Meowy Monday – Glitches in the Klepto Cat Mystery Factory

It’s nothing serious, folks. We’ve produced 13 Klepto and Calico Mysteries per year for the last two years and 12 the year before that with a total of 87 books over the last 11 years. Pretty ambitious for someone who began her mystery-writing career in retirement, wouldn’t you say?

The fact that I continue to write these fun, cozy mysteries certainly reflects my joy in doing so. So, while you may become disappointed when a book is delayed for any reason—it happens—you can bet it annoys me, as well.

While all of the glitches we’ve encountered over the years have resulted in only minor delays in the production process, it’s still annoying. I rely on people, equipment, and my health to keep these books rolling off the assembly line. I’ve been sick, some of my production team have had surgery or they might be traveling when a book is ready for the process they provide (editing, formatting, creating the cover)…But we bounce back as quickly as we can and we will this time too.

So what’s the problem? A main printer has failed us—the machine has bit the dust. Why do we need a printer in house? Amazon does the printing for us. Here’s why: I’m in the last stage of proofing Book 69 in the Klepto Cat series and I do that proofing on the hard copy. Unless you’ve done the type of work I do, you may have never noticed how different your brain works when editing/proofing a manuscript on a device (computer) and on the hard copy. You switch from the computer copy to the hard copy (or vice versa) and you catch errors your eyes did not even see before. It’s uncanny.

So, like many authors, I create on the computer and do multiple edits there, but the major editing/proofing is done on the hard copy.

Good news: The new printer has arrived and the proofs will be completed within hours and turned over to the e-book formatter. The cover design is finished. There is one more step to publishing Book 69—it’s now the e-book formatter’s turn to do her thing. This book should be ready to order around the week of March 25^th. You’re welcome.

In the meantime, I hope you are enjoying Olivia’s latest book. “The Good, the Bad, and Olivia,”