Tweaking, Part II

I’m still gathering my ducks in a row in order to compete in the 2017 RITA contest. Unfortunately, the spine on my paperback edition of Clingstone is off by about 1/8 inch, which means a portion of the back cover carries over onto the spine. One might not think 1/8 inch is significant, but it came across as a glaring eyesore when I received my proof. And to add to this headache, my proof printed mysteriously dark, to the point that Mae’s image loses much of its detailing. I did some research about changing the color mode from RGB to CMYK and did this, but it didn’t seem to fix the problem. I’m not sure what to do at this point. I did correct the spine issue and resubmitted it, and I should receive another proof on Thursday so I can check over everything again. Even if the book cover is still printing dark, I think I’m going to have to just approve it. The entry date for the contest is looming; the time for troubleshooting has passed.

Sigh. It’s all rather disappointing. And irritating. I redesigned my entire cover so my book would not only reflect Mae and Creighton’s romance, but also so it would present a more professional package. I realize my book will be judged on its story, and not on the cover, but let’s be honest: A book is judged by its cover, at least partially. It’s annoying that I can’t figure out why it’s printing so dark, but I think I’m just going to have to learn to let the problem be. Issues like this one drive me batty, and I have a very difficult time throwing my hands up in surrender and saying, “Well, that’s good enough, I guess. Time to move on.”
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Simply put, "good enough" isn't good enough at all. I want my cover to be my very best, but I understand that there comes a point when I must recognize that it’s time to stop correcting every minuscule thing and simply learn to be happy with what I have. I'm not a perfectionist by any means, but sometimes I wish I were a bit less fixated on the flaws. Regardless, I need to send RWA my five copies in two weeks, so I'm limited on fine-tuning at this juncture.

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