David Kokernot Now Available!

Finally. A whole pallet-load of David Kokernot: Rogue Soldier of the Texas Revolution arrived at the publisher, Kullyspel Press, and the first shipment has been sent to the wholesaler, Ingram Books. They are beautiful. The dust jacket has a smooth matte finish with a coating that resists scuffing in shipment. The hardback cover is cloth in a deep burgundy with gold lettering. The paper is smooth and just yellow enough to be easy on the eyes but close enough to white to not dilute the tonal range of the grayscale images. Because the printing was done by offset press--not print-on-demand digital press--the photographs reproduced very well. I am pleased.

The major retailers, including Amazon, will not ship orders until June 15 or July 1 to allow time for the supply pipeline to fill and for the pre-publication reviewers to do their thing, if they choose to. Barnes and Noble is taking pre-orders at $18.18, which is a very good price, since full retail is $26.95. Your favorite book retailer should be able to order you a copy, too, since most have an account at Ingram. If you want immediate shipment I am selling copies at the publisher website for the Barnes and Noble price. You'll need an Amazon account and shipment will be by USPS Priority mail.

Gulp!

Yesterday I mailed a box to McNaughton & Gunn, my printer. It contained a paperback version of David Kokernot and rolled-up proofs of its dust jacket and endsheets, each with my approval signature across the front. In six weeks or so, finished books will arrive at Kullyspel Press's loading dock (aka my garage).

I have always been fascinated by the process of publishing books--their editing, design, manufacturing, marketing, and distribution. This is the manufacturing step. The book is being printed on an offset press, which has very high setup costs but also high quality in the final product. It is not practical to print proofs on an offset press, so the interior of the book was proofed on a digital press (like a large laser printer with binding capability) and the jacket and endsheets on a large inkjet printer tuned to mimic the colors of the offset press. My signature on the interior proof signified there were no formatting or assembly errors and on the inkjet prints that the colors were what I wanted.