Well, my proof copy of the novel has been printed and is now headed towards Shelbyville. I’ll look at it, and if it’s OK I can put it up for sale. I’ll have a little e-store to which I can link from here, and the book will also be available at Amazon.com (since CreateSpace, the publish-on-demand company I’m using, happens to be owned by Amazon).

I’m going to probably switch to a new blog theme here so that I can show off the link to the e-store to best advantage. But I don’t think I’m going to make a big deal out of this in person, with my friends and neighbors. I’m still having angst about the book and people’s reactions to it. In reality, I doubt it’s as bad as I think it is on even-numbered days or as good as I hope it is on odd-numbered days. It’s just a book. There are things about it with which I’m frustrated (even on the odd-numbered days), and things about it I like (even on the even-numbered days). It’s just a book. We’ll see if anyone else enjoys it. And it’s been good experience just to go through the process of getting it set up for publication. I had to set up the PDF files for the book’s interior and its cover. I used a photo of soapstone figurines from my 2005 Kenya trip as the cover art.

Because of an agreement between CreateSpace and NaNoWriMo, my proof copy is free. I would be at no financial risk whatsoever, but I upgraded to a “pro” plan that gives me a lower per-copy cost in return for a $5 per year fee, which I think I can probably afford. (There’s normally a one-time upgrade fee of $39 for the pro plan, but that’s being waived until the end of the year as part of another CreateSpace promotion).

It’s just a book.