How does an author feel when he/she reads his/her own book for the first time after publishing it? by Kyle Phoenix

It depends. I’ve had over 100+ books published since 2013. Varying from non-fiction, to fiction to what I designated as Special Reports (small books on a topic where it was bigger than a couple of chapters in a book but smaller than a book—-generally under 200 pages, but over 140—-which is the minimal spine width so that it can be in bookstores.)

The production process, different from the writing process for a book is generally 1 to as many as 10+ Proof copies of a book before its’ final salable form. and then new editions every 1–2 years, with added materials, additional chapters, updates and/new covers.

The smaller a book by pages, you would think would mean less of the above back and forth with the printer, but it evens out to the same as the largest books—-700+ pages I’ve published. What I’ve found controls the quality—-and that’s what I’m checking through back and forth with the editor and printers,—- is either the complexity of the content itself—-in two contexts.

Textual complexity—-a story, narrative or connective non-fiction ideas to a conclusion—-is the first context.

The second is Layout Complexity which gets deeply into what software is used to create the digital file and its elasticity for eBook, paperback and hardcover formatting. Yes, there can end up being multiple forms of a singular book—-laptop file, pdf, downloaded printer set pdf, and then versions of those marked against corrections.

Corrections that a Proof always helps with are: margins, picture, large text placement, accurate numbering to table of contents numbering, and once you’ve crossed all of those insane lines—-there’s a point of creative presentation and an elegance to a book’s pages. What I’ll call that is a “clean” look.

When you (I) look at a well published/printed book you should be able to read it at arm’s length—-so the fonts have to be measured and adjusted—-generally between 9 point to 11 point depending upon the physical size of the book itself—-6x9, 8x10, you’re constantly playing with these dimensions of the book itself (within the initial software file). A book is a little planet that you’re adjusting all of the various atmospheres, stratospheres, ecospheres, hydrosphere's, land masses on.

There does come a point, I do 12 Full Drafts of every book—-sometimes faster than others, some do require a full Proof (printer printed/not for sale copy of the book) of the book—-others don’t (it would be wasteful to do 12 of a Special Report (I will instead have 2–12 versions of the digital file and maybe 2-3 physical Proof copies); larger books, I generally do at least 6 to 8 Proof copies before I get the final 2.

The Final 2 Sale Copies are generally a few weeks apart.

• The first one is my final For Sale Copy—-it’s live on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, my website, Goodreads and people might even be reselling it on eBay.
• The #2 copy I get after I may’ve noticed minor grammar errors, types in Final # 1.

I’m fastidious but I’ve learned to set production deadlines and not keep fiddling. Facebook has a quote on their headquarters wall: “Done is better than perfect.”

In 2013 one of the first For Sale Copies of a book I got a review/feedback on and he pointed out how I had in essence “oversimplified the layout”. I made the Font like 12 to 14 and paragraph/line spacing over 1.0. What this did was made a potential 250+ page book 450+ pages. Which meant that chapter fonts, larger, pictures, everything was taking up too much room. I went back and ultimately condensed it and did back and forth Proofs to see how changes looked before final approvals. As the publisher I have to keep in mind that every page costs to print, thereby increasing the base cost of the product thereby increasing the base cost of the book itself as everybody has to get a percentage on it from writer to publisher to printer to distributor. Now by project I generally have a mental tag limit to pages for a book and adjust to production costs not narrative length.

I work hard to internalize that ethic of conscientiousness to my work. But I’m thinking about not just my work/the work of others involved, but also my customers. I may never meet them, so my work, this object, stands in as a representation of Kyle, my company and the affiliate companies that helped produce this product. I know I have bought books for decades, with my hard earned money—-my current budget around $3000 to $5000 a year I spend on books—-and I expect the best quality possible. I work hard, diligently and then take a break and return again with fresh eyes to fixing minor issues——yes, I know that others will never notice—-but I notice.

What I feel holding For Sale Copies #1 or # 2 is pride, relief, some joy, but here’s what I’ve learned in over a decade of publishing—-there’s some error, typo that will catch my eye. Always. When I hold the final, perfect gleaming For Sale Copies that smells paper-good and the spacing is right and the pages bright and clean——I feel like—-there’s a needle somewhere in this haystack that we all missed——where is it?

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