NOW It's Real!
- Avree Clark
- 27 minutes ago
- 7 min read
Having done this whole process TWO times, there is specifically ONE thing that makes it feel real . . . and that is when you hold your proof copy for the FIRST time!!! I share my unboxing video below, but before I get there I want to share with you the process of requesting a proof copy and a very valuable piece of advice from my dad that has served me well my whole life, and was beneficial yet again.
How did my dad pass down this piece of advice? . . .
Well, to this day, I struggle with math! I can write a book, but when it comes to numbers and doing fast math, my brain turns to mush. When I was a kid in school, I’d often enlist my dad in helping me with my math homework—but for the record my dad is a much too impatient teacher and it didn’t go well. With that said, he did give me a piece of advice that’s lasted . . . When I would snap my No. 2 pencil in half in frustration my dad would yell at me, “Walk away! Go do something else for awhile and come back fresh. You won’t be solving any problems this way. There’s a solution and you just have to work it out.”
I did like knowing that every problem had a solution.
This advice came in very handy a little over a week ago when I was trying to upload my book file onto Amazon KDP. My first book went so smoothly, that I couldn’t have anticipated anything going wrong this time around . . . but if you've read my previous blog post titled “I Almost Quit . . .” you’d know that I ran into so many struggles with this second book that it nearly spooked me from ever attempting publishing again. Which really wouldn’t work since I’m SUPER excited about my third book in the works!
So it’s a dreary Saturday, May 9, when I attempt to upload the PDF for the paperback interior on Amazon KDP, and after waiting fifty minutes, it informs me that the upload failed. Say what?! That’s new! I immediately go into troubleshooting mode but failed to do the most important thing . . . consider the simplest option as the famous maxim says: When you hear hoofbeats, think horses not zebras. Well, I went immediately to zebra, haha.
I assumed that since my file size was so much larger this time around, my book being 550 pages rather than the 400 pages for my first book, that I better confirm if the file size wasn’t too large. It wasn’t. I next considered that I had some images in the form of sketches in my book and messed around with the bleed settings. So off I went to attempt uploading my book a second time. Fifty minutes goes by. It failed again. I almost want to cry with frustration, but after a quick Google search I learn that gutter margins could be the issue with a book more than 500 pages. So off I go to Vellum to fiddle with the margin size and generate a new draft of my book to then be uploaded to KDP.
By this time, knowing that it takes roughly fifty minutes, I decide to start prepping dinner while I waited. What was I making? A truly delicious spin on a classic—Pub Style Shepherd’s Pie made with sautéed onions, carrots, mushrooms, and celery all diced rather small, along with minced garlic. The house smelled amazing!! (See below.)
While the potatoes boiled away on the stove, I prepared the sautéed ground beef. I kept anxiously checking on the result of the upload. Another fail. Oh well. I couldn’t do anything about it then, I had a dinner to finish making. You see, I’ve had to learn to compartmentalize various tasks—my rule being that while I’m doing a specific task, another separate task is not to enter my thoughts. What I mean by that is being intentional with whatever I'm focusing on at the moment. When it’s time to make dinner, that’s all I have to think about. It’s not time to do work or to think about work. If that makes sense. ;)
I decided it was best to focus on something that I could control.
Once the layers were all assembled, I sprinkled a bit of shredded cheddar cheese on top and popped it under the broiler, determined to enjoy a delicious dinner with my husband while watching a show and not allowing this to distract me enough to bring me low.
Fortunately the dinner was SUBLIME!! My husband even said, “I’d so marry you all over again!” Haha. So after dinner and before cleanup, I decided that I’d attempt one more suggestion Google made . . .
I had opened the newly generated PDF file in Adobe, just as a sanity check, so I thought maybe the file had been corrupted. So back to Vellum to generate a new PDF, and I uploaded it while doing dishes. Buzzing with hope that this was it, I was soon deflated when this, too, failed. It was the closest I’d come to tears at this point. I’d spent half a day on this now!
Taking my dad’s sage advice, I decided nothing more could be done this night, and I certainly didn’t want to be kept awake not being able to shut off my brain—which really used to plague me during the writing of my first book, until I learned how to compartmentalize. Thankfully, I slept very soundly and decided to troubleshoot some more upon waking fresh.
I thought I might have to try flattening the PDF, but I really didn’t want to learn how to do that, so I forced myself to think of another reasonable explanation. In the stillness of morning, praying over what to do, a thought occurred to me . . . I recently got a new laptop, and I forgot that I had turned off automatic updates—because I was tired of coming down in the morning to all my apps and programs having been quit during the process, and I’d then have to rack my brain for all the various web browsers and programs I’d had open while performing so many tasks in order to publish.
And wouldn’t you know it, there was an update required. With great excitement, I let that do its thing and decided I would go shower and get ready for the day of visiting my mother-in-law for Mother’s Day. Though, I feared that if I didn’t figure this out, I would be very distracted and not great company . . . I even told Eric that if I couldn’t get it figured out, I may be forced to stay behind to troubleshoot some more.
With my hair in a towel, I rushed down to see that my computer was done updating, so I performed the same song and dance of uploading my book. Knowing it would take as much as fifty minutes, I went back upstairs to finish getting ready. With great anticipation, I came back downstairs, truly believing this was THE solution, only to have my hopes dashed . . .
Rather than losing my mind, I calmly said to myself, “There has got to be a reasonable explanation. Some solution I’m failing to consider. Stop thinking zebras and think horses.” I had already tried changing settings in Vellum I never had to tamper with the first go ’round. Then a thought occurred to me!! About a month or two before, I got an email from Vellum—my formatting software—letting me know that the latest version was available. At that time, my brain immediately thought: I think I’ll wait until AFTER I’ve gotten this next book out in case something goes wrong or buggy. So I decided to skip this version update . . .
THAT turned out to be a BIG mistake! I Googled if not having the latest version of Vellum could cause an upload failure. I was rewarded with the answer, YES! Still, I didn’t want to get my hopes up too much . . . So I run the update, which completed in mere minutes. I generate a new file. With bated breath, I upload the file . . .
Guess what happened?! Whereas all the other attempts failed after fifty minutes of processing time . . . apparently when it works, it works immediately—processing in under a MINUTE!!
I felt like Charlie Brown scooting back and blinking in surpise to look at the pathetic little tree he’d selected all beautified after receiving a little bit of love. I must have sounded like a maniac laughing at that beautiful UPLOAD SUCCESSFUL message!! I went running through the house cheering, up to my husband’s bathroom where he was showering to burst in to tell him the news. In his cute way, he says, “Does this mean you can come with me to my mom’s after all?”
“YES!”
Before leaving for the day I requested three proof copies of my book, scheduled to arrive Wednesday . . .
On Wednesday that beautiful package arrived!
Are you ready for the unboxing of All Manner of Evil?
I have officially completed the SIXTH reading of my book as of yesterday, and I can honestly say that I'm so sad it's over! I miss it already! I'm so beyond happy with this draft, and I CANNOT wait for others to be reading it!
Even though I'm on vacation—well a staycation—this week, I knew I wanted to get in this final proofread of the physical book so I can consider if I want to upload it to an ARC site like BookSirens, Booksprout, or NetGalley. I also may want to send my book out for editorial reviews, but I'm still undecided at this time.
I enjoyed getting to take my book along on some of my day adventures to sneak in time reading it . . .
Until next time . . .
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