Celestiathon on Blurb

FINALLY!
The Blurb process is complete and my book is done...and for sale!!!
This was quite a learning experience on just how much of an annoying perfectionist I can be!
I had the art completed from when I did the Bakers Dozen for Cecil a few months ago. I really wanted to make a little storybook from these pieces. So already I had 12 pages I could use.
I figured on putting the titles of the artwork in massive scripts on the opposing pages. This would give me 24 total pages. I made matching backgrounds on Yupo, but I didn't add too much in the way of ephemera, and used the computer to add the words. This whole process went pretty smooth.
Until I previewed the book.
It was the front matter that wigged me out. There's a title page, an intro, a cover, a back cover....More pages than I was ready for. I tried so hard to cheat! I had used nice script on the main portion of the book, and on the title page and intro I tried to use the fonts available thru Blurb instead--like Helvetica or something. I ended up back at the studio table to create artwork pages for these. Then there was the cover. I had grabbed a plain jane watercolor background and simply added my script title, but no collage.
Time to preview. Looks GOOD! Lets get this over with at last!
Yay! I was ready to upload and finally order my book! I pushed the upload button. And stared at the bogus quicky cover job I just did on the screen while it uploaded away. Hell. I am a collage artist, and there's no collage on the cover? How will I draw anyone in to look at this book with such a plain cover? I imagined me looking at my wondrous book and wanting to rip off the lamo cover upon arrival. I am going to pay for a bogus covered book???!@#%#$%@#$%!!!!! AAARRRrrrggh!> I cancelled the upload. Back to the studio AGAIN for cover creation.
So I am happy to report that all these trial runs, these crazy previews, they all have made me aware of the quality of the book.
I am awaiting my proof copy. I didn't want to order a quantity or anything till I saw the colors and the quality of the type. I will report back when I have it in my hands, probably end of next week. Seems like a long turnaround time, tho. I uploaded this on last Friday, and the order won't ship till the 13th. And I didn't pay for slick shipping either, but it still cost me more than 10 bucks to have one paperback book shipped to me. That's a drag...but when I order a quantity, I can hopefully absorb the cost. They make the pricing pretty close to retail. I can't see myself making more than 3 - 5 bucks off each copy, making the public cost about 21.95 - 23.95. How much would YOU pay for a paperback art book??
And so, this completes another experience, another chapter in my own book o' life.