I was stunned the proof copy arrived today when the estimated date was the 7th. It arrived in a box but nothing to hold it in place. Upon opening the box, the book looks like one of those ‘gently used’ books because of the cover being a bit banged up.
There’s this weird not-quite-bent-but-you-can-see-it edging…
The inside is pretty awesome. The text looks like it’s fading but that’s just the camera flash killing the text. The text is really easy to read.
The very last page at the end of the book has a page inserted that says in large letters “PROOF” with a barcode and the date. I imagine that’s there to let the company know that it’s a proof.
I think if I had more time before the ‘free proof copy’ code expired (It was a code given to NaNoWriMo 2010 winners in order to get a free proof copy from CreateSpace), I would’ve taken the time to make my own cover. Now that I have the book in my hand, the cover does make it seem painfully obvious that it was designed by a template program. I was worried after reading threads on CS that I might hit into unexpected setbacks where they might turn me down for something I did wrong and it’d take longer and longer to have it approved. Everything was approved on first submission so I managed to get it in before the code would’ve expired June 31st.
I was also asked this twice so I’ll place it here in case. CreateSpace does require you to order a proof copy of your book before you can start selling it. Therefore CreateSpace is not a ‘totally free’ option to publish a book. Had I not had the code from NaNoWriMo, I would’ve had to pay $7.74 for my proof copy (5×8, cream paper, 304 pages). I don’t know if shipping is free for proof copies but I didn’t have to pay for it.
And thus, this ends my journey. It’s weird to look back at the first post I made about NaNoWriMo and trying to decide if I should do it or not. Now I face a new concern. If I were to do NaNoWriMo 2011, will I not make as much effort because I might feel, “I did it before, I don’t need to prove myself again”? I don’t know. I guess we’ll see when the time comes around again…
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