My book is here!

I'm in the throes of self-publishing The Dark Lady's Stone.  

After JoSelle Vanderhooft went over my manuscript and caught slews of little things, I started to upload it to Create Space. It's quite a learning curve! I downloaded their template and copied my text into it. And discovered all kinds of problems, like text running over the margins. And developing front material--you know the fine-print stuff you skip over but it has to be there anyway.

What to use as a scene break--asterisks are so boring! I settled on an Infinity sign. Dedication, Acknowledgements - remembering all the folks who helped me along the road, Table of Contents and hunting down all those pesky page numbers and--ooops! Discover a slew of widows and orphans to fix. Which changes the page numbers . . . 

Finally it loaded and was printable but it needed proofing. On-line proofing caught lots of mistakes. 

Can I hit Go? [Slather, pant] 

Better order hard copy because it's amazing how many problems stand out on the printed page. I don't want to look like an idiot. 

Wait for hard copy to come, and wait . . . [Sound of drumming fingers.] In the meantime, I read Smashwords manuscript prep instructions like the Bible and start to develop a Kindle file. 

The book came, and it's Beautiful! Sheri McGathy's cover is gorgeous with real pages in the middle. And I get to actually hold my firstborn book in my hand! I've waited 35 years for this. 

I can hit GO!??

Don't be hasty. Little problems do jump out on the printed page. 

Yep, there are lots more. Proofing this hard copy is quite different from the page proofs I used to read as an editorial assistant in the early 60s. Back then, you had to remember all the capitalization, comma policies, formatting quirks in the whole piece and mark the pages (delete, insert). Now I just use "Find" and they're highlighted and, being typesetter as well as author,  I can simply fix 'em.