Waiting for July.

The dummies are away! Let's rewind:

2 weeks ago, I went to a Kinko's in Grand Rapids and had all the pages of "The Woodcutter" scanned. They don't actually allow you to scan them yourself, which meant leaving the ONLY COPY of my 8 MONTH ENDEAVOUR in the hands of complete strangers. It was a bit nerve-ruining, but it all worked-out.

I got a disc with the 39 pages in 39 individual PDFs. I also had them print one hardcopy set in full-size/full-color. I've gotta say...the prints on the glossier paper actually look better than the originals! The colors and lines are so much richer and more vibrant than they appear on the original watercolor stock. The smooth paper of the reproductions is also much better than the pitted, "toothy" watercolor paper. I was exteremly happy with (and surprised by) the results.

I downloaded a free program called "Foxit" with which to add the text to the PDFs. I can't recommend the program highly enough. I'm sure those with more experience know of better such prgrams...but for a beginner like me, the program seemed highly intuitive. It was simple to use and produced exactly the results I was looking for.

So, this past week, I went to a printer here in Ann Arbor and printed out two full sets on 8.5"x11" paper. I bought two cheap-ish portfolios and stuffed them with printouts. I sent them both by Priority Mail: one to Peachtree Publishers in Atlanta and the other to Katherine Tegan Books in New York. I included a coverletter/pitch and a business postcard. I resolved to give both publishers until July 1st before I send dummies to anyone else. Hopefully, I'll hear some good news before then.