I won’t keep you waiting, my tip for Day Four of National Poetry Month is patience!

Patience applies to so much of life, doesn’t it?

Puzzles

Fishing

Poetry

Publishing

Relationships

All those things, and more, require patience!

Right now, I’m playing the patience game. The anthology I’ve been working on is done. It’s been done for a couple of weeks. But, I’ve been editing and getting proof copies.

The first proof copy needed some revision of the placement of the front matter. This was truly my error – I had the order right but the placement of the contents on either the right-hand page or left-hand page, was off. I had neglected to skip (insert blank page) where I was supposed to.

I also had an error on the page number placement. Instead of setting up mirrored pages, I constructed each page separately. When I inserted the page numbers, I put them all on the right page at the bottom.

Yes, they were in the same spot on each page but the number on the left page was near the gutter. It had to be changed.

Finally, I had addressed and adjusted everyone else’s pixel size of their submitted photos but, somehow my own photo, the one for my tanka poem Leopard Frog, placed towards the end of the book, had escaped my editing. It was not in clear focus.

Sure enough, when I checked my photo editing software, I had not adjusted my own photo for optimal viewing. I’m glad I caught that!

My second final copy was sent in and these issues were resolved.

When I received it, the copy looked great.

However, I noted two small errors. One huge issue was that my name was different on my copyright page than the rest of the book. Ugh! This needed fixing – from a legal perspective – I needed to make my name uniform throughout. Again, I had done this with everyone else’s name.

Secondly, I felt I had a sentence that was in poor grammar in my dedication. I ran this through Grammarly and the Word editor, where it did not highlight the phrase as an error. Still, I fixed it. It read better, at least in my opinion.

There was also a slight white margin showing on some (not all of the pages). I instant messaged KDP and they let me know what the issue was and it was easily corrected. I knew exactly what to do to correct it. (KDP did not tell me how – I learned how to adjust these things in the process of laying out the book.)

The third proof copy is shipped.

I could have corrected those two issues and published the book. But the white border issue? No way! So, I corrected the issues and ordered a third proof.

It is to arrive at my sister-in-law’s home on Saturday. The second proof was delivered (purposely) to my Dad’s home last Saturday. I’ve been traveling (visiting my Dad), so having the proofs sent to my home would not help the book get released any sooner.

I am trying to be patient. Having the book be the best that it can be when it is finally released will benefit all those who participated. The wait will be worth it.

Patience is a virtue

As the saying goes, patience is a virtue.

But, really, when you want something to happen and people count on you to make something happen, it is hard to wait.

Hopefully, we won’t have to wait much longer.

Oh, and the IngramSpark upload? It is complete and should be ready to go once the KDP copy is released.

I’m trying hard…to be patient!