Papa Lynch's World War 2 Book

[Greg]

The typesetter proofs have arrived for me to go over. One more check after this before it goes to the printer.

[Greg]

For those playing along at home and guessed the book will be printed in Chennai, India, please award yourself a point.

[Drunk Monk]

Interesting. Tiger Claw printed some in China, as do a lot of publishers. I've not heard India before but that stands to reason. It's far cheaper than US printing (KFTC was printed in the US because delivery to our distributors was guaranteed).

[Greg]

I was thinking my book was going to be printed in China because everything is made in China.

[Drunk Monk]

Except for what's made in India.

During the pandemic shipping crisis, all the big publishers moved back to the US pushing the indies (like YMAA) out. That's settled down now. The pandemic has shifted the print publishing world in many directions. I'm somewhat relieved to be outside of that world now.

[Greg]

I think we are going to see more and more things made in India as their Quality Control improves. I know Apple is trying to make products in India but are having a poor time with quality. I think the rejection rate was 50%, but they should improve.

Truth be told, I don't care where The Black Scorpions is printed as long as someone is printing it.

[Drunk Monk]

PRC still hasn't got their quality control together. India couldn't be much worse.

When my book was printed (in PRC) there were several books that were bound with sections in reverse or upside down. There were maybe just shy of a hundred of those. I stacked some of those under my computer to raise it up a little closer to my eyeline. rI also covertly snuck some into free libraries and random book stores. I can't remember what the initial order was. I wonder if they will bother to print a second edition when they run out...

[Greg]

The funny thing that happened during typesetting was they lost all the dashes in the plane names. For instance P-40 becomes P40 and C-47 became C47. That is about the biggest problem in the book. There were registration problems about blocks of type not having the proper alignment. I think there were two notes directed right at me to fix some language. Other than that, the book looks really pretty now they have all the pictures in place.

[Drunk Monk]

Cool. 

That's an odd conversion issue.

[Greg]

I just got a note from the Publishers. They want me to do more work on the Index. Oh, joy.

[Drunk Monk]

ouch

I hate indexing. That's the most painstaking bit.

[thatguy]

I just got a note from the Publishers. They want me to do more work on the Index. Oh, joy.

Can ChatGPT do it for you? 

--tg

[Greg]

The second set of proofs were sent to me over the weekend. This is the final stage before printing.

[Drunk Monk]

Awesome. Will there be a book tour?

[Greg]

Yes. I'll be at the Oakhurst Senior Center and I'm working on getting a date at the Clovis Book Barn. If things work out, I might show up at the New England Museum of Aviation in September. NEMA has a history of the 57th Fighter Group which included the Black Scorpion Squadron. I was hoping to have a copy of the book to bring with to Ireland so I could show up at my local book store in Limerick.