Friday, May 28, 2010

Final Text Changes Made Today

Today, I made the final text changes to Where Love Once Lived. That scared me because every time I look at the manuscript I find something else to change. For example, I just happened to see this:

She felt the heat of his body and his familiar scent, both so strong she turned away.

Yikes! She couldn't have felt his familiar scent, not unless it was burning her nose. I changed it to:

She felt the heat of his body and smelled his familiar scent, both so strong she turned away.

Not great literature, but more accurate. This I found after millions of edits by me and several professional editors. So, I know there will be mistakes in the printed book. But, I've reached the point where it doesn't matter. Surely, there won't be anything too seriously wrong.

I made the final text changes because I received the interior proof for final approval. It was the first time I have seen the entire book in its final format. I had been wondering if it would look like a real book. It does. It's not huge. About the size of Elizabeth Berg's books. It is 5 1/4 x 8 inches and has 296 pages. The Microsoft Word version is 310 pages, double spaced, so this gives me an idea of size for future books. Now that we know the number of pages, the cover designer will know how wide the spine is.

CreateSpace recommends printing the interior proof out so you can see what it looks like on paper, but I only printed the first chapter. Then I scanned the rest of it on the computer screen. It looks pretty good. It would have been much longer if I hadn't cut out so many of the subplots. I kept everything and might find a way to use some of it in another book. But, I like the way the book ended up. It contains just what is needed for an interesting story.

Next week, this blog will be a little different. I've taken an entire scene from Where Love Once Lived and divided it into five parts. You'll be able to read one per day starting Monday, May 31, 2010. Let me know what you think about this. I might do it again sometime.

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