New Book Cover: Redux

Yesterday I drank my coffee, dusted off my hands, booted up my computer, and went to tackle the cover upload again. Open Firefox (check). Log into Create Space (check). Find Dashboard/Replace Cover (check). Browse (check). Choose file ...
How come all the Print cover art files are greyed out? I just uploaded one yesterday. I squint at the file menu and see that the other Print covers are .PDF and this new one is .JPG.
Merde!
Back to Square 0 and contact the artist.
The gods do not want me to use this new cover!
Or maybe it's Mercury Retrograde or something.

New book cover - Aarrghh!!

I really love the original yellow and red cover on DARK LADY'S STONE with Loriano playing to the Stone with the image of the Lady. Many people have commented favorably on it, but many others said it wasn't a good cover and would turn readers off.
So I finally got a new one to see what will happen and went to upload it to Create Space. It was endless frustration! I think The Gods are firmly against that new cover! Or maybe it's my resistance to change. First I couldn’t figure out where, on Create Space’s setup/ cover screen to input the new file. So I phoned them, and their representative quickly pointed it out. (Why I hadn’t seen that in the five times I’d looked???) So I hit “Upload cover." “Browse.” And I got a message to update Adobe on my browser. I don’t WANT Adobe on my Safari! Why did I get Firefox & Chrome except to have a browser with Adobe? And why do I need Adobe to upload a .PDF anyway? I kept hitting "Later" and "No." Create Space wouldn’t let me proceed. Update Adobe or else!
Back to Square 0. Open Firefox. Log into CS again. Find Cover Setup. Hit Browse. Choose File. I choose the file. Hit upload. And it starts loading—Ta-Da! Two-thirds of the way through a message flashes: Upgrade Firefox. Screw it! I hit Later. And thank the gods my cover file keeps loading. When it finally finishes it looks just like the old cover. I go back to my folder, double-check my artwork files—and it is the old cover!! And furthermore CS is reviewing my submission and I can’t make further changes until they finish. 
Aarrghh!

My New Novella is Out

Last week I published my novella The Whitewood Kitarra on Amazon.com through Create Space. Sheri McGathy again designed a gorgeous cover. It will soon be available through Smashwords and Kindle as well.

In The Whitewood Kitarra, a young singer-poet, Sir Loriano of Vayne comes to the Karaskan court for Summerfest to find a new patron at Countess Elisse's prestigious tournament of verse. He must confront his past disgrace and learn to use his unique gifts in order to compete. We meet his master, Anton of Pareskon, and several troubadours and singers.

In the year since this story first appeared in Sword & Saga Press--thank you, Hunter Ligoure, for ongoing support--further research into 12th Century musical performance indicated minor changes in a couple of scenes. And I've also added a historical note.

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.