Well, almost my new book. My new book cover!!
The process is grinding along. The schedule publication date is early June. I have gone through all the edits and made the changes or argued about how right I actually am. All the pictures have been selected although I haven’t seen any of them and most I don’t know which is which. This is because I am an idiot and I didn’t put complete file names on the images when I made my submission to the publisher. But it is also because my book is really the publisher’s. Commonwealth Editions is paying for the editing, design, printing, distribution, marketing, etc. My name is on the front cover but it is their book.
I don’t have a problem with this. This is the deal you make when you sign a contract with a publisher. It is up to you to make sure the publisher you are agreeing to work with is a publisher who will be sensitive to your ideas and your design sensibilities. If you don’t like what the publisher has done than it is your own fault.
Of course the other side of this is complete control of the entire process. This is called self-publishing and it is very expensive. I would rather cede some of the decisions (I am after all not an expert in design, marketing, printing, etc) to the publisher I choose than send tens of thousand of dollars to do it myself. That is the best way I know to get an inferior product and a no chance of profit cost.
Oh, and I like it. Commonwealth Editions even allowed me some input on the several cover concepts they had. Now I just have to wait for all the stuff that goes in between. Stay tuned, you all will be the first to know!