Very Big Book Day

Thank you so much for all your kind comments and emails yesterday! I was worried about how quilters would react when I archived my quilting groups on Facebook.

But it turns out I shouldn’t have been worried at all. It seems the majority of people agree with our decision and feel that this platform has gotten out of control with divisive, angry, hurtful people. I feel immensely relieved and so very thankful for your support.

Starting next week I’m going to share new design videos on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Today I’d set aside all week to finishing up work on my fiction novel, Mally the Maker and the Queen in the Quilt.

Yes – finishing up! The writing ran from last October to March, then I’ve been editing the text for the past few months and two weeks ago I began the layout process.

This is my first experience arranging a book and doing all the graphic design with the proper, industry / publishing standard programs and I’ve gotta say, it makes a HUGE difference! I never wanted to spend the cash for the Adobe programs before, but now I can 100% say they are well worth it.

So why all day? I’ve found that when working on a book layout and editing it’s best to do ALL the work at once. It’s hard to know where I stopped if I don’t complete an entire section at once.

Yesterday we had dental appointments, the day before that I took James zip-lining, so Thursday had been set aside all week as the dedicated focus day for Mally the Maker.

I’m so glad I gave myself the time and space to focus because it’s now done! I wasn’t expecting to get the cover art done in addition to the book interior, but after a quick download of the cover template, I realized I could do it all in one day.

I uploaded the files to Ingram Spark and now it’s in review. Give it two days and I’ll be able to order sample copies and see what the book looks like all bound up!

I did experience a few glitches along the way and this is why I always leave myself plenty of time and make sure I have a whopping helping of patience for this process. I kept producing the cover art and it kept coming up with an error saying there was spot color used on the spine instead of CMYK.

This is where I usually start tearing out my hair in frustration. I’m a QUILTER. What the heck does Spot Color even mean and why is it such a big deal? Can’t I just check the bypass button and get on with it?

But I know better than that. If the system says their is a glitch, there’s a glitch and it must be fixed.

After twelve attempts to remove the color from the font I realized the issue wasn’t even there. It was in the guiding rectangles I’d set up to make sure the cover was properly proportional in the template. Delete. Delete. Delete. Export.

DING! The title is now in premedia! Whoo hoo!

Yes, this is tough. There are times I feel really, really intimidated by the idea of doing everything myself. I know if I’d gotten up this morning thinking it was cover art day, I might have tried wiggling out of it. I’ll do anything other than that!

But it’s was worth it. This process went 1000 times smoother than any other book I’ve ever written, largely because this is a fiction novel and not a how-to quilting book with 300+ images, but it was also easier because I was using the right software for once!

I know next book will be even easier and the next even easier still. That’s the process and that’s how this works.

Now that this project is nearly done, what’s next? I came upstairs after the files were accepted and looked around. Dream Goddess is draped over my sewing machine with only one little section left to be quilted. My free form crochet sweater is also nearly complete with only one medallion left on one sleeve.

So I guess it’s finishing time! Let’s see what else I can get done this week!

Let’s go quilt,

Leah Day