Relief and apprehension

At last my work on "A Perfect Nest for Mrs Mallard" is complete - or at least the writing, illustration and set-up. Marketing (for me the most difficult part) is never done. I was up with the dawn yesterday morning, trying to get in a hour's painting before I went to work and last night saw me chained to my computer until nearly midnight, trying to get the PDF just right before submitting it to the printer. How many times did I go through the process only to notice a small typo that a spell checker would not pick up or a thin black line at the edge of an image?

Having ordered a proof copy, I will be on tenterhooks until it arrives. That first thrill of holding your creation in your hands can be immediately dashed by turning the page and seeing a typo staring back at you. Why didn't you spot it during the hundreds of times you viewed the file prior to submission? The proof of my first children's book literally made my blood run cold! My illustrations were cut in half and paired with the wrong half of other pictures, and worse still - I had nobody to blame but myself for page-numbering the book wrongly (although I had read the guidelines so many times...you seldom notice your own mistakes).

Hopefully, experience will make this proof a more of a pleasure to receive.