Max Reif's Blog - Posts Tagged "spiritual-practices"
Does (Book) Size Matter?
Naturally, I was thrilled a week or so ago, when the UPS guy came to the front door with the parcel that I knew was the first copy I would ever set eyes on of my new book. The book had been published a couple days before by The Mindful Word. It's an on-demand book, as many are these days. I wanted to hold it right away, as any dad would his new "baby," and so rather than wait to receive some promised copies from the publisher, I had ordered a copy immediately.
I ripped open the envelope, the fumbling way most of us do that. As it tore, I could see parts of the cover art. Finally, I saw all of it. I pulled the book out, put the envelope "afterbirth" aside, and cradled "Toward an Interior Sun."
But something was not right! The book was TOO BIG! We had formatted it at 6" by 9," one of the usual sizes for a paperback. Due to some complication, it had emerged from the printer at 7" by 10"! I don't want to carry the "baby" analogy too far; it's only a book. But I panicked! The precious object did not FEEL right in my hands!
This experience was a deep lesson of some kind. What is "a book?" We all have some kind of platonic idea of that. A book is some sort of content between covers...at least a hard-copy print book is.
But the heady feeling I expected, the "I've finally gotten a book published by people who believed in it enough to midwife it!" (as opposed to a self-published book) did not come! It felt more like a cookbook, size-wise. Almost, but not quite, a coffee-table book. I couldn't place what it really was!
It seems we have conventions for almost everything in life, though we may seldom be aware of them until they are somehow violated. Was I demented? Was I an ingrate? I went to our bookshelves and got out several paperbacks, even a hardback or two. None were that big! There were several different standard sizes, it appeared, but not 7 x 10, at least for books of short stories or novels!
I had to write the publisher at The Mindful Word, "It's too big! It doesn't feel like a real book!"
At first he wrote back, "Now that it's out, we should stay with it." The content, after all, was fine.
But I replied once more, all but adamant, and the next note back to us was a request for my wife Barbara - who did the formatting - to trim the file that was used for publication back to 6x9. It was not clear how the enlargement had come about in the first place. All that mattered now, though, was the fix.
Within a day the book had been withdrawn, except for the Kindle version. Now the new version's back up on Amazon. I received a copy yesterday. No question: it DOES feel like a real book!
***
There was one other little thing to repair. I found a reference in the first story, about my family's drive through the American South to Miami when I was 11, to the fact that on our travels along state highways we only saw a few examples of the "Bill Crow laws" of that era. "BILL CROW LAWS?" I was horrified! People would think me completely insensitive, ignorant, or both! How had this happened?
As Barbara and I discussed it, I remembered finally that I had used "find and replace" on the name of a character in another story whose real name, Jim, I had wanted to fictionalize. I'm aware now that "find and replace" is notorious for having such unintended consequences.
Fortunately, we were able to fix that error, too, in the shiny new edition that is now rolling off the presses!
learn more about "Toward an Interior Sun" and place an order
I ripped open the envelope, the fumbling way most of us do that. As it tore, I could see parts of the cover art. Finally, I saw all of it. I pulled the book out, put the envelope "afterbirth" aside, and cradled "Toward an Interior Sun."
But something was not right! The book was TOO BIG! We had formatted it at 6" by 9," one of the usual sizes for a paperback. Due to some complication, it had emerged from the printer at 7" by 10"! I don't want to carry the "baby" analogy too far; it's only a book. But I panicked! The precious object did not FEEL right in my hands!
This experience was a deep lesson of some kind. What is "a book?" We all have some kind of platonic idea of that. A book is some sort of content between covers...at least a hard-copy print book is.
But the heady feeling I expected, the "I've finally gotten a book published by people who believed in it enough to midwife it!" (as opposed to a self-published book) did not come! It felt more like a cookbook, size-wise. Almost, but not quite, a coffee-table book. I couldn't place what it really was!
It seems we have conventions for almost everything in life, though we may seldom be aware of them until they are somehow violated. Was I demented? Was I an ingrate? I went to our bookshelves and got out several paperbacks, even a hardback or two. None were that big! There were several different standard sizes, it appeared, but not 7 x 10, at least for books of short stories or novels!
I had to write the publisher at The Mindful Word, "It's too big! It doesn't feel like a real book!"
At first he wrote back, "Now that it's out, we should stay with it." The content, after all, was fine.
But I replied once more, all but adamant, and the next note back to us was a request for my wife Barbara - who did the formatting - to trim the file that was used for publication back to 6x9. It was not clear how the enlargement had come about in the first place. All that mattered now, though, was the fix.
Within a day the book had been withdrawn, except for the Kindle version. Now the new version's back up on Amazon. I received a copy yesterday. No question: it DOES feel like a real book!
***
There was one other little thing to repair. I found a reference in the first story, about my family's drive through the American South to Miami when I was 11, to the fact that on our travels along state highways we only saw a few examples of the "Bill Crow laws" of that era. "BILL CROW LAWS?" I was horrified! People would think me completely insensitive, ignorant, or both! How had this happened?
As Barbara and I discussed it, I remembered finally that I had used "find and replace" on the name of a character in another story whose real name, Jim, I had wanted to fictionalize. I'm aware now that "find and replace" is notorious for having such unintended consequences.
Fortunately, we were able to fix that error, too, in the shiny new edition that is now rolling off the presses!
learn more about "Toward an Interior Sun" and place an order
