Saturday, March 2, 2013

Bookmarks: Everything Takes Longer Than You Think It Will

photo by John Sandel

It's here-itty-here-here-here.

After weeks of round-the-clock emails, phone calls and hair-pulling, and one (only one!) unavoidable spurt of tears, Camelot & Vine is finally available in paperback--or as the old folks call it, a "real" book.

My friend Paula says, "Just upload it! It takes five minutes!"

She's right, of course. It takes five minutes to upload the book's interior, another five to upload the cover. The inside of the book has been ready to go to print since early January.

But when you've worked meticulously with an excellent designer to create a cover you both love, and it comes out looking like the printer just learned how to operate the press that day;
when the scoliosis of your book's spine is worse than that of Richard III;
when WYSIWYG means Wait--You're Sure It Wasn't Yellow-Green?;

then it takes more like six weeks. Six migraine-inducing, return-to-the-drawing-board weeks.

When the book finally came, for the third time, and it was finally right, of course John and I immediately cooed over it. Then I emailed Kate Wong, the designer who had worked so hard. A week ago we were both reaching the ends of our expertise. If it didn't come out right this time, we didn't know what to do next.

"Oh dear God what a relief!" Kate wrote back. "I have to admit I've been nervous all day!" It meant a lot to me to knowing she cared so much.

So, we finally have a book. A "real" book. And because it's birthday month, both paperback and ebook are on special until the end of March. I'll post the Amazon link for the paperback when it goes live next week. For now, you can get the paperback of Camelot & Vine at CreateSpace, which is owned by Amazon, so go figure. The ebook is on special, too, no matter the format you choose, so git yer Camelot while it's hot!

37 comments:

Bellis said...

Hurray! I stayed up past midnight for this.

Dina said...

O happy day! Wonderful!
Thanks for taking us through the long and arduous process. Now I appreciate real books even more, knowing what headaches they can cause along the way.
Mazal tov, Petrea!

Anonymous said...

Congratulations! And a great publicity shot here too!

LOLfromPasa said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Shell Sherree said...

Hooray!!! {insert happy dance here} What a birthday present ~ I'm so happy for you, Petrea. And even though I have the Kindle version {well, a cloud somewhere has my Kindle version but it kindly allows me to read it!}, I'll be very proud to have the print edition on my bookshelves.

dive said...

Woohoo! Wonderful news, Petrea! I can't wait to feel the real thing in my hands and carefully open it to read the delights inside.
Congratulations!

Kalei's Best Friend said...

Ditto w/Dive's comment... It looks gorgeous in your hands... I don't understand why something that seems so easy to do can be so hard. Then again, it seems that nowadays the easier something is, gets harder to put into action.. Congrats! a well deserved glass of wine goes to you!

LOLfromPasa said...

Love this photo and your news, Petrea. I am reading C&V and enjoying it so much that I don't want to reach the last page. It's that good! (Second attempt here at a comment - got in a muddle the first time around. All sorted, I hope :).)

Petrea Burchard said...

You are all very kind. See how that goes? First I showed it to John, then to Kate, then to you. Start with your friends.
CreateSpace has been very responsive, with a super help desk. But their printing process is entirely automated, so we had to figure out not how to make their process work for us, but how to make our cover work within their process. Sometimes it's a matter of getting the exact right person on the phone.

Anyway, I am relieved. Going to try to take a day off this weekend if I can remember how!

Petrea Burchard said...

Oh--and Geoff (llandudnopictures), I have two things to tell you:
first: The picture is an unsubtle pun, "Candelabrum and Vines." (We don't have any Camelot on the front porch.)
second: I'm not guaranteeing this, but I think researching the book taught me how to say "Llandudno."

BaysideLife said...

Brava! I hope you remember how to take a day, you certainly deserve it. As a "real book" fan, I'll look forward to holding yours.

John Sandel said...

Electrons? Pfft!

Paper!? Tosh!

Vellum—!? As if!!

All the classic tales were delivered with appropriate pomp. I want my copy in the original format—& not on some simpering, portable slab of granite, neither. I read my books on cavern walls … or not at all.

Speedway said...

Yay! A real book to dogear to my heart's content! As much as I enjoyed, and looked forward to reading each chapter, it would have been really nice to be able to pick up a book with that wonderful (color) cover to look at each time.

Katie said...

YAY! Good things do come to we who wait! I'm very excited to not only read Camelot & Vine, but to have the book displayed on my bedside table sporting that fabulous cover. Cheers!

Latino Heritage said...

Hurrah! I'll contact you to get my copy.

Petrea Burchard said...

I hope you guys enjoy it. It's had enough of a build-up to be War & Peace!
Contest winners, ahem, will receive their free copies in ... Well, I don't want to give exact dates, because EVERYTHING takes longer than you think it will. But I'm placing the order today, books will be printed and sent to me, and I'll immediately send them to you.

BettyS said...

Congratulations, Petrea! I'm looking forward to it's rightful place on my bedside stack!

Diana said...

Any chance this will be available at Vroman's?

Petrea Burchard said...

Yes, Diana, I will make it available at Vroman's. They have a consignment program in which one can choose different levels. I'll have to study it to figure out which suits me. I'm having to take this all a step at a time.
http://www.vromansbookstore.com/consignment-program

Anonymous said...

I feel as though a happy birth day is appropriate.

Speedway said...

If this is C&V's birthday, does that mean we've all been reading those scan thingies? You know, the ones where everyone says it's a girl because the vague little thingy in the corner is a thumb.

Petrea Burchard said...

I think of the book's birthday as January 1st, for livestock inventory purposes. March is MY birthday, and Camelot & Vine can keep its hands off.

Speedway, I had to think about that for a minute.



Speedway said...

The word I was looking for is 'sonogram.' Obviously, I'm not up on my prenatal picture gazing activities.

March is my b'day, too, though I don't think the year has started until May, when the track opens for Indy 500 practice and quals.

Laura M said...

Got it! Via Kindle, so it won't have the lovely colors in the cover art, but I won't be bending back the spine, either.

Petrea Burchard said...

Hey! The paperback's up on Amazon!
http://amzn.to/VnZHPw

Yesterday they told me it would take 5-7 days. This kind of inaccuracy I can deal with.

Ms M said...

YAY! Glad to hear it finally turned out right! Perseverance pays off!
Love the photo, too. :-)

Petrea Burchard said...

I'll tell John, Ms. M. He gave me direction, set the candles for greatest effect, etc.

Book Dragon said...

I'm so excited for you! Of course, I thought it was already a "real" book. ;-)

Adele said...

Yay!!! I just ordered my copy, which will want to meet you, and be autographed, at Bean Town. Many, many congrats!!!

Petrea Burchard said...

Thanks, BD, you are obviously not an "old folk."

Adele, this is perfect, because I found my bean town card.

TheChieftess said...

WooHoo!!! Read it on kindle...loved it...want to hold the real thing too!!!

Speedway said...

Well, once I realized it was available on Amazon, I just had to have it. And I will, in about 2-3 days.

Petrea Burchard said...

This is why I announce it here first. Thanks, all.

Today I announced it on my Facebook profile. Tomorrow, maybe my "Page." I'll tweet during the week, then what...oh, god, LinkedIn, Pinterest...no, wait, Goodreads has to come first. Argh. I need a publicist. Anybody want a no-pay job?

Susan Campisi said...

This is wonderful news! Congratulations! What a roller coaster, huh? I can't wait to flip through the pages.

Petrea Burchard said...

I imagine there will be more roller coasters, Susan, but now that I've learned many lessons at once I hope I don't have to learn them all again.

Adele said...

Not the elusive card?? I just finished my e-copy a little while ago. Wonderful book, and great twist!

Petrea Burchard said...

Thanks, Adele. So far nobody's published any spoilers, thank goodness!