Tutorial for corrections
The socalled galley proofes were done.
Basically a ready typesetted file, including all pictures, converted to a pdf.
In a higher resolution I also sent a pdf to the printing company. The state of the art procedure these days.
I was so lucky to deal with the most wonderful people ever, who are non-professionals in my field and now they had to add corrections, mark them in a pdf-file!
To make it easier for them, I wrote a tutorial, how to do this in the free adobe acrobat reader! Or maybe you might say: Helen didn’t have anything else to do. It was very important for me, to make it as easy as possible.
Here the tutorial as pictures. It worked out fantasticly. Everybody had been able, to mark their corrections, so that it was quiet easy for me, to add them to the very file. Was great.
Everything was send via circular mail to all authors. It felt, as if I was constantly writing, emails. Everything was handled via the special designe email-addy. Statistics report that in total „only“ 270 mails have been written, single replies and circular mails. Really cool.
I was getting corrections in return and added them to the very files. Some very easily, some even like: „everything is fine“. This special ok was the major goal: aproval for the book!
With others, things were a bit more complicated, so at some point I was… well, not quite as happy.
Finally it was done! Yes!!!!
The final sprint has begun!
By this time, the calendar said: end of january!
Book panel
Now single files were ready to become a real book.
My publishing program Affinity Publsher has a special function. It is called book and can be handled via book panel .
There is something similar in InDesign too. You can sort single files in this panel, one after the other, as if you would sort paper in a ring binder.
sorted posts in the book panel
The order was determined by the date the submissions were received. From the very beginning, I’ve made sure that all posts start on the right-hand page. If a post ended on a left page, perfect. If not, I added an additional page as intentional blank page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intentionally_blank_page)
Some authors thought, it was a bit strange.
The nice thing with the book panel: it paginates the pages correctly. Pagination is the consecutive numbering of pages in a book. The English word page, reminds us of pagination.
Title
The title of a book is usually more than one page. Maybe it is a bit different in other countries, but in Germany a title (not the colorful cover of a book) is a weird page, which is called: half title , which is page 1. Even if the pages of the title are included into the pagination, most publishers don’t number the. I did it anyway.
Page 2 is a blank page.
Page 3 is the actual title page . Here you find:
title = name of the book
author or publisher.
In our case we got one publisher, the author of this blog and 25 wonderful authors.
Page 4 is used for imprint. Some moderen books also use now and then the last page for Impressum. I am not a big fan of that.
For what do you use the imprint?
Copyright, the publisher, if there is a publisher.
- ISBN
- printery
- producer or typesetter oder
- edition
- fonts
Next could be and is in our case: an introduction. Some blankpages, a dedication and the content. The book panel helped to creat the content easily via program!
I also had written my own contribution. And I had also adjusted the number of pages to the amount required by the printer.
Depending upon the printery and the printing method, the number pages have to be devide by 2, 4 or sometimes even 6.
Your prefered printery will tell you!
And if you might ask yourself now: ooops, I need 80 pages for printing, but my project has only 75, what to do? No problem at all. Just add some blank pages.
If you mandad a typesetter for your project, and he offers you a price per page, blank pages won’t be charged. So usually it is much better than a hourly rate.
The final countdown started, beginning of March. I made the cover.
Cover
While reading the texts of the book, I easily found the title for it.
So many were talking about life changing aspects due to the music or visiting gigs. So touching.
So the name of the book is: „You changed my life“
Now we needed a cover pictures. I had made some pictures while being on a gig in Tavastia Klubi Helsinki November 2024. I looked up this stash and send some of them via mail to my best friend. We talked about the pictures and found the best one.
The result:
The bookcover has two pages and a small part between the pages, like a bridge. That small part called spine or saddle. While the measurements of the frontside of the cover an backside correspond with your pages, the width of the spine is related to the number of pages and weight of the paper. But the printery of your trust will tell you the exact width.
The front side was that picture in Tavasti Klubi and the backside is a picture of the baltic sea close to my favorite place in the south of Kaivopuisto in Helsinki. I choose this, because of
Samu’s love of boating.
And it was used for some well wishes for the big birthay boy.
I also printed the pages with pictures inside the book to see if they were ok. Everything was fine!
Printing
Throughout the entire project, I also exchanged several emails with the printing company in Poland. The supervisor there had arranged a test print or so called proof, so a copy was sent in advance for a more detailed review.
This was a double advantage, just in case the printing of the main edition was delayed, there, just the adhesive binding on the cover took several days to dry, and then there was the shipping…, there would be a copy to hand it over at Max-Schmelinghalle.
But also the main edition: all ordered books by the wonderful authors and Samu’s had been here right on time!
I was thrilled, not only by that huge box (very well padded), also because of the punctuality, and our two cats love that new big box.
Inquiries
So how was the delivery supposed to take place? Could I bring the book into the hall? But how was I supposed to give it to the birthday boy, since I had a seat in the rank?
So I wrote several emails to:
- Undercover, a company based in Mecklenburg, which was listed as the event organizer
- ticket seller Eventim
- Venue Max-Schmeling-Halle
- manager Mikko
Undercover told me to contact manager Mikko, eventim pointed to organizer, Mikko never replied.
Best was: Max-Schmeling-Halle
A person Dana Krüger got in touch with me. First I was supposed to call her, after being at the venue, later on she sent another mail, that every present could be handed over to security at the entrence. It only had to be checked as well.
It was perfect.
I bought a present box and made an elastic with a bow.
At first there was also a plan to send a second book to Helsinki, but after one of our authors, who meanwhile became a wonderful friend too, had send a present to the birthday boy in Helsinki, which was never picked up, I didn’t dare afterall.
Meanwhile plan C: to hand it over in person in Helsinki / Kultuuritalo in September or deliver it to the managment office!
Let’s see!
Shipping
Almost all of the authors had ordered a copy. After the concert, I gradually shipped everything and all of the books have arrived. The parcel locker of DHL has now become my go-to for shipping, not just for picking up packages.
I’m very happy about the book, especially because I’ve made so many nice, kind, and wonderful new connections and friends.
Thank you, ladies—it was an honor!
Love
A quick look into the book