Oh crap, bother, darn it and drats.
I've been walking around the house as white as a sheet, then flushing red with embarrasment, then draining white as a sheet once again at the news I've just received.
My gorgeous account manager, Debbi, from Ligare just emailed to tell me that the wording on my book spine does NOT read Riley and the Dancing Lion, but rather Riley and the Sleeping Dragon. And they had just finished printing ALL the covers (double-sided) when one of the printers picked it up.
Of course, the first thing that flashed through my head when I got the news was "oh my Lord, how much of the mortgage will we have to refinance to cover this and will my marriage survive it?" followed closely by "I think I want to take the printer who discovered the fault and glue him to a pedestal and worship him until the end of my days".
Since receiving the news, I just walked the house in a daze until Debbi called with much good humour and grace, and offered me solutions that guaranteed we would end up keeping our house (and perhaps even our marriage).
Thankfully, the covers hadn't gone to spot UV (shiny bits, for the uninitiated) and they can now print over the mistake. One solution with a problem like this is to totally black out the spine but this seems such a shame, as I already printed my first book with no spine markings, and I really wanted the title to peek out on the shelves.
The second option is to black out the spine but then place the words in reverse, lower down the spine, so they come through orange (upon a black background). At first I was horrified the book would have a black spine, but I've only just wrapped up a beautiful, retro book for Riley for Christmas and it was orange with a black spine and it looked gorgeous.
Fingers crossed this also looks gorgeous and not like some horrid, glaring cover-up.
Oh horrors. Can't believe this. Debbi had deliberately pushed through the printing of the covers so the books can still be delivered on time but I still feel like such an idiot. I went over and over those proofs until I was blind, for goodness sake. Just goes to show you need a second pair of eyes.
Wannabe self-publishers beware. Get a second pair of eyes!!
