Of Dreams and Faith Proof Copy

I received the paperback proof copy of my non-fiction project, Of Dreams and Faith, last week. After reviewing the proof, I realized there were some things that needed to be fixed, mainly with the cover design. They have since been updated, and I just ordered a second proof copy which should be arriving at some point this week.

Some of the things I found wrong with my cover:

First off, the file became distorted for some reason and when I received the proof copy, there was a sharp white line running across the entire bottom half of the book. I think it may have been an anomaly with the file itself, or something on Createspace's end, but either way when I uploaded the revamped cover design it was gone on the digital image - I am hoping it is also gone on the physical cover when the proof shows up.

Second, I never noticed the space between the F and the A in the word 'Faith'. The font itself does that, as the word 'Faith' was created in another program and exported as an image. To fix this, I just created an 'F' and 'aith' separately and joined them together in the cover image.

Another flaw I noticed once I had the paperback in my hands was the massive distortion around the lighthouse and some of the rocks. Going back into the cover design file itself, I realized the whole image was originally saved at 72 DPI, which is unacceptable quality for a paperback cover. This was an easy enough fix, as the image simply had to be saved under 600 DPI, which brought it out clearer and crisper. Of course, the whole cover wasn't exported as 600, but 300, but the image itself of the lighthouse and the rocks was converted to 600 to clean up a lot of the distortion.

The final flaw ended up being some mispositioned text on the back cover. I already knew the text might come out being a little off because of the cut-off points, but it was an easy enough fix - I simply shifted the text to get it away from the spine.

All in all, the corrections to this cover weren't too difficult. My wife even cleaned up the lighthouse further, taking off the black square, the text above the door, and the little pole poking out of the top. The inside of the book had a few spacing issues here and there, but the chapter titles, text, margins and page numbers all came out looking just the way I wanted them to.

Here's the final cover design:

Proof Copy of Black Earth: Dark Masquerade

I just received the proof copy of my latest novel, Black Earth: Dark Masquerade, in the mail. Proof copies always make me nervous because if there's one little thing wrong with the book, another one usually needs to be ordered to make sure the correction didn't send ripples through the rest of the book formatting.

This time around, it seems everything inside of the book is in good shape. My problem seems to be the front and back cover.

For some reason, Createspace neglected to include the bar code on the back cover.

I contacted their support team and they said they are going to speak with their technical support department about it and get back to me.

The other issue is the front cover. The intended image -

turned out like this -

You'll notice that the proof copy has the bottom portion (very thin) of the Black Earth title cut off. That's my fault because I didn't enlarge the text boxes in the program I use to create the cover. That's an easy fix though. 

The biggest issue is that the background went completely black, instead of having the texture and shading of the black cloth my wife used as the backdrop when she photographed the mask. I'm not sure what went awry in the printing process that would cause the whole background to disappear and turn completely black. Createspace's support department gave me a cookie cutter answer about how small variances are expected. Thanks.

Fortunately, after showing the book to some trusted sources, we're all in agreement that the front cover image looks great the way it is. The mask vanishing into the darkness actually goes with the title and adds a bit more intrigue to the cover. I know if my wife and I try to tweak the background at all it is going to result in many more proof copies being ordered and possibly weeks before the book can be released. I just don't see the need to fix something that isn't broken, or is broken but looks just as good as my original desire for a cover design.

So, it looks like I'm right on track for the book to be released both in paperback and ebook next Wednesday!