get each version of the manuscript to fit.

Where is this going, you may be asking?  Just this: I've a LOT more available space in the softcover version to use for additional material.

I'm now thinking of making an "enhanced edition" of the softcover with a few photos spread here and there.  It wouldn't add too much else to the cost of the book, only a few cents.  It would be in color also, making it all the prettier.  This would be in addition to the "standard" softcover.

I''m only going to be able to do that if the book sells well.  There is one photo in particular, the one of Dad and a farmer friend sitting on the back of a truck together, that I absolutely want to include but it's a licensed photo so it will cost something to use it.  Maybe if the book sells enough to justify it I'll be able to pay for that.

I hope I can do this.  It would be an opportunity to highlight some of the people who have been in my life and who helped bring me here, past so much that has happened along the way.  This book is their triumph too, as much as anybody's.

In other news, there is the matter of the author's photo that will go on the back cover along with the brief (emphasis on "brief", *laugh out loud*) bio.  I narrowed the possibilities down to four finalists.  Yesterday I put it to a vote with my friends on Facebook.  Which photo of me did they think would be the best one to use?  Here they are:

The runaway winner, with ONE HUNDRED PERCENT of the vote, is #4: the one at the bottom right.  That one got a lot of good remarks about it.  I'm glad that the voting went so wildly in favor of it also.  That particular photo was taken by a friend, who passed away not long afterward.  José had an AMAZING eye for photography and it's going to be great to honor his memory with that.

So, where do things stand now overall?  The ebook/Kindle edition is done, apart from designing the cover.  The hardcover and softcover need covers too, and each will have to be custom fitted for their edition's completed manuscript.

My stated goal earlier was to have the book on sale by the end of the year, and hopefully by the one-year anniversary of the completion of the first draft of the manuscript.  It now looks like this will be on sale by the end of next month.  I plan to have all three versions released together.

And then?  It will be in the hands of whoever comes along to read it.  Hopefully it will be time well spent for them.  My book has three big "E"s to deliver on: educating, edifying, and entertaining.  Time will tell if I succeeded in that.

Categories: book, personal writing, weekly book report, writing